Heartworm injection?

Is there another type of Heartworm injection other than ProHeart 6? My vet has given us the option of a yearly injection or tablets, although still got to have Heartworm test first. I just noticed on one of the threads a warning not to use ProHeart 6 but looking it up on google it says that is used every 6 months not annually and has been withdrawn? Of course I'll check out the name of the drug she is offering when I go back to the vets but like to be armed with any knowledge I can get beforehand.

I have always given the Heartguard chewable tab's. I have heard some people
say to stay away from the shots. I'm sure you'll get lots of answers here

I don't know enough about the long term heartworm preventatives to trust them yet.

wow I have never heard of a yearly injection before.. we always just used heartgard too...

anyone here use the injections before?

never heard of the injection..I like Interceptor tabs...WOW, do they love those..as if it's a big treat!

A couple of yrs ago I asked my vet about the injection & they weren't offering it. Then I have heard some bad reports others have experienced with their pets or a friend of a friend, etc. I'll stay with the tried & true monthly pills.

We've done the six months injections the last three times(so a year and a half). My beagle was getting it from my dads vet a couple years before that and she is a healthy old dog. I just got a postcard saying they need their heartworm meds but it doesn't say what kind. So I don't know if they stopped using it or not.
It was a lot easier for me because all my dogs have different size tablets and I never seem to remember when to give them and it just made things so much easier. My dad switched because ginger(the beagle) got heartworms while on the pill. Thats why the vet started carrying the med. Apparently its less likely to happen on the shot. Our vet didn't want to admitt they gave the shot because they make a lot more money off the tablet/pill things. It wasn't something they offered up. He said it was just as safe though and I've trusted him so far. We still get them tested every six months too(I know some vets don't) even if they have the shot, just tomake sure they don't have it. I've heard of dogs getting a second dose and just keeling over dead because they thought they didn't have them without testing. The worms died but the heart was to damaged to repair all at once. Blah-that was long!

We ever used anything on our dog's but Heartguard.

martine, is it called prohert 12? i would not trust either of them, as the parent company is very unwilling to listen to reasoning from owners who have lost their dogs due to the product and just dismiss it s unrelated.

check out http://www.dogsadversereactions.com and read all the information thoroughly.

Thanks everyone for your responses & Mordy for that link - very interesting reading! I'm certainly not going to take any chances and will opt for the monthly pills. I don't know the name of the injection yet, back into the vet's with her next Tuesday so will post it on this thread then if it is something else other than Proheart.

We got the Proheart injection for our dogs one summer, living in the upper mid-west we don't need year-round protection from fleas and ticks. This past fall our vet sent out a newsletter letting us know that the injection was no longer an option due to some bad, dangerous, reactions that some dogs were having. He assured us that these reactions happend soon after administering the drug so our animals would be fine.
So as far as I know they have/had pulled the injection from the market for the time being and the only other option is Heartgard. It will be interesting to see what kind of injection your vet is talking about.

sadly, not all dogs who died from this product died soon after being injected. here's a very useful site with a lot of information on the subject:

http://www.dogsadversereactions.com

I said I'd post again once I'd found out what the injection was the Vet recommended. They showed me the box and I gave a sigh of relief - Guardian SR - not ProHeart 6. However after research on the net I've found out that that is the license name in Europe....I was caught out by that one! In Australia they have ProHeart SR12 and this does protect for 12 months....over here we only get 6 months of mossie activity so they recommended one 6 month injection a year..... Like everyone has said on the board, in the US it has been withdrawn pending more investigation but not in any of the other countries. This article goes into all the detail - it is by the manufacturer though ! http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/vmac/FINALVMACProHeart6.doc#_Toc93048642

Good research, Martine! And double kudos for not being satisfied until you got to the bottom of things!

I have personally used the proheart sr12 here in Australia and it is fine we have not had any probs with it like the 6 month inj about 70% of our clients have there dog on this form of heartworm preventative and there are 2 that have shown adverse reactions which were treated very easily by an antihistimine every year when we give then the vacc we give them an anitihistimine as well then there are fine! I dont think sr12 is available anywhere else, but if it is I highly recommend it MY dogs are done every year with it .