Bulldogs World

I live in the red zone on the heartworm map. My property is next to (and the corner is a part of)  certified unbuildable swampland, and we have a natural spring in our yard that becomes a creek when it rains. There is ALWAYS standing water, the crawfish holes are always open. We live in mosquito heaven and it is perfectly normal to see them year round. It is a rural area and most of my neighbors have dogs that live outside year round. We have raccoons, opossums and skunks. In other words- we live in the midst of perfect heartworm conditions.

At Audrey's one year checkup I told my old vet flat out no way in hell was my dog getting another vaccine. She didn't even get the one year boosters. My neighbors have lost too many puppies to keep track of from parvo, and their kids come to my house to play with Audrey all the time. I did titer Audrey at her one year checkup. She is well protected from parvo-(the fact that she is still alive is proof of that!) and the distemper titer came back as zero. Since distemper is rare around here (vet said in 15 years he has seen ONE case of distemper) I did not re-vaccinate her.The puppy vac either worked and the antibody blueprint is dormant from lack of exposure or the vac didn't work and after 3 shots it isn't likely to.

Rabies is required by law here every 3 years, so we have to give it to her.

I only give de in warm months. I just started this week. And YES! give Heartworm Free a try if you have been feeding raw! If it works for Audrey it should work for you too! I think where you live you will only need it once a month, I have to give it every other week. It is given twice a day for 7 days.

I will start that soon too. The temperature has to STAY above 57 day and NIGHT for the heartworm microfilariae to stay alive and grow. At 80 degrees (remember this is night time temps too) it takes about 2 weeks for the heartworm MF to grow to the L3 stage necessary to be deposited on a dog. It is getting to that point now here that the night temps aren't dropping much below 57, so I will start it soon.

I was REALLY scared to skip the HW pills! Then I started reading about heartworms and the dangers of the pills, and I decided that the 'cure' had just as much chance of harming my dog that the disease had.  I do not regret making the switch.

My lab mix (she is gone now) had neurological problems form the pills and the flea chemicals. She would drag her back legs, scraping the tops of her feet raw, after her monthly doses. But I thought I had to be a 'responsible owner' , those killer heartworms were too much of a risk so the side effects were worth it. I wish I had started researching when she was still alive!

I can only say that I have found way more ticks on me after being outside than on Audrey. I think I found one tick on her all year last year. It is the garlic more than the lemon eucalyptus that is the deterrant.

No need to worry about Garlic! The amount of sulfur compounds in them is minimal compared to their onion cousins, and does NOT cause Heinz body anemia. There was a study done where they deliberately gave dogs several times the recommended amount of garlic extract, (really highly concentrated garlic) to try and see how much it took to cause anemia, and after a full week of incredibly high overdoses, the dogs STILL couldn't get anemia. They did have red blood cell damage, but their bodies were able to compensate for it, and very quickly after the overdoses were stopped all was back to normal.

I like cedar or cypress oil the best for fleas, it smells SO GOOD. I used pure argan oil as a base, Audrey was like a pampered oiled princess.

Can't say enough about daily flea combing. Get the little suckers off before they settle in.