Another dog topic....(Heartworms)

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In August we adopted a yellow lab mix from the local rescue group. She was heartworm positive. Ive never had a dog who had heartworms. I did so much research on this, and was so scared for her. Today its been 3 weeks since her treatment.On Oct 8th, we will get another bloodtest. I read its common for them to test postive even the first time around. She spent 2 nights inthe vets office for this treatment. I truely expected her to come home looking and acting sick. My husband brought her home, and she can bouncing through the door. You would never know anything was wrong with this dog, or that she had the heartworm treatment. Basically they inject this "poison"(lack of a better word)into them to kill the worms. She did not act sick at all. She has acted perfectly normal since the day she came home. We have one more week before the bloodtest.
She is young(about 18 months) and otherwise in good health, so I think that helped her along with this treatment.
A month after she got here, she started jumping the fence(it was a short chain link), talk about giving me a heart attack. The next day, my husband went to Home Depot and got a wood privacy fence. So no more jumping from "Tulsa"

By Karen~moderator on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 07:54 am:

Jackie, my sister has a rescued dog that tested positive for heart worms. The dog had been so badly starved and abused that my sister and her vet didn't think she would survive the treatment, so she opted not to put her through it.

She does take heartworm medicine each day, and the vet told her that she would probably be fine and that eventually, with staying on the heartworm medicine, the worms would die off. I have no idea if this is true, Shellyg would probably know since she does dog rescue, so hopefully she sees this topic.


Glad to here Tulsa appears to be doing fine!!!!

By Jackie on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 08:04 am:

Karen
I have been e-mailing Shellyg since we adopted Tulsa on this issue. What is interesting , is that she said they have no Heartworm issues where she lives. I never realized it was regional.We have started Tulsa on the heartworm pills as well(as told by the Vet). She is young, and otherwise in good health. So I think that is why she has done so well.They want you to keep the dogs calm after the treatment for a month..Trying to keep an 18 month old lab calm is a hard trick

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 08:24 am:

Glad to hear Tulsa is fine. Keeping a lab of any age calm (until arthritis sets in) is a hard trick. I'm sure you will keep up with the appropriate preventive measures so Tulsa stays safe.

Yeah, the treatment you describe is exactly what it is - a medicine which is poison is injected, and everyone hopes it is (a) not strong enough to kill the dog and (b) strong enough to kill the heartworms - and it is generally a 50/50 proposition.

By Unschoolmom on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 09:39 am:

That's nice to hear Jackie.

It seems to me sick animals used to just be euthanized by shelters but now, even cats with feline leaukemia are getting fostered and adopted. I glad we're started to value the lives of our pets and animals more these days.

By Karen~moderator on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 10:49 am:

Jackie, I guess you learn something new every day, I had no idea it was regional either!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 03:31 pm:

Poor baby. I'm glad she is doing well now. Jasmine had some intestinal worms, when we first got her, but she responded well to treatment and hasn't had them since.

By Jackie on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 03:59 pm:

intestinal worms are different then heartworms. Heartworms are much more dangerous. Alot of dogs get intestinal worms.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 05:59 pm:

I know that. It's a totally different treatment. I'm just saying that she had them.