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Parasite Prevention
Whether your pet lives indoors or outdoors, it is very important to protect them year-round from heartworms, fleas, and ticks. Our climate here in North Carolina varies so often, and stays warm for so long, that many parasites do not ever really "die off" or become totally dormant. Even cats that are completely indoors for their entire lives are at risk for parasites such as heartworms, which are spread by mosquitos.
Here at Weddington Animal Hospital, we have carefully chosen the products we feel work the best to protect your pets from parasites. These are our favorite preventions for your pets:
For dogs, we recommend using Interceptor to protect against heartworms, as well as three types of intestinal parasites: whipworms, roundworms, and hookworms. This product is recommended over others because it protects against whipworms, which most other heartworm preventions only protect against roundworms and hookworms. Use this product year round!!
We also recommend Frontline Plus to protect your dog against fleas and ticks. This product also kills flea eggs. We recommend Frontline Plus because it is relatively waterproof, and is a very safe product. It can be used on puppies starting at 8 weeks of age, and is safe for breeding, pregnant, or lactating females. We recommend using this product year round, even if you aren't currently seeing any fleas.
For cats, we recommend using Revolution to protect against heartworms, fleas, earmites, and two intestinal parasites: hookworms and roundworms. This product is a topical application, similar to Frontline, so it is very easy to protect your cat without having to give him a pill. The only thing this product does not protect against is ticks. If your cat is at risk for ticks, we also carry feline Frontline Plus, which can be used together with Interceptor to protect against heartworms.
If your pet is on a different product than one we carry in our hospital, it's not a problem! Our online pharmacy, VetCentric, carries many flea and heartworm preventions. So if your preferences differ, we can place the product you would like to use in your medicine cabinet on VetCentric, and your order is shipped directly to your house! Please let us know a week in advance, before you run out of your current product, so your pet does not miss a dose of his prevention
