Reply With Quote
Get well Looter.
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).
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
Make sure your pets stay on their prevention treatments.
That's all.
--Kori
Get well Looter.
Pulling for Deuce...
He survived Katrina, he'll survive this.
Poor puppy! I'm sure he'll be okay, I know you guys will do everything you can. Good luck with keeping him still!
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
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.
Our lab, Rocky lived 12 years afrer being diagnosed. You got lotsa Lab fun time.
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
Good to know. Thanks!
All of the best to Deuce!!
Get well soon Looter!
Bah my dog lived many a year after his heartworm diagnosis, in parasites.
Cat keeps getting tapeworms from fleas and is still fat. Useless parasite.
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.
My dalmatian I had got them 2 different times and I had to get him this blood filter treatment(at $500 a pop)...they said the same thing, that can break off or something and get into his lungs...
Worked both times, completely cleared him of them and after having to s out that @#@#$ 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.
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...
Last edited by whottt; 02-26-2008 at 03:22 AM.
Beautiful dog. I hope everything works out ok.
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
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.
I'll keep Deuce in my prayers.
He is an awesome dog.
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.
Stay strong Deuce!
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.
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.
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.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
