Will Falconer, DVM Moderator
Hi Peter,
A nosode is a homeopathically prepared substance made from a disease discharge or agent. It's thought to act as an "energetic barrier to entry" for the disease in healthy animals. Common ones in vet medicine include parvo, distemper, feline panleukopenia, kennel cough and heartworm.
As I mention in my ebook, I'm not entirely confident a nosode is either efficacious or necessary to resist heartworms. Plenty of my patients come up negative year after year by following my protocol in Vital Animals Don't Get Heartworms! and have never had the hw nosode. For those who opt for it, and have read the book, I send it. Perhaps it gives those animals a bit more of an "edge" in resisting the parasite. Just hard to measure that.