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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.

 

I know. I could've gotten a rescue with a clean bill of health (already treated for heartworms, or kept on preventative), but Vala was sooooo sweet... I had to adopt her! Hopefully she'll be fine (knock on wood) and in a couple months we'll have the sweetest dog in the world, who will also be healthy! She is such a great dog, seriously, you should see her with children, she really deserves a long healthy life, she's such a sweetheart.

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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!

 

 

Well, several good things in my and Bessie's favor:

 

1. She is one high-energy Border Collie. Other than the panting, you'd never know there was anything wrong. That girl has more energy than the old Houston Lighting and Power. She runs, she jumps, she barks, she chows down; a ball of fire. She chases balls too, and any marauding squirrels (and heaven help any cats who wander in). She runs the fence with her friends behind us. Nothing wrong with her energy. Vet said she did not have microfilaria, due to the IVM (Heartguard Plus) that she's been on for over a year.

 

2. She does NOT like being given pills, but since she is a greedy Bess and does not realize that the little chunk of hot dog contains a PILL, she just gulps the whole thing down YUM! Even when I'm administering the pill by hand, she's still a good dog; she comes, sits, and waits. She only starts to fight when she realizes I'm putting a nasty pill in her mouth.

 

3. She's only been on the Doxy for 2 days; I've not noticed any real difference in her energy level, but we'll see. Right now they're all snoozed at my feet.

 

4. Keeping her quiet for a month is going to be challenging. She's a high energy girl, she likes running (and she's *fast*), and it's going to be hard to keep her down. He said a month should do it. Maybe her case is not that bad??? Vet didn't indicate that she had to be quiet after the first shot, only after the 2nd/3rd. He did say she HAD to be air-conditioned during that month (we live in Houston, go figure....let's put it this way, *I* have to be air-conditioned in Houston in July and August....I'm going to have to get up at 6 tomorrow morning to mow my yard, can't do it after about 9).

 

5. I'll just have to let her out separately from the other two. They can do their usual hijinx in back and I'll take Bessie out the front door on a leash. It's funny how they've all accepted each other in the pack; Lucy is still the "Queen", but she graciously allows Bessie to THINK she is important....you can see her doing it, it's hilarious.

 

6. I just went to the doc today and he gave me 4 prescriptions (groan) for ME. Between these dang dogs and me, we're running up quite a bill....

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Malvie, good luck keeping that little ball of fire quiet! Also, don't be surprised if the vet adds that he wants her to stay pretty still (not strict cage rest, but stay indoors or on leash at all times) after the first shot. I got the same directions for both parts of the treatment. And my Vala got pretty sick from the first shot, which can cause thromboembolism in and of itself. So I'd be careful about that.

 

Vala is still doing well. We're on day six, and she has only hacked once, and is showing no signs of fever or thromboembolism.This time she seems less affected by the shots. I've been keeping her more quiet (knowing how much she was affected last time), but I am still feeling hopeful that we knocked a lot of the worms out with the first shot and nine months of doxycycline and IVM cycling.

 

Oh and P.S. I understand about your heat problem! I am almost four months pregnant, four hours to the southeast, in even more humid heat than Houston. Our poor dogs with their fur coats! Vala goes to bed at night with a fan pointed at her kennel in the summer!

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Malvie, good luck keeping that little ball of fire quiet! Also, don't be surprised if the vet adds that he wants her to stay pretty still (not strict cage rest, but stay indoors or on leash at all times) after the first shot. I got the same directions for both parts of the treatment. And my Vala got pretty sick from the first shot, which can cause thromboembolism in and of itself. So I'd be careful about that.

 

Vala is still doing well. We're on day six, and she has only hacked once, and is showing no signs of fever or thromboembolism.This time she seems less affected by the shots. I've been keeping her more quiet (knowing how much she was affected last time), but I am still feeling hopeful that we knocked a lot of the worms out with the first shot and nine months of doxycycline and IVM cycling.

 

Oh and P.S. I understand about your heat problem! I am almost four months pregnant, four hours to the southeast, in even more humid heat than Houston. Our poor dogs with their fur coats! Vala goes to bed at night with a fan pointed at her kennel in the summer!

 

I'll bet you got 'em.

 

GO VALA!

 

My nephew was born on July 4 (17 years ago...). My sister was as big as a barn and it was hot as Hell. We didn't know if he would get born before she killed all of us from sheer exasperation.

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