How to remember to give your pet medication?

Remembering your pet’s medications is super important. By giving preventative medications is really vital to maintaining the health, and well-being, of your pet. First off thank you for reading this blog article on this topic – “How to remember to give your pet medication?”. We hope you find it useful and helpful.

The number 1 medication to give to your dog is its monthly heartworm prevention must be given on the schedule to maintain their effectiveness.

Heartworm medications work by eliminating the immature (larval) stages of the heartworm parasite. Unfortunately, in as little as 51 days, immature heartworm larvae can grow into an adult stage, which cannot be effectively eliminated by preventives.

Please be aware that heartworms must be eliminated before they reach adulthood. It is extremely important that heartworm medication is administered on a strict schedule. Administering prevention late can allow immature larvae to grow into adult worms, which is bad news for your dog’s heart and health.

Your Pet Relies On You To Remember To Give Them Their Medication(s).

Remember that your pet relies on you to provide them with the proper medication dosage at the proper times. These companies set up website tools to remind you when to administer your pet’s heartworm prevention medication:

Pick an easy date to remember – like the 1st of each month!
Add a reminder to your calendar
Many heartworm prevention manufacturers have dosage and refill reminder programs:
Heartgard offers email reminders
Elanco products such as Trifexis, Interceptor, Comfortis, and Credelio offer email & text reminder
Simparica offers free emails and/or text messages to remind you when it’s time to give your pet their medication
Merck (Tri-Heart plus Bravecto flea/tick prevention and others) offers email reminders and their MyPet Reminders app
ProHeart6 provides email & text reminders

Pet Medication - Tuscawilla Animal Hospital — Give Pet Medication As Directed – Tuscawilla Animal Hospital

Here is some information to help to remember to give pet medication to your furry friend.

If you have been a pet owner for a while, or if you are new to pet ownership but you have done your research, you will probably know that there are a range of different parasites that can affect our adorable pets. As caring and responsible owners, it is up to you and your family to be proactive in keeping our pets safe from anything that could cause them pain, suffering, and harm – and this includes the parasites that they are at risk of contracting.

Three of the most common parasites that affect unprotected animals living in Florida are fleas, ticks, and heartworms. Each poses its own threat to the health and wellbeing of your pet, and in some cases, the human members of your family too.

To help you keep your pet and your family safe from the effects of these parasites, here is our flea, tick, and heartworm prevention information for when you give pet medication.

Learn about fleas – Pet Medication Matters.

Fleas are one of the common of all parasites and most pets will experience a flea infestation at least once during their lifetime. They live on your pet’s skin, drinking her blood to survive. Unfortunately, not only does this present a risk of anemia in large infestations.

Please be aware that flea saliva also contains toxins that cause irritation and severe itching. Some pets experience an extreme reaction, and this is known as flea allergy dermatitis. Fleas can also carry diseases such as tapeworms and Bartonella too.

If the effect of fleas on your pet wasn’t bad enough, fleas can also be bad news for your family and home. Although they prefer the blood of your pet, they will happily take a meal or two off of any human that they can bite. They reproduce at an immense rate, meaning that infestations can get out of control very quickly and they are very hard to eliminate entirely.

Learn about ticks – The Preventive Pet Medication We Give You Matters.

Ticks are another external parasite that lives on your pet’s skin. Although it is possible for an animal to suffer from a large number of ticks, it is more typical to have just a few at a time.

Did you know that a tick’s body will enlarge when they eat, swelling in size? It is true, once the tick is full, it will drop off. Ticks are largely found lurking in wooded areas and tall grasses, ready to climb on to passing hosts. So ticks can make animals (and humans) very sick.

Unfortunately, ticks are well known for their ability to spread diseases including:

Lyme disease
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Ehrlichiosis.

Learn about heartworms – The Preventive Pet Medication Can Keep Your Pet Healthy.

Heartworms are a form of an internal parasite. This means that while they derive nutrition directly from your pet, they live insider their body.

Did you know that heartworms live inside your pet’s heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels? It is true, they can grow up to 12 inches in length and reproduce, creating more and more of these long, thin worms.

Their presence affects the flow of blood around the body to these organs and others. Eventually, if there are enough heartworms, blood flow can be completely blocked, and organ failure can occur. Pets who aren’t treated are almost guaranteed to succumb to the disease.

Heartworms are spread by mosquitos. Since it is impossible to tell which mosquitos are carrying heartworms just by looking at them, Tuscawilla Animal Hospital recommends that all dogs and cats get protected regardless of where they live.

Preventing fleas, ticks, and heartworms is easy, just remember to give your animal its pet medication!

Fortunately, all three of these parasites are completely preventable. Better still, owners have a range of choices when it comes to deciding on a preventative for their pet. There are numerous brands available, as well as different types of applications, from chewable tablets to spot-on treatments.

Did you know that there is even an injectable preventative? It is true, so call us at Tuscawilla Animal Hospital if you feel that this is the best way to go.

While some preventatives focus on keeping your pet safe from just one, specific parasite, there are plenty that contains ingredients that will protect your pet from a number of different parasites with just one dose. Since all preventatives contain an array of ingredients, it is important to check that each product is suitable for your specific pet before you administer it. Our local Seminole County Florida team veterinarians will be able to help you by recommending which are best for your pet.

We are a great 5 star rated Seminole County Vet Clinic.

The most important thing to remember about any preventative treatment is that it doesn’t mean your pet is permanently protected.

If you select a product marketed as a monthly preventative pet medication, just remember to use the tools and reasons supplied in this blog article. If you miss a dose or even are late by just a day or two, your pet could be at risk of contracting a parasite. So you can ask about multi-month options if you are uncomfortable with a month-to-month option.

In addition to personal preventative pet medications for your pet, there are also an array of products designed for flea and tick prevention that you can utilize for your home and yard. Follow the instructions on the product carefully to ensure that neither you nor any pets have an adverse reaction to the treatment.

So if you want to have a conversation with our vet clinic team about all the options available and that can be administered in order to keep your pet fully protected – feel free to call us.

The Tuscawilla Animal Hospital wrote this article to help you better understand the things you see and hear when our caring staff members are caring for your pet. Follow us on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook now! Remember we love caring for your pet no matter what stage of life he or she is in. Again, thanks for reading this blog article.