Let’s kick heartworm, fleas, and ticks to the curb this month. April is Heartworm Awareness Month, but fleas and ticks are pretty much joined at the hip to heartworm. It’s not hard to prevent these things from making your dog ill. Sadly, many pup parents don’t seem to take the necessary steps with over a million pets having heartworm in the USA alone.
Heartworm comes from mosquitos. No one likes those rotten little buggers that sting you in the warm months of the year. They carry lots of diseases, one being heartworm. It used to be in Minnesota that we only took precautions part of the year, but now we take our heartworm pills every month. Weather is warmer making it harder to judge mosquito season, and since we travel, it is safer to be protected all the time.
Every March we all go in for a blood test and to get the medication for the next year. Once again we are happy to say we all tested negative for heartworm, fleas, and ticks. By taking one pill a month, your dog will be protected against heartworm. Make sure and get your pup tested and stock up on her heartworm pill supply.
We are almost more concerned about ticks. Ticks are everywhere, and even come out in the winter. At our house, we protect against ticks year round too. You can use a topical method or a pill once a month. Because Bailie had a very bad reaction to Bravecto years ago, Mom only uses the topicals on us. Most tick preventatives also cover fleas which is nice.
“Now that we dogs are covered, how’s Mom doing, Bailie?” Thanks, Nelson, as you know, Mom is doing really well and, no surprise, is not exactly following the doctor’s orders. We tried to get a selfie, but it is really rough with the left hand and the sling!
Mom had her first post surgery appointment last week and it went really well. In a few more days it will be four weeks since surgery and she won’t have to wear the sling all the time. She wears it most of the time now, but she is also using her arm a lot. According to Mom, if it doesn’t hurt, why not. Oddly, this whole thing has been basically painless. No one is complaining, but Mom finds it odd.
For those of you who are into stainless steel hardware, this is the x-ray from last Thursday at her first post op appointment. It is not at all what Mom was expecting and it kind of freaked her out. It all looks good and that is the main thing. She has one more appointment with her surgeon in about three weeks and then life should be able to start getting back to normal again. “Nelson, get the car tuned up and ready for road trips once again! I’ll stay home and watch the house.”
We are thankful for a clean bill of health at our vet check up two weeks ago, and that Mom’s collarbone is healing so well. Even with some speed bumps, life is good.
We’re joining Brian’s Home Blog in the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
I am definitely protected from fleas and ticks and heartworm and glad for it! We are so happy that your mom is healing!
Some people around here don’t seem to know about tick prevention and we don’t know if they have heartworm protection or not, but heartworm disease is growing among dogs all across the country which is a sad thing.
This was a very informative post. And, we are happy to hear your Mom is healing nicely.
Thank you. We still can’t jump all over her, but she says in a few weeks that may be possible again.
I just heard on the morning news that tick and flea season started much earlier than usual in our part of the world.
Dang it they such a nuisance. Happy to hear you 4 are protected and Please tell mom WTG on healing.
Hugs Cecilia
It is crazy how such a tiny thing like a tick can be so dangerous to big creatures and humans. We despise ticks.
wonderful recap on the fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, Nelson! And you look so dapper in that green hat and bow tie!
Well, we always thought your mom was a bit screwy with all those activities, but now we have proof! she is shouldering her screw-i-ness very well!
Mom says she has really been screwed this time!
I am so glad your Mom is on the mend. We are on top of heart worm and tick/flea prevention. Lyme disease is prevalent in our area, so Buddy gets a vaccine for it. My dogs were protected, but I ended up getting Lyme’s disease a number of years ago. Luckily it was diagnosed early.
Enjoy your day – and stay healthy!
Katie had anaplasmosis, no symptoms, but it came up in the blood test. She and Emma took their tick stuff, but it happened anyway. We don’t like ticks. Mom sometimes sees them crawling along since we have a lot of white furs, and she kills them.
Yep we kicked those little monsters to the curb too! No thank you!! Your mom’s picture is amazing. That’s her shoulder! that’s wild. Glad she is feeling good. Have a great day. your friend Chester
She says it kind of makes her stomach turn when she thinks about having that stuff in her bone, but hopefully in time, she will completely forget about it.
We also take topicals for fleas, ticks and heartworms! The fleas can be really persistent here in NM!
Yay for a healthy family!!!
xoxo,
Rosy & Sunny
Hooray for you all, it’s always good when a negative is a positve result. I’m glad to hear that your Mom is healing up nicely, that’s terrific news too. Thanks for joining Angel Brian’s Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
We hope that bone keeps behaving so we can get back to normal here.
Glad you are all doing well ~ especially Mom ~ good to hear and glad doggies are well protected from the fleas, ticks. etc. ~ hugs,
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Everyone needs to do what they need to do to stay healthy and injuries need to finish healing.
That hardware is kinda scary looking. Elsa’s recent femoral repair has one similar to that, and my SIL has a double that size going up her spine to stabilize it. On the plus side, your Mom can now be part of the Avengers-nothing is gonna hurt her. Hope she continues to do well during the healing process. You guys are right-fleas and ticks are disgusting. We hate em!
Mom is creeped out by the whole idea of hardware in her shoulder area. It’s already been five weeks since it happened and tomorrow is four weeks since surgery. We are looking forward to things getting back to normal.