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My baby has just been diagnosed with heartworms and I am very worried. Just some background - I have given him either interceptor or heartguard his whole life. I do not think I have missed a dose or recall missing one but anything is possible. So I really don't know how he got them since he had the preventative and is mostly an indoor dog.
The vet is still doing some final testing bc he had two tests that came back weak positive. I guess I am still hoping for some miracle where the tests are wrong. She has sent his blood out to test lab to have them analyze it to be sure.
Once we get that info back we will decide on treatment. Here are my concerns:
He has been on heartguard all summer and excercised and active and has not shown symptoms but could this have been harmful? The vet said no but it worries me.
Should I be keeping him pretty inactive now until we start treatment? We are going to a lake this weekend and he is coming along but he won't be able to do any swimming or anything I guess. I have pretty much stopped giving him long walks. I do notice that he pants hard even on short walks and worry maybe this is a symptom but it is mid 90's and before I just thought it was the heat?
The treatment itself worries me. I am getting married in Oct and going on a long honeymoon until November 1st. We have many activities and family visiting and I don't see how i could keep him quiet. His greatest love in life is people and he gets very excited when anyone visits. For the honeymoon he was going to stay with my parents and they have a dog he plays with so again he could not be kept quiet.
The vet and I have discussed doing the antibiotics and heartworm prevention for a month before the immiticide anyway so at this point would it be harmful to just do that until I am back from my honeymoon and can give him full attention and care? I hate to delay it but it's a mild case so that might be safer for him.
I will be discussing this all with my vet next week but would love to hear other's experiences.
While I agree you should discuss with your vet, it never hurts to research your alternatives. There is a new treatment that is less expensive and seems to work just as well.
For a weak positive, discuss with your vet putting him on Inteceptor for 6 - 12 months and then retesting. I know my vet would treat it that way for a weak positive only.....not a heavy load.
I'm sorry to hear about your pup, and I would have to agree with Squirl since it's a weak positive. If you have had him on treatment all this time, you should talk to your vet about contacting Novartis if you were using Interceptor about them paying for treatment, as I know my vet has mentioned that if you buy HW meds through your vet and then it fails, the manufacturer will usually cover the cost of treatment.
I put 2 foster dogs through this. Vet told me keep in kennel carrier to keep calm. I said would not they told me would keep dog, so to please them said would. I did not as figured if kept penned when did get out to go to bathroom and such with the other fosters and my dogs they would get to excited and be worse. I let them be and do what they wanted if got to rough told them settle.
Took about a month as they were slow acting and not playful, but could notice change and 1 day seen a glow in the eyes and excitement in them and they went nuts. No more calm pup.
In my opinion if do treatment it is best to let them tell us what is ok or not as long as not let get to excited. I took mine on short walks and such and let them sleep when wanted and other dogs seemed to know also as left alone when they needed it. Both of these dogs were bird dogs so energy level when normal is very high but the treatment slowed them down.
Think to drastic a change in routine be worse than keeping routine but scale it down some.
Both of them came through with flying colors and were adopted out. Another we had new owners did treatment and had to do it twice and they kept routine just scaled down and he is doing fine also. Sometimes vets say things that scare crap out of ya, but follow your heart on what think is best for the animal. If not used to being kenneled up a lot i would not go that route. Be like us humans used to being active and then sitting in a small jail cell with no free time.
Well I have an update on this. Since the two hw tests came back weak positive the vet wanted to send out his blood to the lab that makes the test and have them analyze and test again. I don't really understand why it would show weak positive but the last test from the lab came back negative.
This doesn't mean he does not have it, it could mean it's a very early infection so the testing is not conclusive. I just don't think it's possible to get two positives if there is not something there. On the other hand I am hoping maybe he is totally negative and those tests got screwed up somehow. Since he has been on preventative and is pretty much an indoor dog in an area without a high incidence of hw that seems possible too.
The vet seemed perplexed herself so we are going to continue giving him heartguard each month and test again in early December.
I am really happy to know now that either he does not have it or worst case it is caught very early and can be treated. I really feel a lot better about it all.
BTW if he does have heartworms I don't think I could prove which preventative he was on and get the manufacturer to help pay for his treatment. The problem is that I switched from Interceptor to Heartguard in early spring. I did not miss any doses but there is no way to know which one he is on when he got this if he does indeed have it.
If you bought the medication through the vet, ask them to contact both manufactures. If you bought from a license pharmacy (not mail order) contact both and tell them the medication failed. They should file claims with the manufacture on your behalf. Since there are so many counterfeit animal medications circulating, the manufactures need to know when something is wrong so they can investigate. If they discover that counterfeits mad it into their supply chain and into your medication, their insurance usually helps cover some cost.
If you bought the medication through the vet, ask them to contact both manufactures. If you bought from a license pharmacy (not mail order) contact both and tell them the medication failed. They should file claims with the manufacture on your behalf. Since there are so many counterfeit animal medications circulating, the manufactures need to know when something is wrong so they can investigate. If they discover that counterfeits mad it into their supply chain and into your medication, their insurance usually helps cover some cost.
I will check about that then if it comes down to doing the treatment. I bought the meds he has been on the past two years from my vet. Before that it was from another vet since I was in a different state. I think if this is a very mild case though then it has to be within the last two years and my current vet could handle it. I am just not sure how to tell which one he was on when he might have gotten it.
I always seem to be the nursing facility for foster dogs with heartworm. The MOST IMPORTANT THING if he is being treated is that he remain INACTIVE. The more active the more the heart pumps and the more the worms grow.
For some reason a year or so ago I got a lot of jack russel terriers with heartworm in the program, one of the most active breeds you can get, but they all did beautifully and mostly sat next to me on the sofa or the cushion by my desk, since I work at home. There was only one who really, really wanted to play with the other dogs and I couldn't let him. Treatment can be anywhere from 6 weeks to three months depending on how bad it is. Treatment is expensive and they go through a series of injections - sort of like Kemo for dogs - then they are retested after a period of time, but all the heartworm dogs I fostered pulled through great and now lead active happy lives.
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