Please Get the Heartworm Test (US) - Page 1

We had a very bad scare yesterday.  Baron has heart worms; luckily stage 1.  I had him tested last year and it was negative and based on the time frame for detection, he had to have been exposed last summer.

We have been able to catch it, due to regular testing, early enough that the treatment is minimal, no chemo (thank the Lord) and no identifiable damage to the heart.  We still have a 12 month treatment plan, but pretty easy all considering.

If it was not for the regular testing, we would not have caught it in time to do anything minor.
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With all the wierd stuff the weather has been doing and the increase in floods all across the Southern states, this epidemic is only going to get worse.  As for the Heart worm preventive, you make your own choice.  At the very least, get tested every 12 months, so if the issue comes up, it can be resolved fairly easily.

My dog is tested for HW every 6 months because i live in florida. And we never get a break from mosquitos. I have never had any dog test positive because i keep them on prevenative all year long.
Right now she is on the Pro Heart shot, but when her next cycle comes up i'm going to switch over to one of the pills. Just to keep the worms for getting use to anything.
My dog is a house dog but i can't tell you how many times we spend searching for skeeter harrassing us in the house. On an almost daily basis.
And i can leave my pets outside knowing how annoying the bugs are.
Hope you can resolve your problem without issue.  But for the sake of your pets keep them on prevention this summer.
Fry

Was he on HW preventative? If so, which one? 

There are multiple views on giving regular medicine, whether it be animals or humans.  The most prevailing view is the possibility of the body or the parasite building up a resistance to the medication.  This is true in humans, most notably is antibiotics.  Heart worms, are, well, parasites (duh).  Parasites are known to build up resistance to man made chemicals to kill them.  Coming more from a horse raising background, every worming regiment warns of the possibility of resistance and to take according precautions.  Dog worming medications, can't be that much more different in this area.  If your vet encourages heart worm prevention, have they ever mentioned rotating the medication to help prevent resistance?  Dragonfly rotates on his own; I am curious to know if this was based on a vet recommendation or just experience.
 
Did Baron get the issue because the worms in my area have developed a resistance to the other meds that have been around for a very long time?  I do not know, but I am not going to count this possibility out.   Also, could some of the root cause of dog allergies becoming more and more common because we keep dishing out all these "preventives" and not allowing the dogs to built up natural immunities? 

Mosquitoes are near all bodies of water.  The US is not the only country that has bodies of water (this is meant to be a funny sarcastic).  Why is it that this issue with heart worms "primarily in the US" and not other countries?  Back to... We are a nation that likes it's drugs; good, bad, or indifferent.  If there is a problem, give out a drug.  Ever wonder why we have so many medical issues (human or animal)?

I try not to promote or discourage any regimen that involves putting man made chemicals into a body on a regular basis.  Everyone had their own opinion, based on whatever experience they have incurred.  Not to mention, it can easily take a thread into a direction that does no one any good and only serves to create arguments.

I am using the Advantage Multi on 3 of my dogs; primarily because fleas were so bad last year and nothing else helped (natural or chemical).  By default, this medication also is a heart worm preventive.  I am in the process of moving my other 2 dogs, Baron being one of them, over to it. 
 

This my shock you........ But i'm female, My avatar is from the comic 30 Days of Night.
As for the bugs? Well misquotes live in deserts too, where there is barely any water. And i hear they are aweful in the artic circle during the warmer months. Freaking bugs are everywhere!
And as for your question the answer is a little of both. My vet is not a pill popper kinda guy unless it truely is needed. And i've done research on my own also. Sometimes i think it's good to change meds when it comes to paracits. Because i'm pretty sure they are about some of the toughest SOB's on the planet.
I've been lucky, very rare any of my animals get any sort of pest, but i don't worm for anything other then HW on a regualr basis. And even i've been wormed after a trip to central america. just in case.

And Heartworm Prevenitave is to only kill off the microfilira, it has nothing to do with killing the adult worms. So your dog can be heartworm positive and the worms are breeding but none of the young are surviving so the misquotes who bite the dog will not spread them. That's how HW pills work.
so it sounds like while you missed a few doses your dog got infected and the worms made it to past the stage where the pills can kill them. Hence an HW positive, but a light one. Your dog is going to live with those worms for the next 7 to 9 years. And have you ever felt a Heartworm? It's hard and still like wire. i can't imigine what that feels like sticking out of my heart valve.

You might want to do a little more research on heartworm, fawndallas; it is not primarily only in the US and the destructive effects of a dog having heartworms and having to be essentially poisoned over an extended period of time to resolve them is far worse than anything preventative could cause.  The old adage about an ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure is certainly true in this case.  I used to use Sentinel but it's nearly impossible to find so we use Trifexis now which has the added advantages of killing fleas and controlling adult hookworm, roundworm and whipworm infections.

I think you have told me that before Dragonfly.  Sorry, some time my memory isn't very good.

Interesting about the microfilira.  The vet said that Baron came back negative for that.   If that is what the Heart worm prevention kills, then the preventive did not fail..... So now I am very curious.  Between that and the fact that there is no damage to his heart, does he really have heart worms?

fawndallas, what test(s) did your vet use, SNAP 4dx plus or something else? How did he test for the microfilariae?  what treatment is the vet suggesting?

I test twice a year, mostly to keep ahead of TBDs..., heartworm is just part of the test. I do "reach back" Ivermectin, not monthly.

While you can once in a while get a false positive on the snap test, the best way to check for microfiliara is under a microscope. But even on high power the average scope can not actually see them, but you can see the red blood cells being moved by the swimming action of the tiny worms. They make the red blood cells wiggle. If your dog only has a few worms they may not be old enough to be breeding yet, or you may have worms of only one sex. Which will also prevent the production of larva. If you have a light case some vets may just recommend you keep the dog on HW pills to prevent them from spreading the pest to other dogs. After a few years the worms die off and your dog can then be clear. My vet had two big jars he keep in the rooms he sees dogs in. They both have a heart in formaldehyde with heartworms sticking out of the vains and arteries. It's really disgusting! But people don't realise that heart worms are several inches long and hard and stiff. Seeing them like that really drives it home Get the pills, don''t let your pet suffer with these things.
And did you know people can become infected also? There have been cases of heartworms in people who lives with infected pets.