This article is not intended to be a substitute for professional veterinary advice.*

Heartworm Prevention Naturally

Heartworm prevention is important because heartworms can be a serious threat to your dog's health and can cause serious illness and death. To avoid heartworms in your dog, often a veterinarian will recommend a heartworm preventative pill or "treat" which is intended to prevent baby heartworms from becoming adults. (Do you really want to give your pets daily or monthly chemical insecticides?) And what happens to your dog’s health after taking this chemical insecticide over a long period of time?

Heartworm preventative treatments also have many known potential side effects, including: vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, and weakness. Your dog’s liver and kidneys, which purge your dog’s body of toxins and harmful substances, must work harder and harder the more toxins that are taken into the body. As a result, your dog’s immune system may become depressed which will make your dog less able to fight off other illnesses ranging from everyday bacteria and viruses to cancer and allergies.

Many alternative or natural-leaning veterinarians believe that the long-term use of heartworm prevention drugs may be directly or indirectly associated with arthritis, liver and kidney diseases, skin allergies, and many types of degenerative problems.

Heartworm Prevention - Avoiding Mosquitoes

Heartworm infestations can occur when your dog is bit by a mosquito. To some extent you may be able to control your environment to reduce the number of mosquitoes in your dog's life. Create an environment for your dogs that is not hot, muggy and moist because this is where mosquitoes thrive. Do everything you can to eliminate as many mosquitoes from your environment as possible. Don’t let water stand around your property because these are areas where mosquitoes can breed more and more mosquitoes. Even water standing in a plant container can breed mosquitoes. If there are a lot of mosquitoes, allow your dogs to roll in the dust or even mud if they wish; this helps remove moisture from their skin and changes their scent so they may be less attractive to mosquitoes.

Natural Heartworm Prevention Alternatives

Heartworm Prevention with Essential Oils

Pure Geranium and Lemongrass Essential Oils are very powerful and effective. If used alone for a flea spray, we suggest you put no more than 4 drops per half cup of water and keep it refrigerated. Shake before spraying a light spritz on the pet’s fur. No need to make the fur all wet, the bugs are repelled from the scent of it. Do not get in the eyes, nose or mouth.

Natural flea, tick and mosquito sprays

There are natural flea, tick and mosquito sprays that are available and do not contain harmful substances. At our store we sell an Organic Neem Spray for fleas, ticks and mosquitoes that is easy to use and organic.

Heartworm prevention with herbs

Mosquitoes are a parasite. Herbs that have anti-parasitic properties will discourage not only mosquitoes, but other parasites such as fleas and ticks also.

Herbs such as Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Clove Flower Buds (Eugenia caryophyllata), Garlic (Allium sativum), Spearmint Herb (Mentha spicata), Turmeric Root (Curcuma longa), Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), and Wormwood (Artemisia annua) are examples of what can be used to formulate an effective preventative and as part of a treatment program.

Attract birds to protect your dog

Birds to protect your dog? Sounds funny, but birds eat insects, thousands of them every day, including mosquitoes that could bite your dog. There are also many other benefits to attracting birds to your home, including the beauty. You can attract birds to your environment by putting up bird houses and bird feeders. Even though the birds will feed at the feeders, they will also eat plenty of insects. Check with bird experts in your local area to find out which birds will eat the most insects and how to attract them. Barn swallows are big mosquito eaters.

Consider bats

Bats get a lot of bad publicity, and that's unfortunate, because they're an important part of our world and they provide us with many benefits. One of the biggest benefits of having bats on or near your property is that they eat lots of mosquitoes, up to 600 every hour that they're feeding! While you sleep, bats can be ridding your property of potentially dangerous mosquitoes. Talk to bat experts in your area for the best way to attract bats to your property. Often bats can be attracted to your property by installing a bat house in a well-selected location. If you’re a gardener, you may be interested to know that bat dung makes excellent fertilizer.

With a little focus on the many natural approaches to heartworm prevention you can avoid the potential side effects of giving your beloved companion low doses of pesticides every month.