Heart worms?

1240 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by angelaw, Nov 10, 2010

Davey Benson

Discussion Starter · Nov 10, 2010

Has anyone here had any first hand experience with treating heart worms?

(I know, I know, I actually give all my dogs preventative) The new German Shepherd I adopted had been neglected, so the first thing I did was to take her to my vet clinic, and give her the full run down and work up. Yup.... you guessed it. She tested positive for heart worms. So what next? I've read up on it on the internet. I was wanting some first hand experience from other german shepherd owners though. She displays no external signs yet, and I am wondering how agressive my approach should be on her treatments. All two bit opinions welcome. :help:

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JeanKBBMMMAAN

· #2 · Nov 10, 2010

I recently had a foster dog go through the treatment.

Did -
Bloodwork
Urinalysis
X-rays
Physical exam
to determine staging

We did the slower of the two fast kill methods, where he got one shot, then one month later 2 shots. Then Ivermectin (dosed/given by the vet) a month after that (I believe a month - not exactly sure). Before he had the ivermectin I had the MDR1 mutation testing done.

Before the shots started we did the doxy treatment.

I believe this is the method recommended by the American Heartworm Society. American Heartworm Society | Canine Guidelines

I don't like the slow kill (Heartgard tx) unless it is necessary - the dog still needs to be kept quiet during that whole period, and while the slow kill is happening damage is also happening to the dog.

http://www.houstoncollierescue.org/download_info_files/heartworm treatment aftercare.pdf one of the really good aftercare guides - I think a Golden rescue has another.

Thank you for adopting!

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Davey Benson

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 10, 2010

Thank you much, after all the reading I did last night I didn't get a wole lot of sleep. I think I am going to try a little more agressive approach, because of that whole "they do damage the whole time they aren't dead" thing.

All my vet clinic did yesterday was the antigin test, I think today I might have a little further testing done to determine the level of infection. But after getting some opininos from my Great Pyrenees freinds on that forum, I think I can probably do/handle the shot route.

Thanks again.

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angelaw

· #4 · Nov 10, 2010

When we got Vishnu (2 yrs old) he was loaded with them. Our vet tested, xrayed to show them. We did the reg. treatment the vet suggested, 30 days of no activity, no jumping, etc. He recovered fine and made it to 11 yrs of age. Good luck to you!

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