Sunday, August 2, 2009

I just found out that my 2 year old dog has heartworms. can it be cured an will she live a happy life?

My dog is 2 years old an i found out 2day that she has heartworms. After the treatment from my vet will she be healthy an will they be completely gone? she shows no signs, they say they caught it early. she is still very playful an does not have shortness of breath. this makes me wonder. i still plan to give her the treatments just incase but my dog is my life i want to be sure she will be okay.
Answers:
Yes, my dog was around this age when I first adopted her and she was HIGH, HIGH, HIGH positive. Get the injections, it's the only proven method, and if you have a good vet, he/she will tell you that much! Yes, it is expensive, but it is worth it for your dog's health. And it's relatively cheap compared to most other intensive procedures. My dog was laid up the first night after both injections (a month apart). You will need to let your dog have peace and solitude for a whole month after both injections, to avoid any adverse reactions to the injection (it causes the heart to work over time to disintegrate the worms-- your dog's heart is doing the same work she would be doing running a marathon, even though she's standing still). And whoever above this post said that she will be constipated and she will poop out the worms... That isn't true at all! The heartworms disintegrate in the heart completely, and that it that (basically they're burned to death), and the heart is in no way connected to the digestive system, so that is just not true at all=)

Don't fret, your girl will be back to new and on to a happier, healthier life for years to come! Just be sure you give her a preventative every month after the treatment (I use Interceptor), so you don't have this problem again!
no
Yes, it can be cured. But it is hard to do it. You have to do everything the vet says.
I'm not sure, my dog had worms, but not heartworms, she may be very constipated if she is trying to get rid of them
Heart worm can be cured ,and as long as you are working with your vet all will be good. Keep up with the treatments and remember a follow preventative med afterwards to prevent it from coming back!
Yes, but it will be costly and take some time- but if you follow the vet's treatment, she will be fine. Next time, keep her on heartworm prevention (pills your vet can prescribe). Just one pill a month at a minimal cost to you will help this from happening again- good luck!
You can catch heartworm in time (and from the sounds of it you did!) and your vet is correct, she should be fine. Keep up with the heartworm prevenitive every month.
YES, it can be cured and she will be just fine aftwards. I did dog rescue for years and many of our dogs had heartworm. You will need to follow the vet's instructions and keep her quiet for sometime. Especially as you caught it early, she should have a full recovery and live a long healthy life. Of course, be sure to follow the vets instructions carefully and fully throughout treatment and afterwards.
im sorry to hear about your doggy!!! She'll be alright!! All it is are simple little pills she takes daily and thebheartwork should be cleared up in no time. Its especially good that they caught it early, it shouldnt do too much damage as long as you do the treatments ASAP.

Good luck, give your doggy a little pat for me:)
I love when people answer the question TOTALLY inappropriately - the asker's dog has HEARTworms, not just worms - ugh!

Heartworms are a very serious matter - you must follow your vet's advice to the letter and be cautious with your dog. Don't take her playfulness as a sign nothing is wrong -- my dog had her feet operated on and was bounding and bouncing the next day to the point where she was shaking and panting uncontrollably from pain... but just kept right on playing until I confined her. Dogs do not associate pain with play... they just do what they want to do regardless of pain.

Follow your vet's advice and don't double guess. Heartworms are very serious indeed.

Good luck
Your dog has a couple of things going for her - one that she's very young and the other that it was caught early. Your vet should be explaining the treatments to you - the first treatment is only to kill adult worms. She'll need antigen tests, then more therapy to kill the microfilaria.

Sounds like with the proper therapy, your dog will be ok.
Well just give her the recommended doesage of the medicine. They will go away and hopefully won't be back. That all depends if your dogs gets them again from wherever she got them from teh first place.
I was given a Lhasa Apso from a friend and found out by my vet she had heartworms. She showed no signs either, but it was there, and they caught it early. Don't take this lightly, and please let the vet treat her. My brother had a dog die from heartworms. It is an agonizing death. The thing is, the vet said by the time the dog starts acting sick, it is to late. I remember going to see Snow with my brother (That was her name) and she was gasping for breath and died that afternoon at the vets. Please give monthly heartworm preventative, which I do with all my dogs and I have 5. You will never have to worry about heartworms again. As for my Lhasa that I was given, it has been a year since her treatment and she is as frisky and vibrant as ever. Yes if caught early enough, they can lead a normal, healthy, life.
hey my dog had heart worms to and we talked to the vet and she was cured with some pills that they gave us so im sure if you talk to the vet then you can get the name of them and your dog can live a happy life!!!

hope i helped bree
Definitely let her have the treatments now. She is young, not showing signs of illness and therefore you can treat her NOW before she becomes infested and damage is caused to the heart muscle or elsewhere in the body. The treatment will be more successful too, because when dogs are badly infested, they often need more than one treatment and the treatment is hard on a dog.
Carefully follow your Vet's instructions when following up with heartworm preventative when he or she recommends it. It's important to give dogs the heartworm preventative YEAR ROUND.
My german shepherd had them also. She was 2 when she was diagnosed. However, her case was pretty advanced. She went through the treatment (and to stay at the vets for nearly a week), and afterwards she was very tired all the time. The vet explained that this was due to her heart healing. The worms do eat their way through, leaving little holes. Fortunately, she got totally better, and lived a long, happy, healthy life.

Please have your pooch treated as soon as possible. If she's healthy overall, and you follow your vet's instructions and advice, I'll bet she'll have a long, happy and healthy life, too.

Good luck!
she will be fine just follow what the vets say.

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