Heartworm In dogs?
 

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?

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

Thanks for the reminder.

DE doesn’t cure this? :bag

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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)

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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

I'm so sorry :-(

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Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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.

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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.

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

Is the preventative low dose chemo?

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

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

We have to treat year round in the Southeast

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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.)

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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/dailyme...7&type=display


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

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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

Maedchen, so sorry about your cat.

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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.

Re: Heartworm In dogs?
 

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