Can a pregnant dog be treated for fleas and administered heartworm preventive?

chimomma asked:


My chihuahua may be pregnant — she tied about three weeks ago. She is a couple of months behind on flea treatment (Advantage) and heartworm preventive (Interceptor). Would it be safe to treat her now? Are there any flea treatments and heartworm preventives that are safe for pregnant dogs?

Margaret

Tags: Interceptor, Pregnant Dog, Pregnant Dogs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Pregnant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Can a pregnant dog be treated for fleas and administered heartworm preventive?”

1. foxwoods peach Says:
   December 18th, 2008 at 2:20 am

   I would contact the vet first… each dog is different.

2. hellosunshine_hb Says:
   December 19th, 2008 at 12:10 am

   If you think she’s pregnant, you should bring her to the vet, and they can advise you.

3. Ginger Says:
   December 20th, 2008 at 12:29 am

   Most heartworm preventitives are made to be perfectly safe even when overdosed. Flea treatments such as advatage and frontline should be perfectly safe for use on a pregnant dog. I would be more concerned with once the puppies are born and able to lick it off mom. In either case, and especially since she is behind in both treatments, it’s best to check with your veterinarian. You should be taking her to the vet regularly during her pregnancy anyway.

4. L.G. Says:
   December 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm

   See your vet about the heartworm treatment. As to the flea treatment, there are some very good natural remedies you can use that will not interfere with any pregnancy and that are actually good for the dog (almost all commercial flea treatments contain poisons).

   Try mincing a clove of garlic and adding it to your dog’s food each day; or stir into moist food 3 tablespoons of debittered brewers yeast each day. Either remedy will deter fleas. If you don’t use any canned dogfood (neither do i), you can add either of the above to dry dogfood and then add a little warm/hot water and stir it into a gruel before serving.

   A good side effect of the garlic and brewers yeast: both are good for the heart.