Heartworm Puns

It has been a very rough time to say the least. Would appreciate any advice and suggestions.

I rescued my Great Pyrenees mix (74lbs) from Texas in Dec 2020. He had a bunch of GI worms at that time and is clear now.

Today his blood work came back positive for heartworm. He has no symptoms at all and loves to play/wrestle with my other pup. My father just passed away one month ago and my other pup has a paw wound, on clavamox, and is in a cone - so I just broke down crying with this news.

Here are my biggest concerns:

1. He is two years old now. - and unsure how long he’s had the worms but at least one year. I am VERY worried about the damage the worms have done in this time period and long term effects of it. While doing research, I’ve read that catching it early is best. Is this considered early? I feel just terrible that he’s had it this whole year and I maybe failed to properly get him tested? Has a lot of damage already been done?/will this decrease his lifespan?

2. How common is it really for a pulmonary embolism to occur during the injections rest period?

3. Any suggestions for owners to maintain peace and mental clarity during this time.

Thank you so much. Grateful for Reddit

My new little bean is a foster-to-adopt middle aged lady and sadly, she tested heartworm positive prior to her coming to our home. Her treatment begins in 2 weeks and I'm wondering if anyone has tips on how to keep our sweet girl calm and subdued. She loves her Kong with peanut butter, but she goes through that very quickly. We have 1 puzzle but again, she goes through that at lightning speed.

Thanks in advance.

https://preview.redd.it/p7burafi58b81.jpg?width=2995&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecd8195ab2bf6f3b39012bbf54560d5f1f837eb6

We're moving to Corvallis from New Mexico at the end of January. In our region, you give heartworm meds to dogs once a month, from April to November. Is it different in the pnw? Is it year round? Should I buy extra from my vet before moving, to make sure we're good for a bit, in case there's a wait-list at a vet here?

Let me know!

I have a Great Dane puppy who is now 6 months old and 90lbs. I noticed the heartworm preventative we use only goes up to 120lbs. There are no higher weight doses and upon looking around, I see that other brands cap out at around the same weight. So, what happens if my dog ends up being over 120lbs when fully grown, as is undoubtedly possible? Do you then just use two pills in which the combined dose matches the weight of the dog?

I want to note that this question is just sheer curiosity that I didn’t feel like bugging my vet about without an appointment. I would never try to dose my own dog or do anything my vet doesn’t explicitly advise in regards to medication.

Hi all! My dog, a 2YO mixed breed, had his routine annual checkup about a week ago. They did his annual heartworm test, and the next day i got a call saying he came back positive for heartworm. I was so shocked and confused, as i am extremely diligent about giving him his monthly preventative. The vet had us come back so that they could retest his blood to ensure his diagnosis before treatment, since it’s very rigorous. The doctor noted that they send heartworm tests to a third-party lab, so they will do the retest in-house to confirm it comes back positive.

We had our appointment today, they drew my dogs blood and said we would have results in 20 minutes, but they said it’s basically guaranteed to come back positive. 20 mins go by, the vet comes back and says the tests came back negative?? He said they ran both tests (antigen and microfillarae?) and both were negative. He called the third party lab, and we are sending them a new sample to retest and should hear back in a day or so.

My question is - how common is it for there to be a false positive result from a heartworm test? My dog gets his preventative every month and was showing no symptoms at all so i was extremely confused as to how he got heart worms. Has anyone ever had this happen? Thank you!

Where does the heartworm come from? All the life cycle presentations go as the following:

1. Mosquito bites an infected dog and is infected with microfilaria (the baby heartworms)
2. Microfilaria developes into larvae in the Mosquito
3. Mosquito bites a dog which injects the larvae into it
4. Larvae mature and grow into adults in the heart

I get that. But that doesn't tell me where the heartworm comes from. The reminds me of what came first? the egg or the chicken? In my case, where did the heartworm come from first? in the ground, in the air, in the water. Where are they found in the wild to infect dogs/mosquitoes?

I adopted a mixed breed rescue a month ago, she is about 7 months now. She just had her first vet visit a week ago and they said she’s in good shape, is all up to date with vaccines, and we’re working on training her, so overall, she’s great! However, the vet didn’t give us a recommendation on when/if/how to begin any monthly preventatives. Are these necessary/highly recommended and do I wait for the vet to do that or do I just start purchasing/using them on my own? TIA!

Hi all, Located in New England. I have been using Simperica and Sentinel Spectrum for flea/tick/heartworm preventatives for my lab. Are these the best options or are there better ones available? Thanks.

I would like to hear from anyone who rescued a young adult dog with heartworm disease and where the dog fully recovered to become a highly active athlete.

I am thinking of adopting a young adult dog with heartworm disease. However, my goal for the dog is to engage in high level (possibly competitive) K9 sports. Of course, I don't know how far the dog could go in the absence of heartworm disease, but the following article makes me think any dog who has had heartworms probably should not be pushed to the physical limits that some canine sports require.

Heartworm Disease Causes Lifelong Damage - American Heartworm Society

The doctor says:

> I’ve learned that heartworm disease actually begins long before clinical signs are evident -- in fact, the damage to the pulmonary vasculature begins before heartworms can be diagnosed with standard antigen tests.

and:

> I have never seen a dog with a heartworm infection that didn’t have heartworm disease -- and I have never necropsied a dog treated for heartworms -- that did not have permanent damage, even when the infection occurred many years before.

According to that statement, no dogs fully recover from heartworm disease. All dogs who have had heartworm disease will have some permanent damage.

I'm sure most dogs can recover with proper treatment and go on to live normal lives. But can a dog recover from heartworm disease and go on to become a competitive athlete? Who has had this kind of outcome? Anyone here?

It might be the case that this particular dog is better off with another owner. I'm trying to inform myself before making a decision. Thank you.

Hi Mom. I am a 29 year old female. My thoughts are all over the place right now so I am going to type in bullets!

• my dad passed away one month ago. I went no contact from my emotionally abusive parents in oct 2019. He passes away Nov 2021. I never wanted to stop talking to him, my mother is the larger issue. But in order for me to heal, I had to cut contact with her and thus him (he enabled her and they were one unit). I don't know how to even explain how I feel other than saying that I am heartbroken. It has been so tough. I went to the hospital to see him, but he was on a machine so I could not even speak to him. I still have not opened contact with my mother. However, my sister was no contact for 5 years and now has opened some contact with my mother - which is really stressing me out that she will get sucked back in. The whole family situation in general is just so tragic, truly a shame. And this has broken me. All I did was love him and I just wanted to feel the love back.
• My one small pup has a paw wound - it will heal but it is still causing added stress during this time. He limps and is on antibiotics and has to wear a cone - and he is NOT happy.
• My large rescue pup - I just got the news today that he has heartworm. and I simply broke down into tears. It is treatable, however some damage may have already been done since we found it a year after his rescue. The treatment will be several months (up to 6 months) and I really have to mentally prepare for it - but it is just so hard right now. I do not know how to even gather my mind around it. Not to mention all the costs - but, money is material, and it comes and goes.
• My chest is heavy. I just want to eat bad food. And I feel so alone. I have that huge hole - from not having nurturing parents - which no one else can truly fill. I have a supportive boyfriend, but it is a new relationship and I do not want the relationship to just be all of the tragic things that have happened to me in the past 5 weeks.

Mom - just need some help right now. Help to grieve and also support my two sick animals while living alone. I do not know how to do it all. Not one of my friends will ever understand the deepness of what I am going through. Grieving not only the loss but also the fact that now it can never be what I wanted.

Today’s the day my pup gets her heartgard and when i went to give it to her i realized that last month i had finished her 6 month supply. It completely slipped my mind that i had to order more for this month. Ive ordered on chewy asap but they have to get a vet approval for the prescription. It will probably be a few days before i get it. Is that really bad? Should i try to pick some up at petco tomorrow so it’s only a day late? Am i even able to w/o a prescription, like do i have to call my vet first?

Im worried =(

Hi canines. There's a new, once-a-year injection available to prevent heartworm.

Here's an article about it: https://lifehacker.com/what-you-should-know-before-switching-your-dog-to-an-an-1848240480

The article points out that, while effective against heartworm, the injection does not protect against other types of worms. For now, I'm going to stick with the once-a-month meds.

What are your thoughts about this?

Species: Dog A couple photos

Age: 1-3

Sex/Neuter status: Male, neutered

Breed: Pyrenees/lab mix (maybe?)

Body weight: 70 (ideal 80)

History: Heterobazilaria, treated and recovered. Hookworm, treated and recovered. Currently heartworm positive. Healthy otherwise.

Clinical signs: None

Duration: N/A

Your general location: LA, California

Links to test results, X-rays, vet reports etc:

Hi guys, so my husband and I recently adopted a wonderful rescue dog from a shelter in Texas who is 1-3 years old and a big lab/pyrenees (??) mix. He is currently 70 lbs, but should probably be around 80 lbs when healthy. We are currently in Southern California. The rescue discovered that he was heartworm positive a couple days before we got him when they realized they missed it on the paperwork. They feel absolutely awful about the mistake and are covering the cost of treatment and assisting us however they can. They even asked if we still wanted to adopt him, but we said there's no way we are changing our mind because we love him, worms and all!

Since they are in Texas, they say the regularly treat heartworm in dogs and are very familiar with the protocol. Their protocol is:

• 30 days doxycycline
• 2 injections immediately post doxy
• 30 days crate rest after

We took our dog to the vet here in SoCal and they told us that the typical procedure is:

• 30 days doxy
• 30 days rest
• 1 injection
• 30 days bed rest
• more injections? They also told us we'd have to visit a cardiologist because they don't handle it in-office, which I get since it's so rare here.

We would obviously much prefer the shorter treatment option, as the rescue makes it sound as if that is the norm in Texas and works well for them, plus it's shorter for our dog and us. My question is whether this shorter treatment could actually cause him more harm or not from the two back-to-back injections, rather than spacing it out, like if it's harder on the heart or something? He does not have any symptoms yet that we've noticed from the heartworms, so it seems like it's hopefully early days. He was pulled from the shelter with a negative test around October and showed up positive in November. He is a pretty healthy guy overall otherwise, it seems, and the vet said nothing sounded out of the ordinary with his heart when she listened.

Does anyone have any advice on which protocol is typically better or safer? We are happy to do what the rescue recommends since th

Sup guys?! As the title suggests I'm having a tough go giving my cat Bart his medicine. It's 2ml in a syringe, but I can't for the life of me get him to ingest it. Ive wasted about .25ml from messing up.. any advice?

When my dog tested positive for heartworm, I had scoured everywhere for how people faired after the 3 month long "house arrest". I think the stories were ranging from "super easy, barely an inconvenience" to "made my dog worse". I just wanted to add to the stories shared in hopes that it will help anyone else going through it in the future...

Just a little background and context: our dog was 14 months old when she tested positive (antigen positive and microfilaria negative - likely due to preventatives). When we adopted her at 7-8 months, she was negative and had been on heartworm preventative since adoption. She likely had a low worm burden (according to the vet) since she is still young and had tested negative 6 months prior and been on preventatives since then.

**The Treatment:**Day 1-30: Doxy treatmentDay 31-59: No treatment but reduced activityDay 60: 1st injection*Day 60-89: Prednisone + rest with only bathroom breaks for outdoor time (5-10 min max)Day 90: 2nd injection*Day 91: 3rd injection*Day 90-120: Prednisone + rest with only bathroom breaks for outdoor time (5-10 min max)*We also were given some pain meds for her to give as needed. She probably needed them maybe for 2 days post injection then was fine.

**So lets start with the good:**We had built up a good rapport with the vet techs and vet, so even though she was getting these painful shots, she didn't seem to be fearful of going to the vet. We didn't crate rest her, because she doesn't really run around much at home. The prednisone made her hungry all the time, so it actually helped a lot with training. She was extremely food motivated than she's ever been before, so we were able to do a lot of desensitization training when we were on a bathroom break when she was well below threshold. It's terrible she had to go thru this treatment, but honestly, the prednisone side effects were a godsend. We did a lot of fun activities indoors: trick training, treat hunts in a small room, and just giving her lots of affection. We felt like our bond with her had really strengthened. This is pure conjecture, but she basically had a long shutdown period of barely any reactive episodes, and we think it actually improved her behavior and general demeanor. Did it cure her reactivity? No. But it gave us a lot of quality time with her and come up with creative ways to engage her mind.

**Now on to the bad:**My god. The prednisone. I know, i called it a godsend. But damn if that steroid didn't make her

She (10yo chocolate lab) just got her 1st shot “Immiticide” (1 of 3) to dissolve the worms. She’s in pain after the shot, became restless, panting, uncomfortable. Had to go back to the Vet and get pain meds for her. Right now laying next to her to keep her comfortable. Hard to see her like this.

Backstory: she tested positive for heartworms. I think she got it when I was away from home and the parents didn’t keep up with preventative meds (Heartgard). Heartworm/mosquitoes is pretty high where I live (Hawai’i).

She had very mild heartworm symptoms: daily cough, mild exercise intolerance

After discussing the pros and cons with treatment with our Vet. We decided to treat her.

It’s about a 6 mths process ($1500)

1st / 2nd Month = antibiotics 3rd Month = 1st shot of Immiticide to start dissolving the worms. Can NOT get her heart rate up. Risk of clots / thrombus from the dying worms in bloodstream 4th month = 2nd shot / 3rd final shot (while keeping heart rate down this whole time)

I wish no owner/dog to go through this. Anyone else had to go through this?

——————————

Edit: thanks for all your comments on pass dealings.

Day 1-3 she was on prednisone and gabapentin, she was still breathing faster than normal, but I think it was the pain. The gabapentin made her drowsy and not herself (she wanted to be left alone and didn’t want to look at me, thought she was mad at me) The prednisone made her drink more and pee more often.

Day 4…… she’s back to normal! Only on the prednisone. We do very slow walks outside. Prob max distance is 50ft for her to use the toilet (we live in a high rise)

———————————

(Update) 12/28/21 She (10yo lab) got her 2nd shot on 12/26. Premedicated her with gabapentin 1hr before. She was still restless (moving every 10secs to another spot to lay). This time I tried to massage the injection site and she seemed to like it, she would lay longer for 5 mins now. (This 1st shot I didn’t because I thought it would hurt her more). 12/27 she got her 3rd shot. Premedicated again AND she actually handled it much better to my surprise. I thought she would be in more pain with the back-to-back shots but she was acting normal. I even questioned “did my vet forget to give it to her?” The also restarted her on the prednisone after the 3rd shot.

The next day 12/28 (today). She’s back to normal 90%. She still has her mild panting moments. But been taking her out just to use the bathroom.

I hope in 30days when they retest for heartworm.

It has been a very rough time to say the least. Would appreciate any advice and suggestions.

I rescued my Great Pyrenees mix (74lbs) from Texas in Dec 2020. He had a bunch of GI worms at that time and is clear now.

Today his blood work came back positive for heartworm. He has no symptoms at all and loves to play/wrestle with my other pup. My father just passed away one month ago and my other pup has a paw wound, on clavamox, and is in a cone - so I just broke down crying with this news.

Here are my biggest concerns:

1. He is two years old now. - and unsure how long he’s had the worms but at least one year. I am VERY worried about the damage the worms have done in this time period and long term effects of it. While doing research, I’ve read that catching it early is best. Is this considered early? I feel just terrible that he’s had it this whole year and I maybe failed to properly get him tested? Has a lot of damage already been done?/will this decrease his lifespan?

2. How common is it really for a pulmonary embolism to occur during the injections rest period?

3. Any suggestions for owners to maintain peace and mental clarity during this time.

Thank you so much. Grateful for Reddit

Today’s the day my pup gets her heartgard and when i went to give it to her i realized that last month i had finished her 6 month supply. It completely slipped my mind that i had to order more for this month. Ive ordered on chewy asap but they have to get a vet approval for the prescription. It will probably be a few days before i get it. Is that really bad? Should i try to pick some up at petco tomorrow so it’s only a day late? Am i even able to w/o a prescription, like do i have to call my vet first?

Im worried =(