Please Get the Heartworm Test (US) - Page 2

Fawn, here you go. I think you are confused, as well. There is no chemo treatment, there is an "organic arsenical" compound,  but it does not sound like you are considering Adult Heartworm Therapy. (You apparently tested for the adult worm, positive? Your vet is doing a very hopeful treatment plan?) Please read this link below, your dog and area does seem to be high risk for the spreading of this. The problem is, if the actual killing of the worms causes some sort of blockage that will lead to a collapse or death. That has variables, too, and the sooner you get an idea of how many adults Baron has, and the size, well, you need to decide if living with them is the other risk you'd rather take.

I am sorry to hear about it, but I would not leave a heartworm in any pet of mine. It is just that with this type of parasite, and your activity level dog, you need the best information you can about his particular situation. Good luck. 

Everyone else, take heed and use preventatives in the correct manner!

http://www.heartwormsociety.org/pet-owner-resources/canine-heartworm.html

The vet has Baron on Doxycyline 300 mg for 30 days.  We are also continuing with his monthly heart worm preventive.  The vet said maybe in 6 months we can change medications.

As for what the test names were, I do not know.  I just know our vaccine clinic did the heart worm test and it came back positive.  I then immediately took him to my vet for further evaluation.  My vet ran "the test for microfilira" and it came back negative.  She did Xrays and saw no damage to the heart.  The heart was slightly enlarged, but nothing that would have caused any alarms.   The lungs sound clear and there is no heart murmur.

Side note:  I might not have been clear.  Baron has been on preventive.  Kevin just asked why someone would not and I gave him the argument that I have heard and considered in the past. 

Thanks for the information.  This helps clarify any action I may consider with the preventive company.

Fawn, why is Baron on Doxy? That sounds like a prescribed treatment for Lymes disease to me! Not heartworm related at all? I am most confused, yep. 

I am pretty confused myself.   I took my vet at her word when she prescribed it for the heart worms. Now that I have looked it up online....  Not sure why she prescribed it.

Additional confusion is that his HW came back positive, yet the micrfiliara was negative, which is what the preventives kill. (In short, no recourse on the preventive company). 

All I can do is trust my vet knows what she is talking about.   It would be a real kick if all of this was for naught.

"Everyone else, take heed and use preventatives in the correct manner!"

Agreed.

If he has been on the pills are you giving him the correct dose for his size? I know of 2 cases where the owner purchased 1 larger pill trying to be cheap and split it between two smaller dogs. Needless to say they ended up with one dog getting heart worms.
And you are correct, if the dog has no larva then the preventive is working as stated. It does not kill adults only larva.
If it were my dog this happened to most likely my vet would recommend they keep the dog on preventive unless he felt the amount of worms had reached the harmful levels. Remember heartworms don't want to kill their host. And in wild animals populations the density of available animals would never be as high as people keeping pet dogs in residential neighborhoods. Think about it. The problem is there are so many host and now a day so many vectors the HW had a very high chance of finding a dog and usually a dog already infected.
Makes you almost miss DDT!
Fry

The weight for the pills is correct and I haven't split.   It could just be the chance too.  The drug cure doesn't seem to be overly toxic.  

Comes back around to the start of the thread.  Whether you give the preventive or not, get the test each year.  This allows you to quickly handle the issue.  The test has minimal risk.

Fawndallas, thanks for a very important reminder.

Sounds like your vet wants you to use the "slow kill" treatment which is not a good idea. Heartworms are not just a few inches long. More like a foot and half long. The longer they're in the heart, the more damage they do. Incredibly disgusting photo that shows heartworms at:

http://babiesandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/01/heartworms-are-scary.html

Also two incredibly disgusting videos that show live heartworms being surgically removed from dogs hearts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phCod-0tfkE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOLzFsNOJ-4

Don't look at any of this stuff if you just ate.

You can't always tell the heartworm stage from an antigen test because this test only picks up mature female heartworms. If there's lots of male worms and very few mature female heartworms, the heavy infestation will look like a light one.

Was Baron on heartworm preventative all year? Was a dose missed? Which preventative was he taking?

More useful info:

Treatment of Heartworm Disease in Dogs - Slow Kill Versus Immiticide Treatment
Slow Kill Heartworm Treatment Using Monthly Ivermectin Versus Melarsomine

From Lorie Huston, DVM

Melarsomine (Immiticide®)is the preferred method of heartworm treatment in dogs. Using ivermectin-based monthly preventives to treat heartworm disease is not recommended in most cases.

There are a lot of misconceptions about heartworm treatment in dogs. One of the most common misconceptions is that using ivermectin-based heartworm preventive medications for a "slow kill" is the preferred way to treat canine heartworm disease.

Options for the Treatment of Heartworm Disease in Dogs

Essentially, there are two distinctly different methods of treating heartworm disease in dogs.

• Treatment with melarsomine (Immiticide®), which kills the adult heartworms, is one method of treatment. There are different protocols that are used under different circumstances but the bottom line with this method of treatment is that the adult heartworms are killed in a relatively short timeframe. With this method of treatment, ivermectin-based preventives are also administered concurrently on a monthly basis to prevent new infections.
• Monthly administration of ivermectin-based heartworm preventive medications alone are sometimes used as a second method of heartworm treatment. This is referred to as the "slow kill" or "soft kill" method.

There is risk of complications occurring with both treatment methods.

What Are the Advantages of the "Slow Kill" Ivermectin Method of Canine Heartworm Treatment?

Often, the "slow kill" method of heartworm treatment is used because of financial considerations. Unfortunately, the melarsomine treatment method is quite expensive. However, monthly ivermectin is affordable.

There are situations in which melarsomine treatment cannot be pursued due to other health issues. In these situations, in addition to monthly ivermectin adminstration functioning as a "slow kill" way to rid the infected dog of heartworms, it also clears the infected dog's blood stream of the larval form of heartworms (microfilaria). These microfilaria have the ability to infect mosquitoes which feed on the infected dog. The infected mosquito can then spread heartworms to other dogs. Monthly ivermectin administration stops this from happening and helps to protect other dogs in the area.

What Are the Disadvantages of the "Slow Kill" Ivermectin Method of Heartworm Treatment in Dogs?

The American Heartworm Society does not recommend the use of monthly ivermectin products to treat dogs infected with heartworm disease. There are several reasons that using melarsomine to kill the adult heartworms is safer and more effective for your dog than using ivermectin monthly.

• The adult heartworm is responsible for the damage to heart and lungs that causes the symptoms of heartworm disease in dogs.
• Melarsomine is the only medication we have available that can kill these adult worms. Ivermectin kills the larval stages but not the adult worms. It also does not shorten their lifespan or render them sterile.
• With time, as long the larval stages do not survive and no new infections occur, the adult heartworms will die of "natural causes." However, this may take as long as two years to occur.
• As long as there are adult heartworms living in the heart and pulmonary arteries, the damage to these organs will continue. That means that while your dog is receiving only the monthly ivermectin medication, his heartworm disease will continue to progress and his heart and lungs can suffer severe damage.
• Another reason that monthly ivermectin treatment is not recommended for heartworm-infected dogs is that some parasitologists believe that the "slow kill" method has contributed to the development of strains of heartworms that are resistant to heartworm preventive medications. (Dr. Byron Blagburn, webinar, Emerging Issues in Heartworm Prevention, presented by DVM360, 4/20/2011)

In cases where melarsomine treatment is not practical for a dog with heartworms, monthly ivermectin is preferable to no treatment. However, it should be remembered that this method of heartworm treatment has serious short-comings and is not the preferred method of heartworm treatment.

From:

http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesandconditions/a/CW-HeartwormSlowKillversusImmiticide.htm

The reason for the doxycycline is to kill bacteria called Wolbachia that are a parasite of the heartworm and may make the heartworm disease worse.

All I can do is trust my vet knows what she is talking about. It would be a real kick if all of this was for naught.

I disagree Fawn, what you can do is go back and talk to your vet and find out exactly and specifically what and why!  I would never just 'hope' my vet was doing the right thing. I always want to know the details, and even more so  if there was any doubt in my mind.