Imported GSD from Germany with heartworms - Page 3

Thanks, Sharyn. If anyone would need help finding another GSD, it would be me. So far I haven't done all that great on my own LOL. I'd hate to think what I'd have ended up with had I not been a dog person. Novices don't stand a chance trying to do it all on their own.

Several years ago, I had adopted an old female GSD who I discovered had heartworms. I had been alerted by a friend of ours who was a vet-assistant and also an experienced dog breeder, concerning a non-arsenic treatment method so we were knowledgable enough to ask about non-arsenic treatments for the heartworms. I would suppose they still use the arsenic method? It is much cheaper and more profitable for the vet to use arsenic, but it is much harder on the dog. I'd be sure I knew exactly what the substance is that my dog is being treated with, and find out how hard it is on the dog, and any alternatives. The old dog survived the treatment, the heartworms did not, and the dog lived on much longer. Both treatments at that time poisoned and killed the heartworms before it killed the dog. I would hope there are newer treatments that are not as harsh.

Today there are much more efficacious treatment methods than arsenicals. Arsenicals are a treatment method still used in both humans and animals and especially in the third world countries. The problem with treating a dog who does have heartworms is the response of the body to the suddenly dead foreign proteins. And this immune response can easily kill the dog, especially if the burden of worms is high. Of course, there are other complications as well as the dead worms now do not move and can block vessels etc......it is a terrible infection. But if caught early enough dogs can survive. Sometimes dogs do survive too but are seriously compromised by the whole process. This is why where the right species of mosquitoes are prevalent, prevention is so important.

There are studies that show/prove that dogs can gain immunity from heartworm on thier own. It is also not as easy to 'get' as people think. Conditions have to be 'just right' for many days.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the mosquito injects an older larval stage and not a microfilarial stage. That means to have microfilaria in the bloodstream, a dog would need to have a population of adult heartworms producing them, no?