Virbac has issued a voluntary recall for six lots of their heartworm prentive, Iverhart Plus Flavored Chewables, due to a failure to meet stability specifications during the life of the product.
The following lots have been included in the recall:
Lot 120076 (Large 51-100 pounds)
Lot 120086 (Large 51-100 pounds)
Lot 120856 (Large 51-100 pounds)
Lot 120202 (Medium 26-50 pounds)
Lot 120196 (Small up to 25 pounds)
Lot 120844 (Small up to 25 pounds)
According to a Virbac letter obtained by petMD, the recalled lots met all of the specifications at the time of their release to distributers, but further product testing showed that the ivermectin potency failed to meet stability specifications during the life of the product.
The recalled lots may not fully protect dogs in the upper third of each weight range against heartworms. At the time of this letter, no heartworm-related adverse reactions or illnesses have been reported.
For questions or concerns about the Iverhart Plus recall, please contact Virbac Technical Services at 1-800-338-3659 ext. 3052.
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Peter
April 10, 2013 at 10:56 pm
The same thing happened almost precisely one year ago, with Virbac’s Iverhart MAX product.
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Jess
April 10, 2013 at 11:48 pm
Is this just the “Iverhart Plus” and not including “Iverhart Max” ?
Dawn
April 11, 2013 at 9:58 am
the “best” part is vets weren’t made aware of this.. my vet had no clue!! you would think the company would make sure that the distributors or whoever would contact the vets and people that sell it to make them aware to let clients know. thank goodness for the internet!! I have three boxes that are in recall. with 13 dogs I go through a lot!! after seeing they had past recalls I am thinking I need to go to another brand!!
Boston Holly
April 11, 2013 at 10:46 am
Cannot trust the manufacturers of any pet products.
Diane
April 11, 2013 at 3:01 pm
It sure seems so. I was surprised with Natura’s Innova and Ca. Natural recall. These are not cheap and I thought were a premium dog food. I have two goldens. I’m wondering if there were other lots because I ended up in the emergency clinic with one for diarreah and stained with blood. This one eats Ca Natural Herring & Sweet Potato. It’s getting that I have no idea what company to trust. Since having lost one golden with the China Mars, melamine issue, I log every bag of food that I buy.
Amanda
April 11, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Diane,
Natura was bought by Proctor and Gamble about two or three years ago. The same company that owns Iams and Eukanuba. I believe Natura was under a class action suit for lying about the quality of their protein sources. Natura sold for about 700 million, I think. They’re all dirty.
Kim
July 28, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Boy are you correct Boston Holly. We cannot trust manufacturers of any pet product. I wonder about the vets themselves. I had a vet who refused to see me because I refused to pay for pain pills for my Lhasa who had her teeth cleaned. No teeth pulled so why give her pain meds Doc? I mean really why? I was not going to give my dog a pain pill for the fun of it, so the dr. could make money off me. Nearly $450 for the cleaning Geeze. I get my recommendation for food from Whole Dog Journal and basically home cook and keep her inside as much as possible and I’m probably over protective but she is healthy and happy!
Sharron DeWeed
April 11, 2013 at 1:10 pm
The other Lot # ‘s have not been affected in this recall? And are safe to give to my dog?
Laina Karth
April 11, 2013 at 10:09 pm
You should not. I do not trust this company, they market a product called Pet-Tabs, is actually Lead tabs and a good source to poison your dogs with Lead.
Laina Karth
April 11, 2013 at 5:29 pm
This has become too much of a routine for Virbac. Few years ago there was a warning letter was issued to virbac for cGMP violations. I purchased a product called aquadent and was told by a friend that the product is as good as tap water and they knew it all along!!!
Mary Anne Latham Kennard
April 12, 2013 at 3:41 pm
Frankly I don’t trust any of these pet food suppliers and some vets. I had a bad experience with a local vet that was new to me. She told me my dog had cancer without any testing & she also has cushings disease with no symptom except elevated liver enzymes. She is 12 and perfectly active, eats well, etc. I’ll be taking her back to her regular vet once I have another $300 bucks!
Esmereldan
April 15, 2013 at 2:44 pm
I am sorry your dog is ill.
Actually, elevated liver enzymes IS a symptom of cancer although I certainly hope it is not in your case.
Why did the new vet perform $300 worth of tests anyway? Did she do them as a matter of routine? That makes my head spin! A person could never afford to take their dog in for a “routine physical” if it routinely cost that much!
I learned a long time ago not to trust all vets. Just because they have managed to get a license does not mean that they are any good. I hate to say that, but I have had too many bad experiences with incompetent ones. The worst are the ones who are only used to seeing a healthy pet clientele who come in for their yearly vaccinations; they are useless for any emergencies or grave situations. I have even lost puppies from a vet’s refusal to do a C-section like I had requested after having waited 2 – 3 hours after the last puppy and realizing that there were more to come. That is about the limit of time that one can go and not intervene. Instead, this fool kept giving her oxytocin shots all day long to “help” her pass the pup who finally came out over 14 hours later deader than a doorknob. The pups following that one were all dead as well. I did manage to save the first two while their mom was at the vet’s. I was really angry that he had not followed my instructions and considered all of his reasoning to be a bunch of b.s. He just is one of these vets who hates to do surgery.
I had another one years before the above incident took place who DID perform a C-section like I asked but refused to go ahead and spay the mom like I had asked to be done because he feared that she would go into shock and die and nothing I could say would change that vet’s mind, even though I had had it done before with no such problems developing and I was willing to accept the risk.
No, vets are not automatically trustworthy, not at all!
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Laina Karth
April 16, 2013 at 3:57 pm
This has become almost a routine for Virbac. Few years ago a warning letter was issued to Virbac for Good Manufacturing Practices violations. Once I purchased a product called aquadent marketed by Virbac and was told by a friend that the product is as good as tap water and Virbac knew it all along!!!. Even now Virbac markets that product.
I would suggest pet owners should get quality products manufactured by reputed companies like Pfizer, Bayer, Novartis, Merial etc.
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