Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Single milbemycin and praziquantel dose prevents heartworm in cats
By Genchi, Claudio et al.·Published in Veterinary parasitology·2004·Department of Animal Pathology, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Efficacy of a single milbemycin oxime administration in combination with praziquantel against experimentally induced heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) infection in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of young domestic short-hair cats was tested to see if a single treatment with milbemycin oxime and praziquantel could prevent heartworm infection. After being exposed to heartworm larvae, one group of cats received the medication while another group got a placebo. When the cats were examined months later, none of the treated cats had heartworms, while most of the untreated cats were infected with adult heartworms. This suggests that the combination treatment is effective in preventing heartworm infections in cats.
People also search for: cat heartworm prevention · milbemycin oxime for cats · praziquantel for heartworm in cats
Abstract
The efficacy of a combination of milbemycin oxime and praziquantel in preventing the establishment of experimentally induced heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) infection was investigated in a study involving 24 young domestic short-hair cats. The animals were inoculated with 50 infective larvae on day 0. Subsequently they were divided into two groups of 12 animals each. The animals in group 1 were treated once with medicated tablets containing 4 mg milbemycin (minimum dose 2 mg/kg body weight) and 10 mg praziquantel (MILBEMAX) on day 30 after infection. Cats in group 2 received placebo tablets on the same day. On day 183 post-infection a blood sample was taken from each animal before euthanasia and necropsy. The blood samples were tested for the presence of microfilariae and the necropsied animals were examined for the presence of adult worms. Microfilariae were not found in any of the investigated cats. No heartworms were found in the animals in group 1 (treated with medicated tablets). Out of the 12 placebo-treated cats 1 was heartworm-free, whereas all the others were found to be infected with 1-3 adult heartworms.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15262006/