[Dailydrool] Heartworm (slow kill)

[Jaclyn Chancey]

We did slow kill for Jake, who was 9 years old and in otherwise poor
health (glaucoma, overweight, rotting teeth) in addition to the
heartworms when we adopted her from my parents. This is after firing
one vet who basically told me to make Jake comfortable for the time we
had left. (She also got the lifespan of an adult heartworm wrong. That
did NOT inspire confidence.)

Jake also showed no heartworm symptoms and was not crate trained. She
had her first treatment at the vet's office: one shot of ivermectin
(Heartgard) and I think prednisone in case of inflammation or other
reaction. After that, she went on a monthly Heartgard regimen. She
never had any heartworm symptoms and went to the bridge at the ripe
age of 14. Obviously I think we made the right choice for her!

The vet I used had actually been doing this for many years because he
was a country vet whose clients often wouldn't pay for the more
expensive treatment. It works in two ways: First, it kills off baby
and juvenile heartworms in the blood. The dog can't transmit
heartworms back into mosquitos AND it can't get any additional adults.
(Baby heartworms have to go to a mosquito and back into the same or
different dog before they will mature to adulthood. This keeps a
mating pair of heartworms from quickly overwhelming a single host.)
Second, according to my vet, some research indicates that the
Heartgard shortens the lifespan of the adult worms, which is only a
few years to begin with.

We never noticed any heartworm-related lethargy with Jake, but she was
a championship sleeper and altogether mellow hound anyway. Good luck
to Hamilton, and congratulations on your new family member!

Jaclyn, with Abbie & Josh and the cats


> From: "Jim and Cassandra Vance" <jvance at stny.rr.com>
> Subject: [Dailydrool] Fw: Heartworm
>
> Hello,
>
> 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.
>
> We live in the Northeast so we have very limited exposure to heartworm and Hamilton is our first HW positive dog.  We have opted to NOT do the fast kill method but rather a weekly dose of heartgard coupled with doxycycline.  Our reasons are that Ham has never been crate trained and is very ornery when confined.  He is 6"ish".  He currently displays no coughing, fatigue, etc.  so we beleive his heartworm disease is at the lowest state.  Xray's show his heart is within normal limits with a slight right side enlargement.
>
> 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).
>
> Second, he experienced lethargy yesterday, is this common with Heartworm positive dogs?  We immediately took him to our vet but again, we live in an area where our vets do not see very many HW positive dogs so there hands on experience is very limited.
>
> Thanks for all the advice.
>
> Cassandra, Jim, Hamilton and all the other Bassets at our house!!