Dutch Shepherd Forum

My vet gave me a free sample of Heartgard plus for my Dutch Shepherd puppy and wants me to give her one ecvery month. I have read that herding breeds should not take the drug ivermectin which is in Heartgard. I mentioned this to my vet and she just said not to worry. Herding breeds have a possible multi drug resistant 1 gene (MDR1). Anyone here know any thing about this or have ever had any toxic reactions after giving Heartgard? I got my info at www.1800petmeds.com

I have heard of this in dogs like Shelties and Collies, never in shepherd types.

I give straight Ivermectin monthly to all of my kids, and all the the rescues that have come through. I have never heard of a dutch being reactive. You'll be fine.

Never heard of that either, I give Heart guard every month.

When I was in vet tech training they told us that only applied to border collies, not the other herding breeds. All of our military working dogs (German, Belgian, and Dutch Shepherds) were on Heartgard monthly.

I had an imported GSD male (Pitt), quite a long time ago, who was unable to take ANY form of heartworm meds. Back when Dirocide was used daily, and Ivermectin was pretty new. We never did figure it out, but this was when heartworm was first an issue in my area, and the Vets were no help at all. (Also before everyone had computers and information at your fingertips.) He was a grandson of Uran v Wildsteigerland, and as far as I was able to find out, the only one in the line with a problem. None of his pups had any problems either.
I also imported a Uran daughter (Cella), who had no problems. I ended up using Levasole on the male, with good results.
Generally it's considered to be pretty safe, except for the Collie breeds.
I use a .05% solution of Ivermectin with no problems, $25.00 for 60cc bottle (lasts forever), but I give it every 6 weeks instead of the veterinary recommendation of every 4. (That's a whole different topic for discussion.)

Thanks for your quick responce. Maybe I'm worring about my brat too much.

I've used Ivermectin on my crew, including 5 herding breeds, for 15 or so years. That includes a couple hundred GSD rescues too. Our old show circuit club included Shelties, Aussies and BorderCollies and those folks would never give their dogs Ivermectin. They called it the 'white paw' complex.

GSDNanny wrote: They called it the 'white paw' complex.

I heard it called the same thing by a veterinarian I worked with.