Pfizer's Revolution Heartworm Medication for dogs is a broad-spectrum anthelmintic, or parasite medication. It prevents heartworms, fleas, ticks, mites and a number of intestinal parasites.
While these other pests may not be as lethal as heartworms, they're certainly capable of making your pet miserable. Ticks carry Lyme disease, and fleas can cause dermatitis, an allergic reaction that can make your dog tear at his skin with tooth and claw. Ear mites make her ears itchy and sore, while intestinal worms may rob her of vital nutrients. Revolution can handle them all.
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Types of Revolution
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Revolution heartworm medication is sold in three-, six-, and 12-packs of single-dose tubes containing the monthly dose of your dog's medication. Its four different strengths depend on your dog's weight. There's a strength for every dog, from under 5 lbs. to as much as 130 lbs.
Revolution and Heartworm
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Apply Revolution once monthly, on the same day of each month if possible. The dose you give your dog will destroy any heartworm that infected him during the previous month. This delayed effect means it's important for you to continue dosing your dog for a month after mosquito season has ended in your area.
Dogs become infected when they're bitten by mosquitoes carrying larval heartworms. The larvae live and grow in the dog's skin for up to three months before migrating to its pulmonary arteries, where they become adults, mate, and give birth to live young, or microfilariae. This takes between five and seven months.
If the number of worms is large enough, says Dr. Wendy C.Brooks, DVM, the dog's inflammatory response to the worms can cause his blood to clot , straining his heart as it pumps blood around the worms and the clots. Dr. Brooks says 25 adult worms in a 40 lb. dog is a severe infection.
More than 50 worms will move from the arteries into the heart's right chambers. A hundred worms or more will fill the chambers, making it nearly impossible for the heart to pump. Dogs rarely survive this level of infection.
Because Revolution is ineffective against both adult heartworms and microfilariae, it's not used to treat existing heartworm infections.
Other Uses of Revolution
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To prevent flea infestations, begin dosing your dog with Revolution one month before fleas become active in your area. Revolution will also kill any adult fleas already on your dog, according to Pfizer, and will prevent viable fleas from hatching.
Give Revolution monthly to prevent ticks. For a serious tick problem, you may give your dog a second dose only two weeks after the first. Then return to the once-a-month schedule.
Revolution given as a single dose will treat both both sarcoptic mange and ear mite infestations. Continuing doses prevent recurrences. Pfizer recommends cleaning your pet's ears of the debris and discharge the ear mites cause before administering Revolution.
In Pfizer's clinical trials, 50 percent of the dogs treated for sarcoptic mange, or scabies, had their symptoms healed after one treatment, and 90 percent after two.
Follow the manufacturer's instructions when applying Revolution to your dog's skin. Apply it on his back at the base of the neck where he can't lick it off. Wait two hours before bathing him after administering it.
Side Effects
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Pfizer reports that less than 1 percent of dogs treated with Revolution experience digestive upset. Other rare side effects are excessive salivation, loss of appetite, tremors, hyperventilation and fever.
Symptoms like itching, swelling, seizures or diarrhea indicate an allergy. If your dog experiences them, call your veterinarian
Considerations
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Revolution kills the heartworm larvae present in a dog's skin, but is ineffective against the worms in its circulatory system. Your vet will advise your on treating your dog's existing heartworm infection before beginning a preventive program with Revolution.
While Revolution kills existing fleas on your dog, she might become reinfected when eggs in your home hatch. Continued treatment will kill newly hatched fleas until they're gone.
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