My dog has heartworm

[Kori Ellis]

My dog, Deuce, has heartworm. I don't want any lectures about me neglecting his prevention treatment. And I certainly don't want to hear about any horror stories of your dog dying from heartworm in the past. (In fact, I'll probably ban you if you post such a thing :lol).

Basically the deal is that he doesn't have any symptoms. But when I went to pick him up from the boarder/vet after we came back from Vegas, they ran a routine blood test and found it. Today, they did the chest/heart X-ray, plus a bunch of bloodwork and it looks like they caught it early enough. But the next 3 months are going to suck.

He has to be on antibotics for the next few weeks to get his platelet count up. Then he'll undergo 2 days of shots/treatment in the hospital. Then for a month, we can't let him run or get active (I don't know how I'll manage that). This period will be the dangerous part because if the heartworms travel into his lungs, liver, etc, something bad will happen :(

Then after that month, 2 more days of shots, then another month rest. Basically we'll have to be home with him pretty much all the time to keep him calm - so we won't be able to go anywhere.

Anyway, it freakin' sucks :cry

Make sure your pets stay on their prevention treatments. :(

That's all.

--Kori

http://spurstalk.com/deucec.jpg

[MannyIsGod]

:(

Get well Looter.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Pulling for Deuce...

He survived Katrina, he'll survive this.

[Jekka]

Poor puppy! I'm sure he'll be okay, I know you guys will do everything you can. Good luck with keeping him still!

[Kori Ellis]

Thanks.


Good luck with keeping him still!

Yeah that's going to be the chore. We are fortunate that we both work from home. The biggest trouble is going to be keeping him from running up and down the stairs, which he does recklessly and wildly everyday for no reason :lol

His heart wasn't enlarged or anything in the X-ray and the lungs were mostly good... so hopefully it goes smoothly. These couple weeks of antibotics are supposed to help the treatment be easier on him. Hopefully it won't be that horrible.

[marini martini]

Our lab, Rocky lived 12 years afrer being diagnosed. You got lotsa Lab fun time.

[MannyIsGod]

As sad as it may be to see him in one, maybe one of those kennels would be a good idea where you can enclose him in during the time frame for which he can't move.

[Kori Ellis]

As sad as it may be to see him in one, maybe one of those kennels would be a good idea where you can enclose him in during the time frame for which he can't move.

Because he's a freak from Katrina, he panics badly in those small kennels/cages. So, that will probably make him his heart race too much. He's pretty calm most of the time when we are here and no one is over. I'm going to just have to leash him if he wants to leave the computer room :lol so that he can't run.

[Kori Ellis]

Our lab, Rocky lived 12 years afrer being diagnosed. You got lotsa Lab fun time.

:tu Good to know. Thanks!

[FromWayDowntown]

All of the best to Deuce!!

[Das Texan]

Get well soon Looter!

[Trainwreck2100]

Bah my dog lived many a year after his heartworm diagnosis, fuckin parasites.

[sabar]

Cat keeps getting tapeworms from fleas and is still fat. Useless parasite.

[duncan228]

It sounds like you caught it early. It's supposed to be successfully treatable when caught early.
Your Vegas trip paid off with more than just a vacation.

Try baby gates at the top and/or the bottom of your stairs. They might help keep him from running up and down them.

I'll be thinking of you all, you've got a long few months ahead of you.

[whottt]

My dalmatian I had got them 2 different times and I had to get him this blood filter treatment(at $500 a pop)...they said the same thing, that can break off or something and get into his lungs...

Worked both times, completely cleared him of them and after having to shell out that @#@#$ the second time I mad sure he never missed his damn heartworm medicine again.


Your dog'll be fine. I think the thing is if they don't actually have them in their heart, then that traveling to the lungs stuff doesn't happen.



I will say this...dogs in Texas get heartworms really easily because of all the freaking moquitoes...so you really have to stay on that medicine and make sure they keep taking it.

[whottt]

For the flipside of this...I got a 90 year old grandma, she eats bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast, she eats freaking everthing...including all the stuff they say you shouldn't eat...and she's still going strong. She's been overweight since about 1940(and uses the same skillet that she had back in 1940)....anything cooked in her kitchen gets a huge ass batch of old grease poured on it...even if I am cooking something for myself she'll sneak in there and throw that grease on it...it's good too.

What does this have to do with dogs?


Because she never takes her dogs to the vet, they live outside all the time, they never get bathed(other than a good spraying with the water hose) or treated for fleas...they are all overweight because they have big food bowl that's never empty...plus she'll give them table scraps like mofo...including whole plates of freezer dried ground beef...

Their water bowl is this big bowl in the backyard that's got this thick coating off moss in it(and hasn't been rinsed and cleaned since about 1965)...


And she's never taken a damn dog to the vet in her life...




And every freaking dog she has lives to be 15-18 years old. I mean every one of them...not just her dogs but her cats live to be like 20(she does take the cats to the vet though to get them spayed and neutered and for rabies shots, since hte fence won't keep them in).


I don't know what she does ..but I've seen too many of her dogs(and cats) live way past the age dogs are supposed to live to think it's just a fluke. Every dog she has lives to be 15 minimum. Heartworms, or not. And the mosquitoes in her back yard are bad...and so are the fleas(those dogs are always loaded with fleas)...I am pretty sure they get heartworms because of all those mosquitoes and feas)but they live long lives and they are happy ass dogs, that eat good and that are never alone(because since her dogs all live to be 15 she usually has 4 or 5 of them at a time)...

Maybe it's the moss in the water bowl...but something makes those dogs live long. I had a couple of dogs get sick when they got old and I moved them over to her house...sure enough, they got better and lived longer than I thought they would. There's something to what she does.


Make of this info what you will...

[SA Gunslinger]

Beautiful dog. I hope everything works out ok.

[polandprzem]

Yea I mean blood test? X-Ray?

It's a dog not a human.

And what whottt said - you have no reciept for health and long living

[J.T.]

Our dog got heartworm when she was only two or three years, and she lived about another decade after that. He should pull through fine if you take good care of him.

Both of my labs eventually developed cancer, and my dad spent $1000 on an operation to keep one of them going longer. The vets said they could remove the cancer, and even though he was pretty old at the time, after that operation it was like he was a pup again. Though six months later he got another tumor and we had to put him down for good that time. At least heartworm is treatable. Cancer is the big bad dog killer these days.

Hope your dog is okay Kori.

[angel_luv]

I'll keep Deuce in my prayers.

He is an awesome dog. :)

[inconvertible]

http://www.petshed.com


Kori, these guys are in Australia and you don't need a prescription from a vet.
I have been using them for years and they are very inexpensive.

;)

[samikeyp]

Stay strong Deuce!

[mrsmaalox]

I'm sorry about your dog, Kori! But there sure are alot of positive messages here so I'm thinking there's a good chance everything will turn out okay. Thanks for posting it because as much as I love my animals I haven't been as vigilent about the heartworm thing as I should be, so we will be heading to the clinic this afternoon! Also, have you considered some kind of "calming" medication for your dog? Nothing too strong, just a little something to take the edge off.

[Evan]

Your pup will be fine. No worries.

Even the SPCA will let you adopt a dog with heartworms since it is so curable.

Pick up poo right away from the backyward. Be religious with medication...keep a chart of what you give and when.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Sorry to hear that though it serves as a good reminder that I need to refill Jonah's meds for that. It's February and it's mosquito season again. Ridiculous.

[1Parker1]

Thanks.



Yeah that's going to be the chore. We are fortunate that we both work from home. The biggest trouble is going to be keeping him from running up and down the stairs, which he does recklessly and wildly everyday for no reason :lol

His heart wasn't enlarged or anything in the X-ray and the lungs were mostly good... so hopefully it goes smoothly. These couple weeks of antibotics are supposed to help the treatment be easier on him. Hopefully it won't be that horrible.


Get one of those baby barrier doors for the stairs, kitchen, etc.

[travis2]

Just get it done and do the treatments. All will be well. We've had to go through this as well.

[midgetonadonkey]

One of my mom's dogs is going on 7 or 8 years after she first got diagnosed with heartworms. Your dog will be alright. Good thing it was caught early.

[Sonia_TX]

Deuce is adorable. He reminds me of my black lab, Tyson. As your quote says "Do What You Gotta Do" and he'll be just fine. :)

[td4mvp21]

This happened to my dog like a year or two ago, she's a black lab. We had to keep her inactive for a month and we had no idea how to do that because she was pretty wild. She was an outside dog and we just brought her inside and kept her in one room all the time and she just laid down and rested most of the time. She did pretty good. She's fine now and, like with your dog, they caught it early. Hope your dog recovers well and good luck :tu

[Pistons < Spurs]

Get well soon Deuce!!!

[SpursWoman]

Get well soon, Looter!

[Shelly]

:( Get well soon, Deuce!

[tlongII]

Take care of your dog dammit! Unbeavable.

[stretch]

For the flipside of this...I got a 90 year old grandma, she eats bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast, she eats freaking everthing...including all the stuff they say you shouldn't eat...and she's still going strong. She's been overweight since about 1940(and uses the same skillet that she had back in 1940)....anything cooked in her kitchen gets a huge ass batch of old grease poured on it...even if I am cooking something for myself she'll sneak in there and throw that grease on it...it's good too.

What does this have to do with dogs?


Because she never takes her dogs to the vet, they live outside all the time, they never get bathed(other than a good spraying with the water hose) or treated for fleas...they are all overweight because they have big food bowl that's never empty...plus she'll give them table scraps like mofo...including whole plates of freezer dried ground beef...

Their water bowl is this big bowl in the backyard that's got this thick coating off moss in it(and hasn't been rinsed and cleaned since about 1965)...


And she's never taken a damn dog to the vet in her life...




And every freaking dog she has lives to be 15-18 years old. I mean every one of them...not just her dogs but her cats live to be like 20(she does take the cats to the vet though to get them spayed and neutered and for rabies shots, since hte fence won't keep them in).


I don't know what she does ..but I've seen too many of her dogs(and cats) live way past the age dogs are supposed to live to think it's just a fluke. Every dog she has lives to be 15 minimum. Heartworms, or not. And the mosquitoes in her back yard are bad...and so are the fleas(those dogs are always loaded with fleas)...I am pretty sure they get heartworms because of all those mosquitoes and feas)but they live long lives and they are happy ass dogs, that eat good and that are never alone(because since her dogs all live to be 15 she usually has 4 or 5 of them at a time)...

Maybe it's the moss in the water bowl...but something makes those dogs live long. I had a couple of dogs get sick when they got old and I moved them over to her house...sure enough, they got better and lived longer than I thought they would. There's something to what she does.


Make of this info what you will...

:ban:

[miss paxton]

Years ago we adopted a chocolate lab mix and they discovered he had heartworms in the checkup they do right afterwards. At the time I recall the treatment involved arsenic, which sounds awful. You're right, the hard part is keeping them quiet. We crated him but he absolutely hated it and I ended up just keeping him in our bedroom with the door shut and staying with him when he went outside so he couldn't run. He lived for nine years after that, and he was no puppy when we got him.

[LuvBones]

Kori I know how you're feeling.. I'm treating one of our dogs for that right now. He's about a month and a half into his treatment. It does suck knowing it's going to be months before they can run around like normal again. It's very hard to keep him still, and he's ran around outside a few times. He looks excellent though, he's taking the treatment very well. If your dog went through Katrina then this will be nothing for him. I wish you the best! The treatment they have now for heartworms is a lot better so don't worry!

[LuvBones]

Also, like Whott was pointing out.. I never understood how some of the dogs we see at the clinic I work for are on a raw diet, have all their vaccines, are completely pampered and end up dying at 6 years old. So many dogs that we see have cancer and tumors... it's just crazy! My dad had dogs in Mexico that never saw a vet and lived to be very, very old!

[RashoFan]

Long Live Duece! Get well soon!
We are doing heartworm treatment on all of our cats just in case.

[marini martini]

Long Live Duece! Get well soon!
We are doing heartworm treatment on all of our cats just in case.


Cats????????????? I didn't know they could get heartworms :rolleyes

Nevermind, just googled & they do :wakeup

[Kori Ellis]

I'm bumping this thread to give an update.

Deuce hasn't even been able to start the heartworm treatment shots yet.

There's something wrong with his platelet count.

Normally, it's supposed to be 250K-500K.

Last month it was 140K. They gave him 3 weeks of antibotics and it should have improved.

Last week it was under 50K.

If it gets below 40K, then it's dangerous and he could start spontaneously bleeding. :( :( :(

They thought the platelet test machine could have been reading it wrong (if it was clumping too much) but they sent his blood to a special lab and unfortunately the count was accurate.

Now, I am waiting to talk to the vet about what else could be wrong. They have already tested for the basic other stuff.

At least he still doesn't have any symptoms.

:(

[duncan228]

I'm so sorry Kori. It's good that he has no symptoms but it must be so hard to not know. It sounds like you're doing everything you can for him. I hope you find some answers and Deuce gets well.

[mookie2001]

I dont think americans should be allowed to own dogs as pets

[Pistons < Spurs]

Hang in there Deuce!

Hopefully they quickly diagnose what the problem is and get him back on the road to recovery.

[balli]

I don't really know you, but I'm sorry. I'll pray for deuces' full recovery.

[manufor3]

My dog, Deuce, has heartworm. I don't want any lectures about me neglecting his prevention treatment. And I certainly don't want to hear about any horror stories of your dog dying from heartworm in the past. (In fact, I'll probably ban you if you post such a thing :lol).

Basically the deal is that he doesn't have any symptoms. But when I went to pick him up from the boarder/vet after we came back from Vegas, they ran a routine blood test and found it. Today, they did the chest/heart X-ray, plus a bunch of bloodwork and it looks like they caught it early enough. But the next 3 months are going to suck.

He has to be on antibotics for the next few weeks to get his platelet count up. Then he'll undergo 2 days of shots/treatment in the hospital. Then for a month, we can't let him run or get active (I don't know how I'll manage that). This period will be the dangerous part because if the heartworms travel into his lungs, liver, etc, something bad will happen :(

Then after that month, 2 more days of shots, then another month rest. Basically we'll have to be home with him pretty much all the time to keep him calm - so we won't be able to go anywhere.

Anyway, it freakin' sucks :cry

Make sure your pets stay on their prevention treatments. :(

That's all.

--Kori

http://spurstalk.com/deucec.jpg

aww thats sad :cry :cry :cry

[mrsmaalox]

Gosh that's tough! Now the heartworm diagnosis is for sure? Is it possible this blood dyscrasia has skewed that result? I hope this gets figured out soon, it must be awful for you! :(

[Kori Ellis]

Gosh that's tough! Now the heartworm diagnosis is for sure? Is it possible this blood dyscrasia has skewed that result? I hope this gets figured out soon, it must be awful for you! :(

Yeah the heartworm diagnosis has been confirmed by blood tests and x-rays.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes. I'm sure they will figure it out soon. Hopefully it's something minor that they can treat by medication. I don't want his platelets to keep dropping so rapidly.

[Ginofan]

Deuce will definitely be in my prayers, get well soon! Please keep us updated when you can Kori.

[spurschick]

Oy! It sucks when the kids get sick. Hang in there.

[Shelly]

Get well soon, Deuce!

[marini martini]

What a .
beautiful dog. Deuce is in my prayers. And if he doesn't pull through, just know that you have given him the best year(s) of his life !

God bless!

[angel_luv]

I will pray for Deuce and will put in a prayer request for him at church as well.

Give him a pet for me.

[RashoFan]

Give Duece a hug for me. I will keep him in my prayers for a quick recovery.

[travis2]

:depressed

[tlongII]

Can we have a "Follow Deuce's Recovery" thread?

[Sportcamper]

While he is receiving treatment, find a good pet therapist in your area so that Deuce understands that none of this is his fault…

[jman3000]

man... i remember my dog used to poop out these fat, short worms.

bad memories.

[LuvBones]

Kori I'm sorry to hear about Duece. :( I hope they figure out the next step for him soon.

[Sonia_TX]

I'm bumping this thread to give an update.

Deuce hasn't even been able to start the heartworm treatment shots yet.

There's something wrong with his platelet count.

Normally, it's supposed to be 250K-500K.

Last month it was 140K. They gave him 3 weeks of antibotics and it should have improved.

Last week it was under 50K.

If it gets below 40K, then it's dangerous and he could start spontaneously bleeding. :( :( :(

They thought the platelet test machine could have been reading it wrong (if it was clumping too much) but they sent his blood to a special lab and unfortunately the count was accurate.

Now, I am waiting to talk to the vet about what else could be wrong. They have already tested for the basic other stuff.

At least he still doesn't have any symptoms.

:(

Kori, My dog Chula had the same problem. I think her platelet was down to 40K and she would have bruises (or what looked like bruises) all over her body. The vet still hasn't figured out what the problem is and it's been since March 2005. He prescribed Prednisone and an antibiotic and that seemed to help but of course it isn't great for her heart. She ended up putting on a lot of weight (she's a chihuahua and probably gained about 4 lbs on her little body) because of the steriod. We stopped giving her the medication about 1 year ago when the spots went away and only give it to her when she gets them. We notice they usually occur when she gets excited (usually due to having company over). It's the oddest thing. If they find out what is wrong with Deuce maybe we can pass it on to our vet. He always checks on her but still finds nothing.

edit: She hasn't had the bruising problem in a few months...yay! I can't remember the last time we gave her the meds so that's good. I hope Deuce gets better soon too.

These were the first pictures taken of her after we noticed the problem. She had blood drawn from her neck and when we brought her home we noticed her skin was sagging and full of blood under her neck.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/saratoddla/Pets/small0311006.jpg

A few days later:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/saratoddla/Pets/small0320006.jpg