Sunday, August 2, 2009

I just found out that my dog has heartworms. Any advice on tratment?

i know that we will treat her with what the vet advises, but I don't know how it will work, or how she will be acting during treatment, etc. Any help or advice on how to help her through this will be much appreciated.
Answers:
Treatment depends on the severity of the worm load. You really need to discuss this with your vet. Generally in a healthy dog, the cure rate is very good. They have to be kept quiet during treatment. I've never heard of using arsenic or surgery though.

7
take him to the vet its the only way
These are definitely questions you should discuss with your vet.
I would suggest Revolution. That is what I use on my dog and he has not ever had a problem with worms. Hope this helps
surgery and heatworm preventitive are your only options. my dog had heartworms and got on the pill and they actually went away. and shes now eight years old and healtheir now than she ever was.
I've seen this a few times with foster dogs. Your dog will stay at the vet for 3 days and then get two injections of arsnic 24 hours apart. For the next 6 weeks your dog cannot run or jump and can only be leash walked. You will need a crate to keep her quiet. The now dead worms will be traveling to her lungs and dissolving. Any jarring can cause them to break apart, enter her arteries and block them causing her to die. You can have the vet do an x-ray first to see how bad they are. After 6 weeks she will take a liquid ivermectin that will kill the babies and then monthly afterwards you need to give a heartworm preventative so this doesn't happen again.

DO NOT follow advice that I saw some people say to just give the preventative now. If they are larger all of them dying at once can kill your dog. Only follow your vets advice. I am not giving medical advice, just sharing the treatment I have seen other dogs go through.
Please do not listen to people on here. Get the first treatment from the vet and discuss with them. Keep you dog on lead and in a crate you do not want the heart rate up. Barking is not getting hte heartrate up.

Added:

And we have another "vet tech" Whos dog had suregery and a pill. certainly isn't a vet tech. Thanks for proviong yourself an absolute idiot. It is not surgery and it is not a pill its a shot of rat poison in the spin. My teenage daughter can explain heartworm better than you and how dare you .

You dog should be fine But please make sure its a vet at the vet office do not listen to people on here.

It two short stays in the hospital and its because they monitor the arsenic injected in the spine. Katie has a decent answer
The medicine (shots) the vet will use to kill the heartworms will make your dog sick, our vet hospitialized our dog to get rid of them. Our dog wouldn't eat anything while the treatment was going on, and she threw everything up also. Give your dog lots of love, it's going to need it. good luck
i am very sorry my uncles dog had heartworms and it was not treated fast enough you need to get her medical treatment immediatly no time to spare good luck and god bless
Since you went to the vet they probably gave you pills or a look-like-a-treat medicine for it. If it is early in the stage, you have nothing to worry about. It sounds like it is early, you shouldn't have nothing to worry about, just take your dog to the vet when the medicine is gone as directed to be taken and get him/her rechecked afterwards. Do what you do on a normal bases, walk the dog more since he/she will need to go on a timely bases (not distance wise but like going out 4 or 5 times a day)
This website will probably explain it better than I can:
http://www.dr-dan.com/heartwor1.htm...

Basically intravenous or intramuscular injections will be given to slowly kill the worms. Xrays may need to be performed to assess the condition of the heart and lungs.

Chalice
GO TO THE VET !!!!!! thay halp dogs and cat ETC.
Your vet will definitely give you his recommended course of action, depending on which stage of heartworm your dog has. There are 4 stages, 1 and 2 being the best recovery rate. MAKE SURE you follow your vets instructions to the letter after the arsenic injections and do not allow your dog to get stressed. Most complications from heartworm treatment are due to either stress from nervousness or stress on the heart from activity. Your dog will act normally and will want to play and do all the normal activities, which of course, you cannot allow it to for a few weeks.
take him to the vet

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