Well today I took Mia to the vet for her checkup. Everything was going great. We went ahead and did a heartworm test on her because of the outrageous amount of mesquitos we have had this year. I wasnt worried about it at all because we use Heartguard every month.

Well the test came back positive and to say the least is rocked my world. We went over what all of our options are and without hesitation I decided to start treatment on her immediately. My vet said that he has never treated a dog for heartworms and failed getting rid of them all. That brings me a little comfort, but with that being said, I can only think to back in the day to when a dog got heartworms they were as good as dead.

Mia just turned 6 and is not only a good hunting dog, but she is a huge part of my life. I just pray everything turns out good for her.

Today at the vet...

Sorry to hear that. Its rough for a few days but she'll pull through.

She'll be ok, TJ. We've come a long way since back then. Sorry to hear it tho.

Cute little girl!

Good luck bro. My father's lab has gotten heartworms three times while on heartgaurd. Heartgaurd paid for the treatment the first two times but now the dog is nine years old and the treatment would be too much for him to handle. I have one of my labs on proheart injection and he has never had heartworms. My other lab had heartworms when I got her. I have been treating her by giving her a stronger dose than needed of ivomectin every month. She is heartworm free now, just have not decieded if I will put her on the proheart injection or keep her on ivomectin. Heartgaurd is not worth a shit in my opinion. Anyway I wish for a full recovery for your pup.

Sorry to hear that shafer. I give Tee 1 CC of Ivomectin per month. They reccomend 1/10th of a cc per 10#'s. Does for 100# is good for him and me! I wish you the best of luck with the recovery Bud!

I got both my dogs on ivomec!!

Prayers sent for a speedy recovery.

We all know how expensive this treatment is... Did the Vet just do an occult test? Did they say how bad of a concentration it was? Hopefully they discussed options well, bc a dog can be positive for HW but not be so infested that it requires immediate treatment via the spinal injections. The worms have a reasonable life span, so you could change monthly preventative methods and allow the current worms to live and die off while hopefully no more adults returning to the blood stream.

And x2 about contacting heartguard if that's been your steady preventative.

Good luck to your pup.

Good looking girl. Glad you caught it. Hope the vet cleans her up for you. I will say a prayer for you both. They are family.
I give my dogs the liquid ivomec. We use 1 cc for labs and aussie's. Only ODed 1 dog on it...a yorkie that was about 6 lbs. and wife gave him 1/2 CC or more on accident...how the hell do you do that?

I pray that your pup comes back clear... All I give mine is ivomec also and I had a pit bull one time that had the red mains and gave him 1 cc a day for 60 days. It killed the red mains for a while but it never od him... I guess u can on some dogs

a vet told me .1 (1/10) cc of Ivomec for every 5 lbs of dogs. Thats what i give mine (Lil'bit, Tiny) Tiny is about 100 Lbs, Lilbit is about 75 Lbs. I haven't killed them yet.

You do alternative treatment and possibly prevent further infestation. However, heartworms that are present can live up to 2-3 years causing further damage. I had my Aussie treated with the immiticide last year and just went for her annual. She come back negative and put her on Proheart. She was on Interceptor religiously but I'm not sure if she received anything before we bought her as a pup.

I agree Heartgard sucks. My dad had two healers come back positive while on Heartgard. They paid for both treatment but it's still bullshit that they are having all these problems and don't fix the underlying reason.

If you expect any company to pay for treatment you need to have all the receipts and not have any discrepancies with dates in purchase history. Meaning, don't purchase a month and a day later than last time.

Well I was really uneasy after leaving the vet today. This was Mia's first visit to this vet. As some of you know we moved from Texarkana tonLongview a while back and this was our first attempt at finding a local vet. The clinic we went to today was highly recommended to us by a few trainers. Granted they were really nice and did fing the heart worms, but their method of treatment kinda left me feeling like I still didn't know what the outcome was going to be for her.

I called her old vet in Texarkana and told him that she had heart worms. He asked what all test they did and I told him that they just drew her blood and that they said that she had at least one fully mature heartworm in her. He could hear how upsets I was with the whole situation and said that I could bring her to him anytime I wanted and he would check it all out. So I'm going to make the 2 hr drive Thursday and see him. He said that he would test her and would be able to tell me how bad they were plus would X-ray her and if the infestation was bad enough we would be able to see them.

He also said that he would start treatment immediately instead of waiting three months like the other vet wanted to.

I'll let y'all know what happens Thursday, but I feel a lot better now that I'm going to see him Thursday.

Thanks for the kind words and the prayers.

Hate to hear that man, hope it works out ok for you, good luck on Thursday.

What the hell he wanted to wait 3 months for. They sure as hell aren't gonna go away on their own. If they test positive at the office they normally ask if you want to send a sample off to the lab to get tested. This should take about a week at most. I don't understand WTF he is thinking? You have any idea what the wait is for?

Your making the right choice going to the other vet. Treatment is 2 part, there is a medicine that kills adults and a medicine that kills larvae, these are given at the same time. If you wait till the larvae mature, they will just lay more larvae before they are killed off then you are stuck in a cycle.

My Dad's pup went through it a while back and I'm pretty sure that's what they did Paleo. Gave him something to kill the larvae and the adults. They also gave him sedatives and said to try to keep the dog from getting too excited and getting his blood pumping. Something about possibly clogging the arteries or something, I'm not really sure, just remember they wanted him to keep the dog as calm as possible for a week or so.

Shafer, sorry to hear about that. However, 1st thing - get in contact with Heartgard and they should cover most if not all the treatment.

Now for the bad part or not. She is a healthy looking dog and taken care of very well. Me being a vol for NOLA lab rescue, we see HW+ dogs all the time. The one I have now is over 5 and had HWs when I started fostering him. They did the quick kill method. We gave him doxycycline for 30 days. This sterilizes the female HW and kills off the young ones. Then, hit him with 1 injection, and 30 days later hit him with 2 injections in 24 hours. Just last week he was tested and he is clean of HWs.
Here is the kicker. She has to stay calm throughout the whole process. Over excitement could cause a pulmonary embolism. That is much worse than the HWs themselves. During the doxy time, the juvinile worms die and break up. If her hear pumps too much bits and pieces acn be pumped into here lungs. Too much can suffocate her. I witness this with my foster. He got over excited and 1 day later was coughing up blood. ALL STOP on activities. Went the rest of the procedure taking it very easy on him.

It's not hard to fix. It just takes time and patience. Good luck. I'm sure she'll do good and will be back to herself in 3-4 months.


OAN here is an interesting read about HWs.

yeah dude, the vet I called said she will have to lay around as much as possible during the recovery period. said when she goes outside she will need to be walked on a leash to keep her from running around and killing herself.

I dont think it will be too terrible... she's pretty laid back until she see's a bumper then it's balls to the wall (wait, that shit doesn't make any sense with a bitch does it???)

I'm just glad that it seems she will make it through this.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'll let yall know how it goes tomorrow.

I use ivomec on all my dogs. And safeguard(equine wormer) for all other worms. About a dime-sized serving of the paste on bread with the ivomec once a month works great. In twelve years of owning multiple dogs I've never encountered a worm on my yard except for one litter of pups that came to me from another yard.

You can get rid of the hear worms by keeping them on the preventative..which the active ingredient is ivomectin. So just go to the feed store and get some ivomec and give it to her she will be fine..

I have a very very expensive lab that had the same issue, the trainer i got him from had him sent in for his checkup and he tested positive to..something about the heartgeard he sais been having a lot of dogs come in positive.

Long story short, the vet was treating him with ivomectin so the do could still be worked....

if you treat with the expensive ass poison they give them it will cure them faster,,,,but you will not be able to use the dog or get them worked up for a month or so..

also, dont believe the hype about the shit being a surefire fix,,,my prior lab had to be treated twice!!!! yes, twice, at 600 dollars a pop....

But that could be just the damn vet in houma, come to find out he is notorious for being a ripoff...so dog is now and has been on ivomectin for 1yr after testing positive,,,,and low and behold last month i brought him in for a checkup at another vet and he tested negative!!! so out of experience,,,ivomec works!!!!

Go to your local feed store and buy a bottle of permethrin 10%. Mix it 2oz of solution to 24oz of water in a spray bottle. I spray the hounds, their house, and area with it at least every 2weeks during mosquito months. Once a month in winter because im in South Louisiana, the mosquitos dont ever leave here! Helps tremendously and is safe for your hound. Just don't spray in face, I spray it in my hand and rub their head and ears good. A trick an old-time Dogman showed me, in twelve years never had a problem. Also treats ticks, lice, and fleas.

Hope everything turns out ok w/ your pooch.

Does anybody know much about Tri-Heart? This is what my vet has had my dog on since he was a puppy, we havent had any issues yet. I am wondering if I should switch him to the ivomectin?

Immiticide will not kill the dog. It's embolisms that kill them. If you keep them calm or if the infestation is not significant there should be no problem.

Ivermectin does work as a preventative. It also can work as a cure. There are weekly high-dose protocols that can be followed and found online. Have dogs come back negative after a year of monthly standard dosages? Sure. Either way, it can clear a dog in a matter of mnoths or years. It all depends on infection numbers and dosage rates. The longer they are infected the greater chance of damage. If you aren't damn sure positive of concentration of worms, why take the chance?

Immiticide will not kill the dog. It's embolisms that kill them. If you keep them calm or if the infestation is not significant there should be no problem.

Ivermectin does work as a preventative. It also can work as a cure. There are weekly high-dose protocols that can be followed and found online. Have dogs come back negative after a year of monthly standard dosages? Sure. Either way, it can clear a dog in a matter of mnoths or years. It all depends on infection numbers and dosage rates. The longer they are infected the greater chance of damage. If you aren't damn sure positive of concentration of worms, why take the chance?

i would have to believe that if the dog is on preventative, and goes to the vet every 6 months to a year, it cant be that bad???....

Sorry to hear that. Keep the faith though, my mother has two dogs that she adopted with heartworms and both are doing well today. Hope everything turns out well for you. Godspeed

So looking at the Tri-Heart Plus box that my dog has always been on it says in Ivermectin underneath the Tri-Heart Title so I assume this is the same stuff yall are giving your dog?

Correct. If you read the concentrations of ivermectin in Ivomec and Triheart you can determine the amount of Ivomec needed through a little simple math. Although, for a few here this may be as simple as splitting atoms.

My brother just got a lab that that has very bad HW's. Put the dog on a 16 week cycle of medicine that has to be given twice a day, 3 different pills. Was told not to get the dog too excited, or pregnant, but that was it.

Well went to my old vet today. This dude is serious when it comes to preventing and eliminating heart worms. He checked her out, took x rays and did another heart worm test. The test came back negative. He said that most test that vets give have approx. a 10% false positive or negative results. He said the test that he gives is one of the best out there and he felt confident that she was negative. We looked over the x rays and he saw a couple of areas on her heart that looked a little odd but said he wouldn't think anything of it of she hadn't had a positive test result Tuesday. He said those areas that looked odd were most likely from them stretching the dog out while she's lying on her back. Said shit a lot of times looks weird when you do that to a dog for x rays. Just to be safe he sent a sample of her blood of to a lab for one more test. He said if it comes back positive we will treat her and if it comes back negative we will test her again in 3 months just to be safe. He didn't want to go ahead and treat her due to the fact that he didn't want me or her to go through the 3 month period of her having to take it extremely easy for nothing.

I took all this as very good news and can't wait till he gets the lab results back Monday. Again thank you guys for all the kind words. Comments like what you guys have made is what makes this place great!