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Mojo Request Please

pansmom

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pansmom Newbie

pansmom

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Please keep Vala in your thoughts today and tomorrow. She's at the vet getting the second part of her heartworm treatment--the two shots, two days in a row. I'm worried about her. :rolleyes:

 

We started doxycycline-IVM cycling nine months ago, with some okay results (no larvae in her blood anymore and a great relief from symptoms by December), then we did her first Immiticide shot right after Christmas. She was so much better after her initial reaction to that shot, with zero heartworm symptoms, this spring, that we had hoped she would never need the second part of the treatment. But a month or so ago, she started having symptoms again (light panting, a few days of light wheezing, occasional coughing), so we put her back on the doxy --though it was supposed to be an off time-- and got her a steroid shot, to stabilize her and prepare her to finish the treatment. I had hoped to be able to do the slow kill method, but have decided against it for two reasons. One, I am three months pregnant and think it would be better to focus on curing her sooner, while I can focus on her alone, rather than later. And two, when she feels sick, she is more nervous (skittish and sound reactive), and I hate seeing her like that. I feel so bad for her, when she is clearly feeling unwell and worried.

 

Hopefully, all this DOXY-IVM cycling and the first Immiticide shot will have killed off enough of the worms, that she won't have a bad reaction to the two shot treatment. But she had a pretty bad case when we got her. So mojo please?

 

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Malvie Newbie

Malvie

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Mojo headed your way on all counts.

 

My neice is due August 26 (I'll be a great-uncle, not sure how I feel about that but I'm looking forward to having Peyton Virginia around to spoil...).

 

Bessie starts her heartworm course this week.

 

I'm right there with ya.

 

(and speaking of reactive, we are having a HUGE thunderstorm right now and the "natives are restless". We're sending it your way...;-)

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pansmom Newbie

pansmom

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Thanks everyone!

 

Update: she'd never stayed overnight at the vet before, so I talked to a vet tech about night procedure and found out no one checks on them except a walker. I asked if she could stay the night here with us, with that in mind, and since she spent the whole weekend at my in-laws' (we had to go get a bunch of baby stuff for the nursery from a friend in Dallas). The vet okay'd it, so she is here, alternately lounging on the bed with me (I lift her up onto it), lying on the floor at my feet in here, or kenneled up. We're about to go to bed, she just ate her dinner all up (healthy appetite), and she's about to get another frozen kong stuffed with peanut butter. She seems to be fine except panting a bit. Don't think it's thromboembolism. Her gums are pink, and she's not in shock or coughing. And I hope it's not pain; they gave her some Tramadol for that earlier today and said she wouldn't need another until tomorrow. Tramadol or cortizone side effect maybe? I read panting is a side effect of both. She does seem slightly loopy. Anyway tomorrow she goes back for the second shot, then comes home at 4:30 for good.

 

Please keep your fingers crossed and keep the mojo/prayers/thoughts coming!

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pansmom Newbie

pansmom

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Thanks all! She is home again tonight, with 4 prescriptions: Tramadol for pain, Rimadyl for pain, doxycycline for protein inhibition to decrease the incidence of thromboembolism due to heartworm death, and another drug for the diarrhea she developed on the way out of the vet's... Her hair was falling out too though so I think it was likely just nerves, but I figured better safe than sorry so as soon as I saw it I walked her back in to be seen one last time. She's not eating anything but stuffed kongs and even that snacking only lightly, but I think her hunger will come back as she feels better. She's on a lot of drugs right now and probably in pain too. But she's here and seems happy to be lying around at home. Which is good since that's all she'll be doing for the next month... :rolleyes:

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pansmom Newbie

pansmom

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Today she seems fine, I think the lack of eating was from the Tramadol. She seemed fine this morning, perky and not panting or licking her lips at all (probably thrilled she wasn't going back to the vet again, LOL), so I didn't give her the Tramadol which makes her sooo loopy and wild-eyed, I only gave her the Rimadyl--called the vet and they said that was fine. So today she ate, and she is bright eyed and bushy tailed (tail up, feeling playful). Sleeping more than usual but that's awesome since she's supposed to rest and stay put. I'm glad there's been no initial reaction. It looks like I just have to worry about keeping her still and getting her through all the heartworm death in a week or two.

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Malvie Newbie

Malvie

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Everybody went to the vet today (man, am I broke....). Lucy and Ethel, clean bill of health, everything's groovy. They need their teeth cleaned, but that can come later.

 

Poor Bessie tested "very positive" for the heartworms. I came home with a month's supply of Doxy, which she starts tomorrow morning. After that's over (we made an appointment for June 28), she gets the first shot. End of July, the 2nd and third shots, then a month of the crate plus walking on the leash to potty (that's going to be hard on both her and me), then a retest.

 

I HATE YOU, MOSQUITOES! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT OR THE FOOD CHAIN, YOU NEED TO BE EXTINCT! YOU GAVE MY LITTLE DOG HEARTWORMS, YOU WRETCHED INSECTS!!!

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pansmom Newbie

pansmom

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Everybody went to the vet today (man, am I broke....). Lucy and Ethel, clean bill of health, everything's groovy. They need their teeth cleaned, but that can come later.

 

Poor Bessie tested "very positive" for the heartworms. I came home with a month's supply of Doxy, which she starts tomorrow morning. After that's over (we made an appointment for June 28), she gets the first shot. End of July, the 2nd and third shots, then a month of the crate plus walking on the leash to potty (that's going to be hard on both her and me), then a retest.

 

I HATE YOU, MOSQUITOES! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT OR THE FOOD CHAIN, YOU NEED TO BE EXTINCT! YOU GAVE MY LITTLE DOG HEARTWORMS, YOU WRETCHED INSECTS!!!

 

That's how Vala tested too initially (4+ on the slide--that's just the microfilariae -- larvae -- but a high presence of larvae usually means a high presence of adults). We had the exact same plan as you except we treated her with doxy for 4 months before doing the first treatment, and then she had just had a thromboembolism scare when it was time for her to go back for the two shots, so we put it off with more IVM/DOXY cycling in between. Are they having you give her heartworm preventative too now (IVM)?

 

How bad are her symptoms? Doxycycline made a huge difference in Vala's energy level. When we first got her, she was super lethargic, but after doxycycline, she had a spring in her step and started to run... Even as late as a month ago, if she started coughing or panting at night, I just put her back on the stuff and the symptoms would go. Supposedly the stuff destroys the ability of the wolbachia, a bacteria which is symbiotic with the adult heartworms, to synthesize protein, which in turn seems to negatively affect the heartworms somehow. It's crazy how much better Vala feels on the doxy. I wonder if Bessie will show more energy once she's on it.

 

Are you going to have to do crate rest + leash walking to potty only for the month after the first shot too? (In our house, because I just separate Vala from the other pets, she doesn't have to do crate rest--she gets to wander about the house with me and lay down wherever I am. But I can imagine if you have two other dogs, I can see why she'd need crate rest. But it was after both the first shot, and the double shot treatment. Thankfully Vala is very silly and sweet and her strongest drive is, simply, to be pet, so she doesn't seem miserable.)

 

As for the mosquitoes, I direct my hatred not at them, but the wretched worms themselves. Their name is even insidious: dirofilaria immitis. Doesn't that just sound vile? I would be fine if they went extinct. But noooo. The only things going extinct are regional lizards and intriguing rainforest creatures...

 

ETA: Helpful hint, Doxycycline tastes BAD. If Vala ever bites into it and gets it on her tongue, she froths at the mouth something awful, and then shuns whatever food I hid it in for a month. Recommend if Bessie will take pill pockets or tends to devour portions of meat whole that you hide it in that. At this point Vala, who is a picky eater, is so onto my tendency to hide it in tiny portions of reduced fat hot dogs, that she picks them apart and leaves the pills on the floor. (Before this, during the nine months she's been cycling on and off of doxy, I have tried hiding the pills in peanut butter on my fingers, hiding the pills in pill pockets, hiding them in portions of fat free ham, and several other schemes which were each ruined when she bit into a pill.) Now I have to put the pills in some peanut butter, place it on the roof of her mouth, and hold her mouth shut so she swallows. I cannot WAIT until she's off this stuff! And thank goodness Rimadyl is chewable! She thinks it's a treat, WHEW!

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flyer Newbie

flyer

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Today she seems fine, I think the lack of eating was from the Tramadol. She seemed fine this morning, perky and not panting or licking her lips at all (probably thrilled she wasn't going back to the vet again, LOL), so I didn't give her the Tramadol which makes her sooo loopy and wild-eyed, I only gave her the Rimadyl--called the vet and they said that was fine. So today she ate, and she is bright eyed and bushy tailed (tail up, feeling playful). Sleeping more than usual but that's awesome since she's supposed to rest and stay put. I'm glad there's been no initial reaction. It looks like I just have to worry about keeping her still and getting her through all the heartworm death in a week or two.

 

Man, I just read your posts and shake my head. You have been through so much with your dogs. Again I tip my hat to you and will hold good thoughts everything continues to go well for Vala.

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