Heartworms are a common concern when dealing with household pets, especially for dog owners. While several prescription medications are available through your veterinarian to treat and prevent heartworms in dogs and cats, many pet owners prefer a more natural approach. Herbal heartworm remedies are available at a fraction of the cost, and have been suggested as effective alternatives to traditional treatments. Such remedies may be especially recommended for dogs that are too sick or weak to undergo traditional treatment methods.
Why Some Pet Owners Prefer Herbal Heartworm Remedies
Heartworm is a common health concern for pets, and most veterinarians suggest regular heartworm treatments for prevention. However, while traditional veterinary treatments are highly effective, they have been known to produce potentially dangerous side effects. With that said, it is also important to note that even natural and organic treatments can cause side effects and drug interactions, so an herbal remedy is not necessarily 100 percent safe for all pets. There is also no governing body for herbal remedies, which means that there is no proof for the effectiveness of herbal heartworm treatments, especially when dealing with herbal remedies sold on the Internet. Before starting your dog or cat on an herbal heartworm treatment, consult with your veterinarian for recommendations and drug interaction information.
Choosing an Herbal Heartworm Remedy
A variety of organic and herbal heartworm remedies are available for pet owners who prefer a more natural approach to pet care. Most herbal heartworm remedies claim to work by cleansing or repelling parasites.
Deciding on an herbal treatment is difficult, however, because each uses different ingredients, and it is impossible to know which remedies will be safe and effective for your pet until you try them. To make matters more difficult, many herbal heartworm remedies include warnings about the safety of other herbal treatments in their marketing campaigns. While one might assume this is a ploy to increase sales, it still plants a seed of doubt about the safety of all the various herbal heartworm remedies.
For example, at least one of the major herbal heartworm remedies contains wormwood and black walnut as active ingredients. While manufacturers claim that these ingredients are safe and effective, the websites of competing products claim that black walnut can cause allergic reactions in many dogs and that wormwood can lead to psychosis when used over time. Considering that veterinarians recommend using heartworm medications once per month for prevention, a remedy that can potentially have such harmful side effects seems less than ideal, especially when it's being marketed as a safe alternative to veterinary medicine.
What most manufacturers of herbal heartworm remedies do agree upon is that the best preventive medicine is often a healthy diet, so be sure to use the best organic pet foods and raw foods to bolster your pet’s immune system. Herbal remedies that promote a healthy immune system and improve circulation are recommended for treating and preventing heartworms.
There is definitely a place for natural health treatments for both humans and their animal companions, but trying just any herbal remedy found on the Internet seems no less dangerous than the potentially harmful side effects of prescription medications. If you are a pet owner looking for a more natural remedy for heartworms, try finding a veterinary professional who deals with alternative treatments. This way, you can try a more natural approach under his or her supervision, knowing that the recommendations stem from hands-on experience with the herbal remedies that he or she promotes.
