Who's been through Heartworm treatment?

[spotsmom]

I know it's not the best picture, but I know I'll get in trouble if I don't post something :)
We rescued her from a local shelter, she is approx five yrs and had been there for more than a month. She weighs about 8 lbs, needs to gain a pound or two. We knew ahead of time that she was heartworm positive. They contacted me (I love terriers and have been able to pull many dogs at last minute) but I couldn't find anyone with available room, so we are fostering her until she is better. She's awesome! Completely potty trained, gets along with our Jack Russell and Boxer and ignores the cat and bird.

Our vet appointment is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and I've done the treatment before- but never on something so small. I need to know everything you guys have done in the past with your dogs- I don't want to screw this one up. She is such a little angel. THANK YOU!!!

[WashingtonBay]

Monster! Hope you can get her healthy, she sure is cute. :)

We don't have heartworms up here... have no first-hand advice.

[natisha]

I had a dog treated for it. Her previous owner...well, that's another story.
I think they may have improved the treatment now but at the time it was very painful & I demanded pain medication before we even left the office. They have to be kept very quiet. She survived but ended up dying from lymphoma a few years later. I found some studies possibly linking the treatment to lymphoma but the vets deny it.
Many dogs do well afterwards. Again I'm not current on the latest treatment.

Are you sure she's positive? I have a dog now who is positive on the in-office tests but negative on the ones they send to a lab. I would ask which test they did before treatment.
Good luck to the cute little girl.

[spotsmom]

Well, I'm only going off what I was told by the shelter. That's why we are taking her to my vet- he works with rescue groups and deals with this on a daily basis unfortunately. He'll do a work up on her, including x-rays to see how advanced it is. She's coughing though when she gets excited, so I'm pretty sure the diagnosis is correct :(

The shelter pays for the two shots, but nothing else. I got them to start her on Heartgard before I left ;). She'll be started on doxycycline tomorrow and will stay on it a month before getting the Immiticide injections. My vet advised he will give a pain killer before I drop her off at the shelter. I'll find out more tomorrow.

Anyone else? Please??

[natisha]

Well, I'm only going off what I was told by the shelter. That's why we are taking her to my vet- he works with rescue groups and deals with this on a daily basis unfortunately. He'll do a work up on her, including x-rays to see how advanced it is. She's coughing though when she gets excited, so I'm pretty sure the diagnosis is correct :(

The shelter pays for the two shots, but nothing else. I got them to start her on Heartgard before I left ;). She'll be started on doxycycline tomorrow and will stay on it a month before getting the Immiticide injections. My vet advised he will give a pain killer before I drop her off at the shelter. I'll find out more tomorrow.

Anyone else? Please??See, the treatment is different. :) I'm sure she'll be fine.

[Gem's Mom]

I had a foster dog go thru treatment. I think it was just 2 shots. I don't remember giving her anything else. We just had to keep her quiet for a month or two. She was a super laid back older small dog so that wasn't too hard. We gated her in the upstairs half of our split level house and kept the rowdy dogs downstairs. They all went out for potty breaks at different times and she could have toys as long as she didn't go bonkers with them. Super sweet dog. Practically perfect in every way is what we always said about her. I named her Dawn and she was adopted by a grad student looking for company in her town house.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v317/152/125/36100638/n36100638_32492991_4432.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v317/152/125/36100638/n36100638_32492990_4122.jpg

[FredRock]

The doberman that the female officer I interned with was helping to rescue had the treatment. Poor thing didn't know what to do with herself. She slept most of the time, whined a lot, and then came for comfort all of the time. She was such a love bug, the poor girl.

She had a site reaction to it- it got red, hot, and irritated. The officer put a warm compress on it and Nika tried to lick her face so she must have appreciated it.

[natisha]

The doberman that the female officer I interned with was helping to rescue had the treatment. Poor thing didn't know what to do with herself. She slept most of the time, whined a lot, and then came for comfort all of the time. She was such a love bug, the poor girl.

She had a site reaction to it- it got red, hot, and irritated. The officer put a warm compress on it and Nika tried to lick her face so she must have appreciated it.How sad. Glad it turned out well.

[spotsmom]

Well, our appointment went well. She's on the antibiotic for the next 30 days, then we take her in for the shots, meanwhile she'll continue on the antibiotics for two more weeks.
Our vet also prescribed a pain medication/ anti-inflammatory to give to her about an hour before she gets dropped off, and I’ll leave the shelter with a pill to give her the next day and she’ll get have the medication for two additional days after coming home. He says it makes them feel like they’ve been kidney punched. L
The most important thing for an active little bouncy thing like her is to have her crated for 4 weeks, no exceptions. Out to potty four times a day then straight back to potty. If the worms break up to fast they can cause a fatal embolism.

[Equine_Woman]

We had our Cocker Spaniel treated about 4 or 5 years ago. When we adopted her she aleady had them and the vet suggested we just keep her on heart worm control to rid her of them (eventually the adults die off I guess?) She got a clear test the year before she got a positive test. . . so who knows. She was on heart worm preventative through all of that. . .

I don't remember the treatment being all that hard on her. She slept in the house and wasn't active so it wasn't much different from her normal life. Good luck with it!! And bless you for taking her even though she was HW positive!