Heartworm In dogs?

[tempus vernum]

So, our dog tested positive for heartworm :cry :cry . We’ve had her on heartworm preventative for two years. Honestly I’m still in denial :shifty it’s very “rare”
To have heartworm prevention and test positive. We didn’t buy enough at one time for her treatment to be free (:nails) . Ironically we were told THIS year the day of the test that if we buy 12 at once they guarantee and pay for treatment.

Any tips? Thoughts? Ideas?

We see the vet without her tomorrow to discuss treatment options, cost, risk factors, etc.

I’ve read a bit and already have some concerns about discussing treatment without figuring out what stage the disease is. I’ve done some reading and understand a bit already. Enough I’m concerned w discussing treatment without xrays and/or ultrasound.

Here are my questions— any other questions we r missing?
1 what stage is our pup?
2 I’ve heard it’s vital To do xrays and potentially an ultrasound before discussing treatment :hiding if that’s not true and vet ready w treatments , why?
3 how many dogs have u treated?

Does anyone think after the first appointment discussing treatment we should get a second opinion?

[ECingMama]

Thanks for the reminder.

DE doesn’t cure this? :bag

[Maedchen]

DE doesn't have any help for heart worms.

My daughter's service dog tested positive. I was furious when I found out because her now ex husband would not let her ask for help to pay for the preventive 1 month.........I ended up paying for the heart worm treatment (that was in short supply that year) It is BAD! It is essentially heavy chemo.

Due to her dog being a service dog, we convinced the vet to let us take him home after the 1st shot, but we had to be back the next morning as soon as they opened.

He was pitiful.........i know he was in pain because he quivered all night and lay in a cocoon type position.

They have to be kept very quiet and no physical activity for a period of time.

So far, his treatment has worked and we make sure he gets his pill even if we have to do with out for ourselves. The same goes for my small dog. (I didn't know cats can get it, but my hobo cat we adopted has heart worms..........there is no treatment available for cats. :( )

The cost for us was a reduced price for $650 (due to him being a service dog)

[weerach]

I've never heard of this before. I'm going to go Google it.

I'm so sorry :-(

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[tempus vernum]

DE doesn't have any help for heart worms.

My daughter's service dog tested positive. I was furious when I found out because her now ex husband would not let her ask for help to pay for the preventive 1 month.........I ended up paying for the heart worm treatment (that was in short supply that year) It is BAD! It is essentially heavy chemo.

Due to her dog being a service dog, we convinced the vet to let us take him home after the 1st shot, but we had to be back the next morning as soon as they opened.

He was pitiful.........i know he was in pain because he quivered all night and lay in a cocoon type position.

They have to be kept very quiet and no physical activity for a period of time.

So far, his treatment has worked and we make sure he gets his pill even if we have to do with out for ourselves. The same goes for my small dog. (I didn't know cats can get it, but my hobo cat we adopted has heart worms..........there is no treatment available for cats. :( )

The cost for us was a reduced price for $650 (due to him being a service dog)

I’m aware it’s chemo and horrible (this is why I want her “staged.” She’s has zero symptoms) and my research also indicates DE does nothing. I keep thinking this can’t be happening because we did heartworm preventative . :cry my parents dog had heartworm and it was pitiful. I’m considering calling my dad but I don’t talk to him and typically don’t share any “crisis worthy” information due to the nature of our estrangement.

[Maedchen]

If you can afford it, you could get a different vet to run another blood work test if you don't trust this vet fully. I would think they could tell you how badly it is showing up. I would also want to know if they gave you a bad batch of pills or if other dogs in your area are having this happen.

[ECingMama]

Is the preventative low dose chemo?

We're only supposed to treat March to September here, i think. Mosquito season?

[Maedchen]

We have to treat year round in the Southeast

[tempus vernum]

Is the preventative low dose chemo?

We're only supposed to treat March to September here, i think. Mosquito season?

Not sure if preventative is low dose poison (like chemo) but I think because they’ve learned larvae take months to form that they now recommend year round everywhere (according to what I’ve now been reading on the American Heartworm Society... I’ve read so much I might be confusing this and some
I skim as we don’t need preventative plans yet. We have 6 months to several years to treat!!)

I trust the vet but I don’t know how many dogs he’s treated or enough to know if need second opinion. I regret not getting second opinion when da diagnosed w cancer but after the fact we found out his cancer had spread two places and if we demanded second opinion we would’ve lost custody. We didn’t know he was hours from death.) I found out cuz casually said wish we had gotten second opinion cuz others in shorter protocol. The doctor told us he was critically ill and lucky he survived the first month of treatment .. and they would’ve taken custody of him until he was stable If we tried to take him out of the hospital

That affects dh in that he wants suzies treatment to start NOW

[Maedchen]

If this were a very early stage, I would still go ahead and treat our service dog again.......... as the more the heart worms grow, the more heart tissue is destroyed. The longer you wait, the outcome is not as good for overall health of the dog later.

I wish to goodness we could treat my cat. (He is a hobo thief and he is a pain in the rear with scratching my wood work, but he is mine and he loves me. :) I actually think him being naughty is what makes him so endearing except for at 2 a.m. LOL He steals money out of purses if they are left open)

I have to go and get my 2 yr old dog a check up and more heart worm pills.

Is it possible that the weight of the dog and the pill for protection was out of balance? (The service dog is 110 pounds, so he requires 2 pills a month.)

[domesticzookeeper]

Is the preventative low dose chemo?

No, they're different drugs, which is why the preventative is not as effective past the larval stage. The preventative is a combination of ivermectin and pyrantel, which are fairly common anti-parasitics; the treatment is melarsomine dihydrochloride, an "organic arsenical chemotherapeutic agent": https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=e81ad4b2-35d8-4f13-a07f-3e8d95ef2307&type=display


Jodi, I'm so sorry you're having to navigate this :hug2 :pray4 :heart

[tempus vernum]

If this were a very early stage, I would still go ahead and treat our service dog again.......... as the more the heart worms grow, the more heart tissue is destroyed. The longer you wait, the outcome is not as good for overall health of the dog later.

I wish to goodness we could treat my cat. (He is a hobo thief and he is a pain in the rear with scratching my wood work, but he is mine and he loves me. :) I actually think him being naughty is what makes him so endearing except for at 2 a.m. LOL He steals money out of purses if they are left open)

I have to go and get my 2 yr old dog a check up and more heart worm pills.

Is it possible that the weight of the dog and the pill for protection was out of balance? (The service dog is 110 pounds, so he requires 2 pills a month.)

I looked. She weighs 55 and we give 1 pill per month.

Maedchen, so sorry about your cat.

[Maedchen]

thank you. I am sorry for your dog. It is a hideous disease.

[Soliloquy]

Thanks for the reminder.

DE doesn’t cure this? :bag

DE stays in the digestive tract. It is helpful as a preventative for some parasites but I don't trust it as a sole line of defense even for intestinal worms. But it won't even touch heartworms.

[tempus vernum]

So we just got done at the vet and it was crazy bad luck because we do year round. She appears to have a mild case due to no symptoms and regular testing and will be getting her X-ray and larvae rest. We may still qualify for 100% reimbursement for treatment since the 4 weeks recommendation and guarantee is fairly new and she’s never tested positive before now and had 2 negatives on file :pray4

We will likely do a slow kill method for many reasons. One is our vet has been successfully treating that way for many many years. Two is that it’s much much gentler I’m not ready to process more than that right now because I’m horribly shaken still. I welcome thoughts prayers and opinions even if u disagree w slow kill ;)

Thanks for all of the support

[Maedchen]

I have meant to ask, what heartworm preventative medication did you use?


We just had to go and get our dog the blood test and a refill and I thought of this thread when I was picking up the medication. We use the Sentinel chews for our 40 pounder. (I was really concerned while awaiting the results of her test, but she tested negative. PTL!)

[ECingMama]

Is this the slow kill method you're talking about?

Heartgard (slow kill)

The "slow kill" method, which is a newer approach, is the one prefered by us for treatment of dogs who are in Stage 1 of the infection. It consists of giving the dog Heartgard on a monthly basis. This heartworm preventative medication has some effect against the adult worms and should gradually eliminate them over a period of one to two years; without treatment, the worms can live up to five years. The earlier the treatment is started after infection, the more quickly it will work to eliminate the adult worms. Note that only Heartgard (ivermectin) should be used, as Revolution (selamectin) affects far fewer adult worms, and Interceptor (milbemycin oxime) almost none at all.

https://www.petrescuebyjudy.com/info/display?PageID=5811

[twoplustwo]

3 how many dogs have u treated?



The dog we briefly adopted and didn't work out and returned was heartworm positive. We knew she HAD been but the rescue lady did the slow treat.
Our vet did the blood test and it came back positive.

He did the quick treat and says the slow treat is not always going to be effective and that's why he never recommends it. Plus he said they are just as much as a risk for a break off clot as the fast treat so you have to be careful with physical activity for months and months instead of weeks.



The cost for us was a reduced price for $650 (due to him being a service dog)


ours was $400 but its only a blood test. 2 treatments with overnights both times and a repeat blood test. But we live in a very low COL so that's probably why.


It consists of giving the dog Heartgard on a monthly basis. This heartworm preventative medication has some effect against the adult worms and should gradually eliminate them over a period of one to two years; without treatment, the worms can live up to five years.


The slow treat the rescue person did was a slow treat TWICE a month for 6 months. Which may be why it didnt' work.



But according to both our vet and the pet day care people said they are at risk for a clot during that entire time.


That is the sum total of what Ive been told about heartworm.


But it is so heartbreaking. :heart I hope you get full reimbursement.

[tempus vernum]

No here’s a link describing it.
Weekly dose Of what’s normally a monthly preventative plus an antibiotic. (Once you get to surgery in the article , you’ve gone too far)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/11/22/amp/cheaper-safer-therapy-for-heartworm.aspx

I’m pretty sure we were using interceptor. But we r obviously not going back to that nor are we using it for treatment.

Suzie went to the vet yesterday. She’s been classified as early stage w no microfilae in her blood, minimal heart enlargement and artery enlargement. So we r very hopeful.

Basically she’s so high strung we don’t think she’d survive the other option anyways. Plus our vet primarily uses the slow kill Method as he’s more holistic. We’d have to use the other vet in the practice if wanted her to get traditional treatment .

[ECingMama]

No here’s a link describing it.
Weekly dose Of what’s normally a monthly preventative plus an antibiotic. (Once you get to surgery in the article , you’ve gone too far)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/11/22/amp/cheaper-safer-therapy-for-heartworm.aspx

I’m pretty sure we were using interceptor. But we r obviously not going back to that nor are we using it for treatment.

Suzie went to the vet yesterday. She’s been classified as early stage w no microfilae in her blood, minimal heart enlargement and artery enlargement. So we r very hopeful.

Basically she’s so high strung we don’t think she’d survive the other option anyways. Plus our vet primarily uses the slow kill Method as he’s more holistic. We’d have to use the other vet in the practice if wanted her to get traditional treatment .

Thank you for sharing this. I hope it works. I like that it reduces the risk of clotting.

[tempus vernum]

Thank you for sharing this. I hope it works. I like that it reduces the risk of clotting.
:ty3


Our vet doesn’t actually do traditional treatment anymore and he’s been treating dogs this way for over a decade. In that time, He has only had one dog be “resistant” to treatment and the tech said “that’s cuz he never remembered to give Medicine” (our vet tech is amazing :giggle she’s spunky). Actually both vets and the staff have been phenomenal.

[Soliloquy]

I'm so glad it's early stage!!!! :pray4