Help, Possible Heartworm

[Rerun]

That sounds really excessive. If you were in a big city in Cali, I could see it being that high. But unless Phoenix, AZ is an otherwise "expensive" area to live in, that is a very high quote. My vet is middle of the road to expensive price wise, for this area. But they are very good and I trust them and have used them for my own pets and a ton of fosters over the years with various issues.

I believe my fosters treatment was in the ball park of $750 just for the heartworms, but I do not remember the exact cost because he had a host of other issues that were all being treated as well so it was well over a grand total. In this area, I could go to the crappier sides of town and get HW treatment done for a couple hundred or so. But I wouldn't trust those vets as far as I could throw them. I have actually never heard of HW treatment going as high as the figures you are quoting. I might start getting second opinions and calling around if I were you to find out if that is normal for your area.

[Melina]

Yeah, that's what we're going to do, because that sounds ridiculous to me too..Thank you for confirming that. We started him on the Doxy with this Vet, how would it work to just, well, switch in the middle of treatment if we decided to? He's not at the point where he's getting the Immiticide injections, it's going to be a little bit before that. I guess the Vet we've been seeing should send any information obtained thus far (radiographs, bloodwork, etc.) to a new Vet if we decide to go somewhere else, correct?

This is my Mother's Vet that she's seen for her dog for years. I had my own for my other dog out in California while going to school that I really liked, but obviously that's not an option. I have told her that I never liked her Vet, but I wasn't in a position to argue with her about Vets to go to as I don't know any here and we wanted to get him seen ASAP. One of the many reasons I don't like her Vet, and it may seem silly, is that I had a cat (I was living at home at that point, taking a break from school) who at the time was overweight due to the dry food I was feeding her. Well, we brought her in to assess what to do as it seemed exercise and reduction in her food wasn't helping, and she said to put her on Prescription Science Diet. It did absolutely nothing. Later on I moved back to California to finish school and went to MY vet for the same issue, she said, you need to be feeding your cat wet food as it contains fewer calories than dry food. What do you know, my cat lost weight! I told her about the other Vet's suggestion and she said it was basically like "feeding your cat 'light' cookies, they're still cookies". It just goes to show that all my Mother's Vet cared about was making her money off the Science Diet, not about helping my cat get to a healthy weight. I've kind of had a grudge against her practice since then, and now hearing the price she's quoting for the heartworm treatment, it just sounds way too high.

[lisac]

When I got my dog as a puppy and I took him to the vet he had worms and also an infected ear and it didn't cost me that much. I get the 30 day pill every month for him and that's only 20.00 and when I took him for his yearly heartworm test he came back negative. I wouldn't worry about it I'm sure he'll be fine.

[Melina]

Alright, so I looked up some Vets (not all of them in the area, some are a bit of a drive, over an hour) to get an estimate on what they charge for heartworm treatment, and called them based on the reviews they received. Anyone who didn't get good reviews, didn't get a phone call, obviously. I called about 5 places. Two of them still need to get back to me. One of them said that $2,000 "Sounds about right", I didn't like that answer. Another quoted at around $1,000 for the remainder of Koda's treatment, that's still $1,500. The last place quoted somewhere between $300-$400 for the remainder of his treatment. That would be the visit, Urinalysis (Why our current Vet didn't do one, I don't know), Prednisone, two shots of Immiticide (Possibly a 3rd if needed, they would need to look at the information our current Vet sends to them), 2 day stay with them, and pain medication. That puts the total cost of his treatment with the $500-ish that we've put into it thus far no more than $900 dollars. That sounds a heck of a lot better than 2 f'n grand. As I said, I read reviews about this hospital and they sound great, plus the lady I talked to sounded extremely nice and caring. I was reading about the cost of Immiticide and apparently some Vets are reasonable and charge a fair price for it, while others like to jack it up, sometimes to 4x the amount to make as much as they can off unsuspecting patients who don't know any better and are fearing for their dogs life. It's really starting to sound like that's what our current (Maybe soon to be former) Vet is doing.

[Spence]

I had one come to me with a "medium" infestation of HW. After talking with my vet and making a decision as to what I wanted to dog for, I opted for the slowwwww kill regimen. It took almost 18 months of keeping him in a 12'x12' pen with no other exercise. I gave him .3 (point 3) cc/ml of ivermectin each month. What this did was kill any filarae (squigglies), thereby stopping the population growth. The adult HW essentially died of old age and I took him in for his test after the 18th month and he was clear. Did this for 2 more months and he remained clear. He is now a narc dog in GA. The cost? Including vet visits and tests, less that $200.00.

You've got to commit to keeping the dog for at least 18 months and the infestation should not be severe.

Talk to a couple of vets before you decide on this route.

g'luck

[Melina]

Well, I'm keeping the dog for (it's) life But I would like to move out of here sometime, and I'd like it to be sooner than a year and a half, and he couldn't be shuffled around in a move. Plus, the thought of two months of confinement for him is hard enough, let alone 18 months. We've already begun treatment for (and put money into) the "fast" kill method, so we're just going to finish that out I'm sure. I know that the "slow" kill method would be a lot cheaper, but that kind of confinement for that long just, well, sucks. I just thought our current Vet was trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of this scenario, and it sounds like she is if another Vet quoted the rest of his treatment for much, much less, while continuing to sound very reputable and knowledgeable according to reviews and my talking to them. They mentioned they were treating a case of heartworm now, I believe, and Arizona doesn't get too many cases, although it's on the rise. Our current Vet said it's been quite some time since she's treated it, she had to work in conjunction with the other Vet in the practice, look up information, and call other places to find out exactly how to go about treating this. Then she wants around $2,000 total? That sounds silly to me.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by lisac

When I got my dog as a puppy and I took him to the vet he had worms and also an infected ear and it didn't cost me that much. I get the 30 day pill every month for him and that's only 20.00 and when I took him for his yearly heartworm test he came back negative. I wouldn't worry about it I'm sure he'll be fine.

Heartworms are NOT the same as fecal worms, and he will not be fine without proper treatment.

[Emoore]

I could see how vets around the Phoenix area wouldn't do much HW treatment, since it's transmitted by moquitoes which breed best in wet areas. If you're open to traveling the average quote I got around here was $500 when I had to treat Cash last year. He came through the treatment without a hitch. If it makes you feel better, our rescue treats literally over 150 dogs per year for heartworms and has never lost one due to the treatment.

[Melina]

I have a Vet Tech friend living in Corpus right now, she says the number of cases in Texas are ridiculous. I figured it would be less there as the incidence of heartworm in Texas is so prevalent, but we've already started treatment here, and it now seems like we can finish out the remainder of his treatment with a Vet who isn't going to jack up the price. Plus, it really wouldn't be feasible to complete the treatment there, I don't know how travel would work after he got his shots, and we certainly couldn't stay in Texas for 2 months I'm still angry with my Mother's Vet, I told my Mom a long time ago that I didn't like her as a Vet, and this just adds to my dislike of the way they conduct business in that practice.

[RebelGSD]

I just treated a dog for around $250, which is probably the cost of the Immiticide itself. This was a very nice vet who cares and does not charge an arm and a leg for treating rescue dogs. I had vets flat out lie to me by telling me that the Immiticide costs $600 (this was over 7 years ago), which is definitely not true. Unfurtunately veterinary medicine is a business and you will need to shop around to find quality treatment for a reasonable cost. I find that what you were quoted is excessive. I have treated 20+ dogs and I did lose a wonderful young dog to a reaction to the Immiticide, he suddenly developed massive bleeding from the lungs, 2-3 weeksa fetr the treatment. After that experience I personally would opt to treat my own dog with Heartgard.