# Anyone dealt with Heartworm???



## jr1 (Dec 8, 2007)

Took my dog to the vet today for a Heartworm blood test. I heard it was going to be a bad year and wanted to get her on some preventative meds. Test was positive. They are sending the blood sample to a different lab and said they would know more by Monday. I'm guessing that if she is positive that she contracted last fall. My bad for not keeping her treated. Has anyone had to go through getting their dogs treated for this? If so, what should I expect?
Thanks in advance for any info.


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## Steve Shaver (Mar 9, 2008)

Sorry to hear that. This should be a wakeup call for everyone else to keep their dogs treated. Haven't had any experience with it so keep us posted, hope she does alright. Also interested to know what needs to be done to take care of it.


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

I went through it with one of my Pointers. The vet should be able to look at the xrays and tell you the severity of the condition of the heart. Typically as the worm grows it causes the heart to enlarge which is bad. Heartworm grows quite slow, so if he picked it up last fall you might be early enough to treat it. You will spend about $600-$800 for treatments which includes your blood work and xrays. He will need to be kenneled for about 6 weeks. You don't want him running around and getting excited during treatment. Some dogs come out of it great. I ended up losing my dog about 3 years later. The vets thinks his heart enlarged to a point that it was stressed and finally gave out. My dogs NEVER miss a a Ivermec treatment now. Good luck.


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## Anaconda Pintler (Oct 29, 2007)

My AP dog had it and was on preventative when he got it :shock: :evil: But pretty much exactly what Shane said happened with me and my dog, except it has only been two years and he is still fine, to hell with the preventative from now on my dogs get nothing but ivermectin once a month in the mouth! Heartworms no more! Good luck with it.


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## Greenhead 2 (Sep 13, 2007)

Shane and AP, Are you talking about the horse wormers??? If so how much are you giving to the dog from the tube???


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

My pointer got them 2 years ago; he was on the preventive pills. As I understood it doesn't happen very much but the possibility exists it can happen. Down home in Arkansas any dog not on preventive pills is a dead dog walking, we have seekers galore, and heartworms are prevalent. Strangely enough Mojo tested negative the same day Lucky tested positive, we never figured how one got them and one didn’t, guess Mojo’s pills were working.


I spent $750 treating Lucky. As I remember Luck’s treatments were 4 weeks apart and he stayed over night after each one for observation. You will have several blood tests done and at least one set of x-rays. You do have to keep the dog calm and limit their physical activity (they could have heart failure during this time) especially after the 1st treatment. Lucky came out of it just fine, but sadly he couldn’t do the same last Oct while suffering from liver cancer; I had to put him to sleep.


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## Anaconda Pintler (Oct 29, 2007)

Greenhead 2 said:


> Shane and AP, Are you talking about the horse wormers??? If so how much are you giving to the dog from the tube???


1% Ivomec for cattle and swine, give 1/10th of cc per ten pounds of body wieght never giving more than 1/2 cc no matter how big the dog is, and never give to a herding breed like collies and heelers.

Adminster one time per month and you will never have heartworms or mange it evens treats certain intestinal parasites. Oh yeah it is better and a whole lot cheaper than other preventatives such as Heartguard and such.


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## InvaderZim (Sep 7, 2007)

Anaconda Pintler said:


> [and never give to a herding breed like collies and heelers.


How come?


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

InvaderZim said:


> Anaconda Pintler said:
> 
> 
> > [and never give to a herding breed like collies and heelers.
> ...


I just found this, which echoes each thought of AP, no collies and same dosage. http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/beagleh ... tworms.htm
http://www.calvetsupply.com/index.asp?P ... ProdID=105
I found this about the collies/herders


> Ivermectin is actually one of the safest drugs used for most dogs. The exception is that about 75% of all Collies and a handful of other breeds have a genetic defect that allows the medication to crass the blood/brain barrier.


Pretty nasty stuff


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## bwhntr (Sep 12, 2007)

Greenhead 2 said:


> Shane and AP, Are you talking about the horse wormers??? If so how much are you giving to the dog from the tube???


What AP said is spot on...I will add that the paste you are asking about is not what we are using. You can pick up Ivermec in a 30ml bottle at your local feed store. You must keep it refrigerated and it is in a liquid form.


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## jr1 (Dec 8, 2007)

It's official. Riley does have heartworm. The second test came back and confirmed the first. Man, do I feel guilty -)O(- ! The vet did say that it is still in the early stages, though. I guess that is better than the alternative. Treatments start the end of next week. Thanks for the information and support.


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## CHESMAN (May 8, 2008)

WHAT WERE THE SYMTOMS YOU SEEN AND HOW LONG BEFORE THE VET SEEN THE DOG


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## jr1 (Dec 8, 2007)

CHESMAN
There were no symptoms. I just went in to get Heartguard, a preventative. The vet wouldn't give it until a bloodtest was done. I had a bloodtest done and it was positive. The vet says its still in class 1 stage, which is the earliest. From what I've read the past few days, if you give a dog the preventative and the dog happens to be in advanced stages of the desease, the preventative will kill massive amounts of the very early stage larvae and could cause immediate and severe problems in the bloodstream.
By the way, Riley is just barely a year and a half old and is very active. I'm hoping she pulls through this OK. I've read that these treatments (shots) are very painful for the dog and that they have to be restrained from virtually all physical activity for four weeks after the treatments are finished.


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