Dog Tested Positive for Heart Worm - Treatment Options

[Bowtech32]

Good info, I have a dog half way through heartworm treatment. He is doing great, it is costly ($450) but mine dog is a GSP so don't mind a bit if it will get rid of the worms.

[oneforthewall]

I'll look tonight and see what we give our lab that we inherited with heart worms. It's once a month just like the heartworm med. It keep any new worms fom maturing and eventually the ones in the heart die and work their way out of the system. We have had to do antibioticss and steroids a couple times when the worms died and came up into his lungs, but overall it has been an easy treatment on him.

[Miki]

Thanks for the info on getting the manufacturer to cover the treatment. This cost is a concern ($1,000 is a lot of money!). However, my main one is the risk of complications, and us not being able to keep the dog "calm" for 60 days. She is not a collie.

My vet charged me $500. Try anouther vet I keep my dog in side but he is a out side dog. Good luck.

[Kdog]

The more I research this, the more I am thinking the Melarsomine (the lumbar injections) is not the way to go, especially for this dog. She is a Blue Lacy and is going to be very hard for us keep inactive for 60 days. I think if I do the Melarsomine treatment, it is likely she will die from a complication.

Here is a direct link to the study on using ivermectin and doxycycline.

http://www.2ndchance.info/heartworm-ivermectinstudy.pdf

I realize this is probably not the FDA/Veterinarian approved method for treating the heart worm. The study (done in 2008) says basically more research needs to be done, but the science seems to be good enough for me to try it.

Thanks for everyone's feedback. Yes, I imagine $1,000 is on the high side of things.

[czechgrubworm]

Agvet is super and honest....

[Bowtech32]

I am currently on week 3 of the treatment, and GSP is very hard to keep calm. What I have been doing to keep him calm as I can is taking him for a walk 2 times a day. About 20 minute on each walk really calms him down. At first leaving him in the pen without taking him for a walk he was going nuts, that scared me and though he would not make it without a blood clot. After each walk he really calms down in his pen. On his walks he is always on a leash and never gets too fired up.

[BowTechAssassin]

Im with you, I use it year around. Not worth the chance.

Exactly. Good luck.

[Kdog]

Went back to the vet today. He strongly advised doing the Immiticide treatment (lumbar shots). After some discussion he is having her retested (he did not seem to think the results would be different) and if positive he said we could put her on the Ivermectin and Doxycycline for 3 months. Then do the Immiticide treatment (lumbar shots). From what I have read this is probably the way to go for a 100% kill with the least risk, but I am certainly no expert. I am still not sure though if I want to do the Immiticide treatment though. Maybe the 2nd test will come back negative. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

I did feel kind of uncomfortable questioning the vet, but oh well I guess he works for me.

[Txhuntergurl82]

We use iveromec as well all year long and you can buy it at any feed store! Our dogs seem to do fine on it!

[Kdog]

For now, here is the course I decided to take.

Give ivermectin once a week (at the normal monthly dose) and then doxycycline (10mg/kg of body weight) every day for a month. After a month switch to ivermectin every 2 weeks, and doxycycline for the 1st week of every month. I got the ivermectin from JR Enterprises and the doxycyline from www.revivalanimal.com (Bird Biotic: Doxycycline Hyclate 100mg).

My plan is to do this until she tests negative for heartworm. After 6 months I may just switch to the normal monthly heart worm prevention. I have pretty much exhausted the internet researching this. With the soft/slow kill path I have selected there is still a risk of emolism/blood clot whenever the worms die. I am going to limit exercise (no long walks, long sessions of fetch, etc.), but I am not going to keep her kenneled. She was on heartgard before, so hopefully that has kept the worms in check. I will update on how it goes.

[rubydog]

False positive??? Yes it is possible. Rubydog was not acting her self so I took her to a local vet. He asked me had she been on heartworm preventative and I explained that I had missed a treatment. He deceided to test her for heartworks and used a "snap" test?? Well, she tested positive and he like your vet gave me one option and that was the arsenic test. I just couldn't believe that she had heartworms so I sought a second opinion. The vet I took her to reviewed my reciept and explained that the test used had a history of false positives so he retested her and it came up negative. He explained that even if I had missed a couple of treatment that she would still showno signs of heartworms due to the fact that it takes 6 months for the antibodies from the heartworms/mosquitoes to build in her blood stream to a testable level. Therefore there could not have been enough time for her to become infected by missing one or even two doses. Rubydog lived another 8 years with no heartworms. If you would like to get a second opinion in the area call Dr. Joe Jaksik at House cal vet clinic. He is also very reasonable..

[Kdog]

Thanks rubydog. I may give him a call and take my dog in there. I did have her re-tested at the same vet. The 2nd test was sent into the lab and also came back positive. I am pretty sure they did the snap test both times.

I guess there is no follow up/confirmation to do to "verify" that the dog actually has heartworms? I honestly believe the vet is prescribing what he believes is the correct course of action. I ran into him at our Church/School Festival last weekend. Turns out his son was in my daughter's class last year, very small world! Anyway, thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Kdog]

Update - Took the dog back to the vet today and her heart worm test came back negative. The treatment I did for here was heart worm prevention (ivermectin) weekly. And the doxycycline every day for a month, then off for 2 months....repeat for 1 year.

The vet told me a negative test was good but she still might have heart worms??

I did not end up limiting activity very much. But once and a while she would having labored breathing for no apparent reason. When this happened I put her in her kennel. I think her heart worms were probably a mild case.

Anyway, just wanted to follow up on my original thread.

[CTD2011]

When I found my dog as a 1 year old she had heartworms. I refused to do the expensive treatment and put her through that, plus the idea of it scared me. I put her on heartgard instead with the theory that within a few years she would have a chance to be cured. She tested positive for about 2.5 years and for the last 3 years she has tested to be heartworm free.

[justincorbell]

had the vet treatment once on a dog and will prolly not do it again, it killed the worms, but in doing so somehow the worms realeased/broke up??? and blocked arteries and the dog passed a few days later

Same here, charged me 599$ on a monday and my girl passed away that thursday evening.....,she was 6 and very active

Rip daisy, think about you daily!