Worms. Gross.

Only two months after we adopted Rusty he somehow obtained hookworm (and he had mange, we referred to him after that as "our mangey mutt").

Gross. AND he was such a good dog, that's the ONLY time he's ever relieved himself inside of our house.

Hookworm is disgusting. It gave him diarrhea for a week. And it was seriously exploding diarrhea. He had to eat cottage cheese and rice for a week and a half. Oh, and we had to give him doggy kaopectate so his stomach would calm down. GROSS. I'm telling you, that was practice for having kids.

However, when we chose a Heartworm product, we decided to go with Interceptor that covered 4 different types of worms. Why? Well, because we didn't want to have to deal with Hookworm again. Interceptor covers the following worms:

Heartworm (100% effective)
Hookworm (97% effective)
Roundworm (97% effective)
Whipworm (97% effective)

It's about $9 per month, but if you buy a year's supply, the pharmaceutical company generally offers some sort of rebate.

But there's different types of solutions for different families. We also looked at Revolution. It can control the following in canines:

Heartworms, fleas, some ticks, ear mites and scabies mites.

But there's also some drawbacks to Revolution as well. There's side effects:

• vomiting
• diarrhea
• lack of appetite
• lethargy
• drooling
• muscle tremors
• rapid breathing
• itchiness
• swelling
• incoordination
• fever

But Revolution doesn't cover Hookworm or Roundworm. Instead, you'd have to do de-worming treatments (they're not that bad, we've been through de-worming treatments with foster dogs). Revolutions also doesn't protect against all ticks (but what medication really does anyway?).

So we also use Frontline to help prevent fleas/ticks. It's worked. And how do I know? Because I picked off about 50 fleas from Rusty the night that he came home. That very night I put on Frontline and the little buggers started jumping off his nose.

How do you kill a flea? Well, you get a flea comb, pick them out one by one (with the help of a few beers) and then drown them in a bowl of water. And then vacuum. And vacuum and vacuum.

So that's the story of flea and tick and heartworm preventative in our house. Two medicines to help prevent the worst and most annoying bugs and parasites. Yuck. 

But ask your vet what's right for you and do your research. Find out the good and the bad about it all.

Oh, and there's also more natural ways of prevention too. Neem oil is one of those if you're interested in googling!