A new trend in human and veterinary medicine has become all to common. Whether we blame the economy or natural disasters, previously available medications that we rely on day-to-day are just GONE. We get comfortable and complacent about access to these drugs and assume they will always be there when our patients need or require them. Over the past year it has been an ongoing challenge but a new shortage and now outage of melarsomine has created a real problem in the veterinary industry.
Melarsomine is the active ingredient in Immiticide, the drug manufactured by Merial to treat adult heartworm infection. It is the only approved treatment for heartworms and Merial is the only manufacturer. As of right now Immiticide is completely unavailable with no return date in sight. At Grandview Animal Hospital we treated two heartworm positive dogs this week and our supply is now depleted. Any dogs diagnosed with heartworms will be in an indefinite holding pattern until the drug is consistently available again. Those dogs will be waiting for treatment until the supply of raw ingredient is stabilized.
We routinely diagnosis a dog with heartworms every 1-2 weeks and the treatment for this infection is costly. Involving a 1-3 week hospital stay and weeks of cage rest at home, the cost is usually between $500-$1000. The good news is that heartworm disease is preventable and affordable. We talk to our canine clients daily about the importance of monthly heartworm preventive but now those conversations will have an undertone of urgency. If preventive is lapsed and a dog becomes infected we will be unable to initiate treatment due to the Immiticide shortage. There is no safety net for missed doses when there is no treatment.
Please ask if you have questions about affordable heartworm preventive for your dog or cat and if you have questions about the timing of testing. We can help you figure out what to do if you have missed doses and get you back on track. Email reminders are available as backup - let us know how we can help!
