# Map that tells incidents of positives for heartworm and tick bourne diseases



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Dogs and Ticks - Interactive Maps

I hope the link works, will post again if it does not. 

Anyhow, If you go to Ohio, it looks like we are pretty bad for heartworm, But if you click on the state, and then hover over the county the most north and east in the state, Ashtabula, 
it shows 3 reported cases of heartworm and 4 of lyme's disease. 

So is this, this year, to date, in a 12 month period???

Should we be giving year round preventative to our dogs for three crummy cases of heartworm? What kind of racket is that??? 

Thoughts?


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

If you look at Texas, it seems we have the highest rate of heartworm. I've seen threads on this forum asking what months should they treat for heartworm. This always suprises me, Texas treats year round. Now I know why. 

Great map! Thanks!


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## 1sttimeforgsd (Jul 29, 2010)

Selzer, thanks for posting this information. I find it also strange that Wayne County in my state shows 0 on all 4. Cabell County which is the bordering county has much higher stats for positives on all.


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

Is there a vet in your county?

I checked the county I previously lived in and there were zero reported cases. But, it is the boonies, with one vet, and I doubt 99% of the people even take their dogs to the vet or test for it. 

In the surrounding counties, accumulative, there were 100s of cases of HW. 

*shrugs*


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

See that is why I was wondering. I hear the shelter people come into my vet and they talk about treating for heart worm, etc. Of course we did get dogs from Katrina and well, a lot of those dogs were infected. This is why I am wondering if that was for how many months, or years. The map itself has a copywrite 2009. So, it is possible that it is a little dated. Not much though. 

I do feel a little stupid for pumping heart guard into my dogs for YEARS. The last two years, I have just been testing them. I know I am running a risk. 

If I get it, the treatment is approximately $450. If I buy preventative it will cost me about $150/month. But more importantly is should I really be pumping a poison into my dogs month after month after month with no need of it. 

I bet it costs them (manufacturer's) less than $20/100 of those dosages. I bet they are making money hand over fist on them. Why? Because we are AFRAID of not doing it. 

I should look into how to treat my lot with horse wormer, because I could probably treat all ten with one 8-12 dollar tube of horse wormer.


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

selzer said:


> I should look into how to treat my lot with horse wormer, because I could probably treat all ten with one 8-12 dollar tube of horse wormer.


I have heard the paste wormer stuff is not the way to go because you can't give the whole tube to the dog, and like in the pills, the medicine is not evenly distributed. 

The liquid 1% injectible Ivermectin is a good idea though. We just started our dogs on it over the winter.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

Frustrating they did not normalize it to population.......


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## Betty (Aug 11, 2002)

I would really want to know how they got the stats. My county is showing 0 heartworm and I find that very hard to believe.

We have several vets in the county.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

While we have vets, I wonder if they send these out to the lab, and the lab is in one of those counties with hundreds of cases.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

Yes especially when you see several counties with 0 for all four.


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

It wouldn't surprise me if to a certain extent it's demographics, population, and if the county has a shelter or not. I'm sure areas with large shelters might show more heartworm + dogs and drive up the numbers.

Also, I do think that there are very distinct pockets with these things. My county has a TON of lyme disease. We have an area in the county that is almost like a lyme disease hotbed. Areas just an hour west of us--people are totally clueless if you mention lyme disease--"we don't have lyme disease around here!!!"


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