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My dog ate too many Heartgard Plus pills. Should I call the vet?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Female | spayed | 2 years and 3 months old | 50 lbs

Hi there, I have a 2 year old german sheperd who takes Heartgard Plus heartworm prevention medication. She takes her dosage on the 15th of every month. I left her today and came back and she had gotten into the box and eaten 3 pills that were still in the box. Do I need to take her into the vet immediately?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

Published on March 18th, 2017

Heartgard Plus has a very high margin of safety, so I would not expect this to cause any serious problems. I would recommend monitoring her for the next day or two to make sure that she's acting normal, but otherwise you shouldn't need to do anything different :) You can go ahead and give her next dose on April 15th as scheduled.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    The good news is that Heartgard is a safe drug, and is difficult to overdose. Toxicity can occur if the dog is given an excess amount of the medication, up to 10 to 20 times the recommended dose. Given that Leela only ate three pills, she should be fine :-)

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