Please Get the Heartworm Test (US) - Page 5

Xeph: "Embolisms.  Little blood clots form from the worms dying and floating into the blood stream.  That is why the dog must be kept quiet.  It happens regardless of whether you do slow or fast kill."

Xeph you are a smart lady. Dead worms are dead worms whether you do fast kill or they die on their own after years of damaging the dogs heart, lungs, and blood vessels. So the slow kill method also has the embolus problem. With fast kill at least you know when the worms are dying so you can keep the dog quiet to reduce the risk of a fatal embolus. With slow kill you have no idea when a worm died so you don't keep the dog quiet, the dog tears around with chunks of dead worm floating around in his blood, and (worst case) bam! suddenly drops dead when a chunk of dead worm gets stuck somewhere lethal.

The shelters made slow kill popular. They started using it because its cheap and quick kill is real expensive. Before slow kill, dogs with heartworm were killed by the shelters because they couldn't pay for quick kill. This makes slow kill a good strategy for a shelter but not for an owner who has the money and wants the best for his dog.

"I was convinced to go ahead and use the immiticide....I'm not thrilled, regardless."

Yeah it sucks. There's no risk-free way to fix heartworm once it happens. God bless you for taking such good care of a dog that came to you with heartworms.

Be prepared for a big change in your dog's behavior after the worms croak even if she seems OK now. One of my clients bought a GSD because he had such a calm laid back temperament. Turned out he was so laid back because he was half dead from heartworms. He had the worms quick killed with Immiticide and the dog turned into a crazy happy whirling dervish ten hours after his first treatment. No way could he be kept quiet. He spun around in his crate like a maniac. Thank God he didn't blow an embolus. That was his true personality--high energy with a busted off switch. It took a lot of training before he turned into a dog my client could live with.

"Luckily, there were no microfilaria in my girl's blood, so a couple of adults just snuck by.  Her heart overall looks good, infestation is very low."

Unless she just has all male worms but this doesn't happen very often.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

I notice some folks are using ivermectin doses that are higher than the usual preventative dose. This is a very good idea because in some areas heartworms are resistant to the lower dose.

Oh Please tell me you are wrong, Jon.  I will go to the nut house for sure if this version of Baron is the "calm version" and I will see a different guy when we are done. 

Thank you for putting a smile on my face today.

Now thats funny fawndallas!

Hate to tell you this but I've seen the big personality change after the heartworms die a bunch of times. Worst case was a real sweet cuddly dog that turned into a nasty SOB when the heartworms were killed. Only reason he'd been nice was he was too sick to be his true nasty self. I'm sure this won't happen with your guy because he was nice before he got sick. But you may have to get a treadmill or something.



 

Bump and update

Good news: So far Baron is doing well.  We will not know for up to a year if he is cured though.
Bad news: Bane has heat worms too.  We start the treatment tomorrow.

revolution is not a recommended product.
we are moving over to advantage multi, which has good results so far.  Only time will tell if this is a good preventive. 

As stated before, please get the HW test once a year.  If the dog does get it, you will catch it sooner and be able to treat before significant damage is done.

To Keith Grossman...........Sentinel is now back on the market. It should be easier for you to find if you prefer that one over Trifexis. Production was stopped on Sentinel and Interceptor for about a year. The company has chosen to only bring back Sentinel according to what our clinic has been told by the rep.
      Dot

Since we live in the southeast, we give Ivermectin year round.  Test our dogs every year.  Never in all the years that we have had dogs (over 27 years) have we ever had a dog with heartworms.