My lab saydi... :/

[ducks-and-bucks]

I got a phone call from my mother yesterday, said she took her and got her shots up to date, then they did a test and she was positive for heartworms.... I dont have a big yard at all and havent been able to keep her at my house so she has stayed at my parents where she has a yard and some room, which they enjoy her... no big deal... but I didnt know they werent giving her heatworm preventative medicine every month and not taking care of her... last time I knew it was all taken care of...


Needless to say im head home on a road trip this morning to pick up my saydi girl and bring her home with me... she's never been a house dog, but shes about to be. Ive never had trouble keeping her in the house at the ranch so im not expecting it to be a huge deal... she's10 years old now, shes no pup... but it looks like we are headed to the vet monday to see what kind of damage is done.

Im optimistic about it because she isnt lathargic or anything, I would have never guessed she had heartworms, but then again I though they had been keeping her on the pills for prevention.... it aint gonna be a cheap vet bill im sure...

[CRM_95]

Dang that's no good. My parents had to have one of their dogs treated, and while it wasn't cheap it wasn't as bad as they were expecting. I can't remember the exact amount but it wasn't too bad. The dog lived another 5 or 6 years too. Good luck.

[ducks-and-bucks]

I can only hope.... I wish I would have known earlier...

[Vap]

Dogs are tough!

[popup_menace]

Same thing happened to my fiancé's dog

[ducks-and-bucks]

Well I got my baby home today, bathed, brushed and cleaned up... shes acting normal.. theres no signs of anything wrong... so hopefully the vet trip ends up ok... shes obviously not not totally overwhealmed stage 4 with heart works..

[pdevoto]

Keep her quiet while treating her for heartworms.

The treatment is harder on big dogs.

Good luck.

[Vap]

Any update? Keep us updated

[ducks-and-bucks]

Any update? Keep us updated

I dont know why this is coming up on the other side of the ranch forum... If a mod see's this please correct it into the right forum...

UPDATE - We went to the vet, got blood work done and tested for heartworms again to verify. She is positive for adult worms, but negative on the direct test so that means she doesnt have heartworm larva or babies. They said everything else checks out great, no other problems and she looks and acts fantasic for her age. We got on some meds for her to start killing some bacteria in her system, then in two weeks we are going in to get the heartworm shots. She has to stay over night and get two shots exactly 24 hours apart. Then that will kill the adult worms. After that we have to keep her really mellowed out and no playing... This keeps her heartbeat down so the dying worms can get passed out of her system. The vet said she wasnt worried at all. We had to make a change in her diet to start trying to make her gain some weight, which she never has much of an appitite anyways, so its gonna be hard. But everything went much better than I expected.

Cost wise all the testing, blood work, other test they ran, bath, toe nail clipping, medicine, pills, everything we did at the vet came out to $400 yesterday. Not has bad as I thought it would be. Then the heart worm shots treatment is going to be another $400 in a few weeks. So its ending up around a grand... Word to the wise, if you care about your dogs buy the heart worm preventative every month!! It's much cheaper than having to go through this!! $8 a month would have been much easier to do!!!

[Aggiehuntress]

if she is not bad off, you can just keep her on Heartguard. it will kill the larvae the adults produce, and just let the adults die with age (about 6-7 years). its just an alternative to the shots.

be sure to keep her quiet after the shots, this is a must!!!

[ducks-and-bucks]

if she is not bad off, you can just keep her on Heartguard. it will kill the larvae the adults produce, and just let the adults die with age (about 6-7 years). its just an alternative to the shots.

be sure to keep her quiet after the shots, this is a must!!!

Yeah we will keep her laying low. Shes not too active in the house anyways.
They want to go ahead and kill the adult worms because we dont know how many she has... should be better for her in the long run. The heartguard pills and stuff dont kill adult works... so they wpuld still be doing a number on her heart if we didnt do the shots...

For $400... more piece of mind is worth it... its just money...