My dog has heartworm

[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]

[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.


A few days later: