Will Falconer, DVM Moderator
Hi Kathi,
Too bad your vet took your decision to get your dogs of a toxic drug personally. It'll be important to think through that, and recognize it as her fear, her feeling betrayed, etc. Nothing to do with you and where you are on your path of learning. As I point out in my drug free heartworm prevention book, there's a tremendous amount of fear that exists around worms that live in the heart. It's far more emotionally triggering than worms living in the intestines!
The key is trusting and supporting the natural resistance to parasites, which is what I outline in detail in my book. And the real world results of my hundreds of patients over 20+ years helps you to see it's not the mosquitoes we need focus on. They've stayed negative without drugs by focusing instead on building health and resistance.
To the extent you get comfortable with that inherent powerhouse of prevention your dog has, you'll find yourself thinking less and less about mosquitoes or worrying about heartworms.