Opinion on Heartworms - Page 1

Yesterday I heard something rather astonishing to me. The neighbor tells me of his dog that has had Heartworms for 6 years now {nope he opted not get him treated}and the Vet still keeps the dog on the monthly wormer. So the neighbor proceeds to tell me that everyone once in a while the dog will just fall over and after a while he is back up{dogs age is 12 now}Too any of you wouldnt this be neglect/medical cruelty? He has kept the dog on the pills but never got him treated for the Heartworms and when I heard this my jaw dropped more than anything id ever heard. One vet told him it would kill the ones inside/the other said it wouldnt,and it hasnt. What would most of you call this,or think of this? DJ

Irresponsible Pet owner. It not ulike people who have children and don't take the time to raise them which isn't cheap. Call it sad

depends on which heartworm prevention your neighbor is using. revolution (selamectin) & heartguard (ivermectin) both kill the larval stage of heartworms, but not the adults. the trick is to faithfully maintain the dog on the prevention until the adult worms die (usually 3-5 years). of course, this only works if the dog outlives the heartworms & in such an elderly dog w/ obvious health issues, your neighbor might be trying to get out of the treatment cost (300$ or so) or maybe he figures the dog is old, etc... safety in the treatment is very good, there can even be a pre-treatment if the patient needs one- the following 6 weeks where the dog must be kept as quiet as possible are usually much more difficult for the owner & then, potential life-threatening side-effects can occur.

My vet will not give heart worm preventative if the dogs test positive for heartworms. The preventative, he say's will kill the dog, if it has heartworms. Your neighbor may be embelishing a story or outright pulling your leg.

It is complete irresponsiblity on the owners part...6 years??????????? Could he not affor preventative back then? If it is true the dog should be taken away, treated and live out the rest of his life with someone who hosestly loves him..that is not love to let your dog suffer that way.. I'm going to stop now before I go off...

The dog has spent half his life like this.The owner should be shot,as well as his vet if he is in fact been still giving a monthly.To treat the dog now at 12 years of age and being positive for 6 years would surely kill it,the poor thing can not stand up without falling over.By now the heart is so damaged it is all it can do to just keep the poor guy living.no doubt the heart is just a weak clump of what used to be muscle covered and entwined with piles of what looks like spaghetti,not a very nice way to die but rest assured this dog is already dead,he just does not know it yet.People suck sometimes

You Go Charlie Ivory...Right on Time!

Actually, the owner is doing the correct thing as far as the heartworms are concerned, the monthly preventatives kill a larval stage and do not touch the adults. If the dog has a small amount of adults, he will do fine. He will have little damage to his heart as dogs can actually harbor a very large amount of adult heartworms without heart damage. This dog is known as occult positive, he has adults but no microfilaria. He is not contageous and as long as he remains on the preventative his situation will not worsen and may even improve as the adults slowly die off. This is much less dangerous than treating the dog. If the dog undergoes treatment, the adults will die off quickly and can create an embolisum. If however the dog has so many that he is in congestive heart failure tehn treatment is the way to go. From your description the dog is not in CHF, but is possibly suffering from epilepsy or another acute problem that causes him to fall over and then get up later. That doesn't happen with CHF. Susan

Working with a Humane Society, I see many dogs that test heartworm pos.We have several vets on board with us and they all agree, put the dog on a hw preventative(ivermect.)monthly and in time it will kill them off slowly.It will sterlize the adult female worms, kill the larve, and eventually will rid the dog of the worms.You do have to be vigalant in this. 90% of dogs that have heart worms will die with them not of them.The other option of treatment can kill a dog quickly, an injection into the muscle along the spine.If the dog is heavily infected and he does ok with treatment(alot have problems with it)there is a huge risk that the adult dead hw's will throw a clot and kill the dog.So many people have no clue about how easy this is to prevent and how hard it is to treat.

ok ...treat him monthly and it will slowly kill off the worms? Slowly as in 6 years!!!! Give me a break.....HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TREATED WITH PREVENTATIVE MEDS WHEN HE WAS 6 (oh was my caps lock on..sorry) he MAY be doing right now..I don't know (not a vet), but the dog should have NEVER gotten this bad in the first place!!!!!!!!!! we have to take a drivers test, but no tests to raise kids or dogs..... I stand by my above post and agree with charlie..