[Dailydrool] Fw: Heartworm

[R Groves]

You see.. this begs the questions on who in the hell came up with the fast
kill slow kill ideas in the first place? and don't they have ways to
quantify the suspected heartworm infestation?
 
My boy Riley came to me, was on preventative, but became *mild* heartworm
positive 6 months later.  I did a second test with my rescue's vet and
sought their recommendations too, simply because I was leery of my first
vet, whom I've now dropped and any time I get the chance tell people never
to use him...
 
But so back to the issues at hand ... we did "fast kill" with Riley, only
there were 3 treatments, rather than the two .... the first treatment he
reacted badly too, with lethargy and what I'd call general disassociation
with his self and surroundings .. and my suspicion was that the vetman had
not dosed him early morning like they were supposed to, but late afternoon
probably just before I picked him up as his lethargy came on him about 2
hours after pickup ... 
 
Anyway ... so he had the first dose, then one month later we did the 2
treatments back to back.  So... If an option... I would ask you vet if they
think that would work for you .. since the first dose obvious has to kill
off some of the worms, its possible that spreading the doses out like that
would kill enough the first time, and the rest the second/third treatment,
with a month or two in-between the first and 2nd doses, if that would be a
more gentle treatment regimen for him than a very slow, and potentially non
effective method... while not allowing the baby worms to grow I've never
heard of the adult worms just "dying off" I would expect they'd continue to
grow unless severely effected by the med in some way.
 
any of you Vet-Tech-Droolers out there that can help get some good info on
this and other ideas that your Vet Man/Woman elders would have would be nice
just to keep rattling around for the next time...
 
-Robert

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Subject: [Dailydrool] Fw: Heartworm
 
We've long been Basset Hound rescue folks, most recently fostering, etc. for
MABR.  We recently fostered, then wound up adopting, a heartworm positive
Basset who we named Hamilton Ackerman fog(fig)horn.
 
 My questions are two fold - how many of you have treated your Bassets on
this slow kill method?  From what I understand the heartgard prevents the
eggs from turning into worms and the worms in his heart will eventually die
in their own life cylce.  Therefore he still has worms in his heart (BAD).