Jake vs. Heartworm

[luv2cook]

As some of you may remember me mentioning before, I picked up a stray dog two months ago. I wasn't going to keep him but he has heartworm and I knew the SPCA would kill him. He's a very sweet dog.

After two months of contemplating, I left him to get treated. I brought him in for his cut foot that he's still limping on and I decided to treat him for the worms.
While I know that heartworm is more treatable now than in years past, I am still nervous about it. It's my understanding they can develop a clot and die and you have to give buffered aspirin every day for 3 weeks to thin the blood. I have never left any of my animals overnight. I have gotten quite attached to him. But at least he has age on his side. He's under 2, I think...

Has anyone ever treated a dog for heartworm? I've very nervous about the whole thing...

[SusanD]

Bless you, luv2cook! It makes me feel good to hear that you've given a homeless dog a good home. I just wish there were more people like you out there!

[cdm]

I too am very happy that someone is doing something for the dog. I rescued a dog a couple of years ago, and he had a broken leg. Now, hes the best dog Ive ever had and the biggest one I ve had too (70 LBS). Just think of it this way. You leave him over night, hes in great hands because they know what to do even though I know, its anxious mama worry time. After hes cured, you might want to ask about the heartworm pill they take once a month to prevent it. Please, keep us posted

[Beth]

I think our neighbor had to treat both of her dogs for heartworm recently, and they are fine. I was wondering though if anyone reading this knows anything about cats and heartworm. I had never heard of this before.

On our last trip to the vet, they were offering heartworm preventatives for cats. Our cats do go outside a little bit, but are mostly indoors and have pretty thick coats on the long side. They don't seem very vulnerable to mosquitoes, but there are the ears and faces. The vet described the medicine as so cheap, but $150 for 6 months was not my idea of cheap and I balked. Since the neighbor's dogs had heartworm and the vet says it usually kills cats before it is discovered, I am wondering it I should reconsider.

[luv2cook]

Beth, I've heard about it and (this is just my opinion) this it's another way for the vets to get more $, catering to people's fears. I mean, if you have cats that lived outside 24/7, then yes, I would consider it. But other than that, no. I don't think it's worth it. Remember, just my opinion...$150 for six months? Wow! I don't think my heart worm costs that much for a year - well, now that I have Jake, it might...

cdm, i do know about heartworm prevention. This dog was a stray who had it when I picked him up. My other dog has been on it for nine years. I got Dix when she was a year old. I don't know how she managed not to get it. She has very thin fur. Jake has thick fur like a Collie. Well,he's part Collie - at least the head is! I guess it's a luck thing - some have it, some don't! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by luv2cook (edited 01-31-2001).]

[HDgirl]

My SO's brothers dog was treated for heartworm. The dog was given two shots a few days apart. It was about $300.00. The dog did fine with it, she's a german shep. and older.

The worst part for your dog is the overnight stay....he'll be sooo glad to be home.

Cheers,

Karen

[MrsReber]

The overnight stay is worse on the owner than it is on the dog. Just think how happy he'll be to see you!

Yes, cats can get heartworms, too, but it is very uncommon so they don't seem to push the preventative too much. I asked the vet about it when I worked there. We had a little heartworm "seminar" for the employees so we would all be well versed in giving advice to our clients. My cat is outside most of the time and he does just fine.

[carolyn.1]

luv2cook,
When I was a child we had a german shepherd that died of heartworms. At that time it was just a risk you took having an animal. Then when I was first married my DH and I got a black lab that we dearly loved. We found out she had heartworms, at that time their wasn't any prevention medication or easy pills. Our vet told us it would be very expensive to treat her and their would be no guarantee that she would pull through (28 years ago). Well we did the treatment and it was a success! We loved and took care of her for her 15 years of life. I would recommend the treatment , I'm sure it is not as expensive as 28 yrs ago. And it seems that you love the dog.
Carolyn--

[SandyDee]

Amen!! I repeat the sentiments already expressed. Being a devout dog lover and devoted mother of my own I want to commend you on your kind heart. Jake is very lucky to have found you. It is a heartwarming story and I wish you and Jake both the best!!!

[Leonard]

Dearest luv2cook:

I think it is that dog is very lucky that you decided to become his "Mom". I wish the world was filled with more dog lovers like us. My dogs (Basset Hound, 10yrs & German Shepherd, 6yrs.) do take the Heartguard chewable pill each month for prevention. It's worth the cost to have piece of mind. My Shepherd however, has had a host of problems since he's been 2 1/2 months old. He is very nervous and suffers from obsessive/compulsive disorder. He is a tail chaser. Hopping vet to vet has been very time consuming and quite expensive but we have seen improvement and learned ways to minimize his chasing. The point is, if you love your pet, you will do just about anything for them!!

[hlao23]

My sister had a friend (sound like the start of an urban legand, doesn't it http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif) whose dog had heartworms. I don't know details about the process but her dog did fully recover and is doing well. The treatment can get expensive tho'.

Good luck with the treatment. I'm glad Jake found a friend.

This is probably a good plug for "spay or neuter your pets". There are so many homeless animals out there that can suffer so many problems. Not all are lucky enough to find a kind-hearted person who can care for them.

[This message has been edited by hlao23 (edited 01-31-2001).]

[MrsReber]

I worked for a vet part time about ten years ago. I never treated my own dog for heartworms, but we had some come into the office. We saw very few dogs actually treated for heartworm since the treatment was expensive. I never saw one die from the treatment or have complications. I hate to say it, but people would have them put to sleep rather than pay for treatment. It killed me to see that. To be honest, I am not sure if they use different stuff now to treat it, but in the past they used some pretty strong substances in order to kill the heartworms so there were many risks involved. As long as he is currently strong and healthy, he should come through it just fine. I commend you for taking such good care of your dog and saving his life!

Don't worry about leaving him overnight. They are usually perfectly fine and happy to just hang out. We had very few yappers where I worked. Their personalities are completely different when the owner is not present. My own dog can be nasty when I'm around (she thinks she's protecting me from the evil dog groomers), but as soon as I leave, she's a good dog. Even better than when she's at home, which is why I no longer groom her myself.

You're truly a wonderful person for giving this dog a second chance!


hlao- it's also a good plug for getting your pet tested for heartworm and getting them started on heartworm preventative!!!

[This message has been edited by MrsReber (edited 01-31-2001).]

[luv2cook]

Well, the sad part is that heartworm prevention is cheap! One pill a month is a heck of a lot cheaper than the treatment and it's not costing the dog anything. Jake is such a sweet pooch. He loves kids. And the worst part is that I've discovered that in order to get him to do anything, you have to practically yell at him. I guess that's the way he was raised. My other dog, Dixie, you just speak to her and she does what you ask...

[luv2cook]

They use a better drug now that doesn't have near the side effects. I will post how much treatment cost me - BUT if you think about it, that treatment spread out over 10 more years or so? Not very much for a dog that is great with people, loves kids, sweet as pie and loving...good investment to me, don't ya think?

[Don]

I'm so glad that Jake found you and will be well taken care of. One thing about overnight stays . . . you never know how a particular dog will react. Talbot had to be hospitalized with gastroenteritis for a couple of days. (As usual, old garbage gut ate something he wasn't supposed to eat.) After the second day, the vet kept telling me that he could go home if only he would eat. Every time the hospital staff tried to feed the dog, he would turn his nose up. Finally, I cooked up his favorite meal (believe it or not, boiled chicken meat and rice with chicken bouillion), went to the hospital, and sat on the floor with him while he ate. He scarfed up the food so fast, I thought he was going to inhale it! In retrospect, I'm surprised that the hospital staff didn't ask me to try feeding Talbot earlier. We may have saved everyone a couple of days of grief.

[luv2cook]

Having two dogs is a challenge, tho. My older dog is perfectly trained and Jake needs lots of it. I don't think they'll be on the same heartworm prevention, tho. Jake outweighs Dix by about 10 lbs or more. The vet thought he gained weight!

I decided that after his treatment I would really work with him. He's doing much better on the leash - he's the type of dog where you can't train him to come on the leash, he sees the leash and comes right up. Put him on it and there's no pulling. Also, if he doesn't want to do something or gets yelled at, he lays down. Very annoying! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[luv2cook]

well, jake made it through his first treatment. The vet said to keep his quiet for 10 days. yeah, right! The minute I opened up the back door, shoooom, he was gone! My fears were unfounded - unless he throws a clot. He will be on aspirin once a day for 3 weeks, then another shot and then heart worm pills followed by another test later on. His treatment was about $350...

[Angel]

It is great to read about other animal people, I would love to have a dog but living in a apartment it would be too hard not to mention my landlord wont allow it.
This is my happy dog story....a few weeks ago my husband and I were coming back from the gym and it was cold and rainy out side and in the middle of a busy intersection was a beautiful white shaggy dog. She was just walking right in the middle of a four lane road, all I could think about was she was going to get hit. So we stopped in the middle of traffic (I don't think the cars behind us were too happy) but we got her into our car. She was very sweet, smelly and dirty but sweet. You could tell she was someones dog and they took good care of her. Anyways after we got her to our apartment pulled off all the twigs and branches she had seemed to pick up on her adventure. We contacted the owner (She had a coller on that said her name was Snickerdoddle...cute name) So to end my long story, please put collars on your dogs. Her owner was very happy to find out we found her, she apparently escaped after the garbage man left the back gate open http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[luv2cook]

my pet peeve is that, too. Every animal indoor or out should have a darn collar with a good phone number. My cats don't go outside but they all have collars except one (she lives upstairs and wouldn't think of coming down, trust me. I did try to put one on her and she choked on it) Accidents do happen. What if you had a fire? What if a service man left your door ajar? Out goes the indoor cat...angel, I'm glad you found that dog and saved her from being hit. That's great!

[MrsReber]

I would LOVE to have a collar on my cat, but we tried several times. He gets them off every time and loses them. We had one last for about two days. That was the longest. He is outside most of the time so we tried the breakaway collars to prevent him from choking himself or getting stuck. They must work. They broke away each time. Also, if you put a collar on my cat, he acts like you've just tied a brick around his neck. We do get a good laugh out of it.

[sneezles]

We have a cat that is mostly outdoors and the collars don't stay on him either. He doesn't stray too far mostly the driveway across the street. MrsReber the last time we put a collar on him, he just rolled around on the floor and wouldn't get up-I was laughing so hard I couldn't get the darn thing off!

[luv2cook]

how about microchipping the cats? If he was to get picked up/dropped and someone found them, they could be scanned. That's the first thing they're supposed to do is scan...pretty cheap, too...