When will flea medication with heartworm preventative ever be sold over the counter?

[bobsmith2002]

Why does flea medication with heartworm preventative always require a vet's prescription? Why can't it be sold over-the-counter at pet stores? And when will this happen in the future?

 

[BoundlessLove]

My two cents:
Not anytime soon. Pharma is making big $$$.

 

[Squawkers]

It doesn’t always require a prescription, but the ones that don’t are not good quality. I don’t recommend them. I don’t doubt that there is money involved, but I know that the prescription medications have a greater possibility of adverse side effects and are more controlled because of it (one reason at least)

 

[Squawkers]

It doesn’t always require a prescription, but the ones that don’t are not good quality. I don’t recommend them. I don’t doubt that there is money involved, but I know that the prescription medications have a greater possibility of adverse side effects and are more controlled because of it (one reason at least)

Just realized you specified heart worm medication. My bad. Yeah, heart worm medication is always a prescription medication. Scratch what I said earlier in my first sentence.

 

[Callender Girl]

Although I also dislike having to go through a vet for heartworm medication, I've been told that it's harmful (possibly even fatal) to give those meds to a dog that already has adult heartworms.

MAYBE the reasoning is that a vet would test for heartworms before handing out the meds? My vet requires yearly heartworm testing even though my dogs are on monthly preventative.

 

[BoundlessLove]

I think it’s a gamble for either choice of treatment.
The slow method (HW meds) takes much longer - also slow to kill adult worms.
The fast method (a series of injections at the vet) and must keep the dog calm during total treatment and cannot excite the heart at all.

 

[ChickenChick46]

My two cents:
Not anytime soon. Pharma is making big $$$.

Yep, this.

 

[Pigeony]

There's no reason heartworm medication has to be as controlled as it is. It doesn't and shouldn't be a prescription item. The exact same active ingredients can be found in over-the-counter horse medications- pyrantel and ivermectin.

 

[ChickenChick46]

There's no reason heartworm medication has to be as controlled as it is. It doesn't and shouldn't be a prescription item. The exact same active ingredients can be found in over-the-counter horse medications- pyrantel and ivermectin.

In the past, we had several Great Pyrenees LGDs and a friend who had horses and the same dog breed. He told us how he dosed his dogs using the horse meds. It's what I used the whole time we had those dogs, and it never had any adverse effects.

Obviously, I wouldn't recommend it if someone wasn't totally comfortable with it, and I know some breeds are very sensitive to those meds and can have negative outcomes, so research should be done as always. But it saved us a ton of money while keeping the dogs protected.