Border Collie X Cattle dog cross puppy - Ivomec or Interceptor ??????????????

[chickenzoo]

My sister just got a border collie X cattle dog cross. She asked what she should give as heart worm preventitive ( as she's not real trusting of the vets in her qurkey little town.. hehe) She looked online but gets conflicting opinions.

Anyone with this breed mix or have had either breed? What could you use....... Thank you for any advice.

 

[beaglady]

Many collie type breeds have a genetic condition which makes them sensitive to ivermectin and a range of other drugs. This can cause fatal reactions in sensitive animals. Here's a link to a scientific paper which details the potential for MDR1 sensitivity. http://www.pnas.org/content/101/32/11725.full.pdf+html It doesn't look like either of the breeds in your pup are affected, so you have more options than some collie types do.

 

[AinaWGSD]

My vet uses interceptor/sentinel over hartgard (which uses ivermectin as the active ingredient to prevent heartworms) because the interceptor/sentinel will take care of far more intestinal parasites than the hartgard. If she's going to be using ivermectin alone as heartworm preventative (like the pour on or something) rather than an oral heartworm preventative tablet that has ivermectin as the active ingredient she needs to be very very careful. Border collies and cattle dogs are not as sensitive to ivermectin as some of the other types of collies, but they are still at a higher risk for having problems with it than, say, a labrador retriever. Even most ivermectin-sensitive breeds do find on products such as hartgard because the dose used to prevent heartworms is WAY lower than the dose used to treat other parasites and ivermectin toxicity is dependent on dosage (ie, the dose used to treat ear mites or roundworms may be enough to cause problems, but the dose used to prevent heartworm is not).

Just a side note, she may have a little bit of difficulty finding interceptor or sentinel. The Novartis plant that makes sentinel, interceptor, deramaxx, and clomicalm was shut down by the FDA earlier this year for some problems that they were experiencing on the human side of the production lines and have only just started back up. There weren't any issues with the veterinary products, but the entire plant was shut down and it was the only plant that produced these products. So there was a shortage of the veterinary drugs that the company produced and many of the products are still on backorder (with no solid date for when they will become available again).

 

[JessicaR]

I have shelties, they also have the same sensitivity to ivermectin as collies, and I give heartguard to them. My vet says that the reactions collie type dogs had was during lab testing and the dogs were givin 100 times the recomended dose. There is a test you can have done to check and see if your dog has the Mdr1 gene.

 

[wekiva bird]

There is a test for dog to see if they have MR1 gene. To be on the safe side.

 

[MallardDuckling]

My sister just got a border collie X cattle dog cross. She asked what she should give as heart worm preventitive ( as she's not real trusting of the vets in her qurkey little town.. hehe) She looked online but gets conflicting opinions.

Anyone with this breed mix or have had either breed? What could you use....... Thank you for any advice.

I have a Border Collie X Aussie mix, not that same as your sister's, but sorta close.
We have him on Intercptor, but like Aina said, the plant had some problems. Our vet has switched us over to something else, (I'm not sure what) for the time being.

 

[ZoeS95423]

I have a border collie blue heeler mix, I just let the vet do everything, and he had no problems. Maybe she could go a little further to a vet that she has heard good things about, or something.
Mine turned out to hate strangers though, he will get to know them over time, if you give him treats every time you see him, but if you wont take the time to know him, he wont like you much. I think he had bad breeding, possibly inbred actually.Deffinatly not under socialization he met knew people and animals constantly but as he got older he started no liking them!
But he is a great family dog, and is awesome with kids and everyone he knows very well. If there were no strangers you wouldnt even know he had a mean bone in his body!

Post pictures if you can!

 

[naturalfeddogs]

I would use anything without ivermectin.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I have shelties, they also have the same sensitivity to ivermectin as collies, and I give heartguard to them. My vet says that the reactions collie type dogs had was during lab testing and the dogs were givin 100 times the recommended dose. There is a test you can have done to check and see if your dog has the Mdr1 gene.

That may be, but I have seen ivermectin poisoning in collies in the vet hospital used to work at, just from standard heartguard dosing.

 

[True Grit]

That may be, but I have seen ivermectin poisoning in collies in the vet hospital used to work at, just from standard heartguard dosing.

My vet said the U of M recommended the hartguard too but I decided to test them through the summer and hope that interceptor would be available later. maybe i believe too much of what i read online but that whole advocacy of giving heartworm meds year round really turned me off - its a pesticide and I can't see where it would have no deleterious effects over time to the dog. Your comment makes me feel better about what I'm doing.