Heartworm POSITIVE and I am devestated

[jamierenae]

ok I try to get to the point as quick as I can I was kind of put into this situation with Border Collie/Mix I just adopted. She was a stray I didn't want a new dog yet since I just lost my black lab of 9 1/2 yrs to bone cancer last August I am still crying every single day. BUT I had agreed to foster a stray dog a rescue friend of mine took in in November just for a "few days" well the few days had turned into 5 month because they couldn't find her a home she is very dog aggressive and skiddish about humans too. She has come along way since I took her in but I don't have any experience with BC. ANyways long story short in November she was HW negative the rescue gave me nothing for her to keep her on HW meds and she now turned up HW+ last week. Just a few days after I was somewhat forced to either A) adopt her or the rescue was going to Euthanize this 15 mo. old dog because she was dog aggressive and a risk to adopt out. I wasn't going to let that happen so now I have her.

 

I am horrorfied I went to 4 vets already and some friends told me to do the SLOW KILL Method which is Doxy for 4 weeks and then just Heartguard. but all vets here refuse to do that and want to give her Doxy and IVERMECTIN which when I read about it really scares me. What should I do? Keep looking for a vet that offers the slow kill or take the risk with Ivermectin?

Has anyone here had a BC that has been HW+ ??? I am devastated I cant think about losing another baby so soon. I don't know what to do but I know I need to do something "soon"

 

THanks for listening I have some pictures of her on my Facebook Page I made

http://www.facebook.com/Bogimylove

 

she is a beauty and I think she is a border collie from what ive been told.

 

Thanks in advance for considering to answer me with tips.Mannie in Tampa

 

[Liz P]

I am not understanding why the dog wasn't on heartworm prevention?

 

The "slow kill method" is just a kind euphemism for not treating the dog. During the time you are waiting for the worms in her system to grow old and die, she could die herself or suffer irreversible damage.

 

If funds are tight I would suggest trying to raise the money to treat her.

 

The recommended treatment protocol can be found here.

[jamierenae]

because the rescue didn't provide any HW prevention the first few month then by the time they gave me some without retesting her it was too late the vet I took her to said most likely she was infected right before she was found in November thus the negative test then when I adopted her I asked my vet to just run a HW test and sure enough she was positive

funds are not tight hence the $11K I just spend on my lab last year that's not the problem the issue is I am horrorfied about the treatment with ARSENIC in it that just sounds very scary and one vet told me that dogs often die from this!

[Maralynn]

My aunt had a dog go through HW treatment last year. He had been on HW preventitive but still came up HW+. I'm pretty sure they used the latest recommended method (treated with doxy and something else first then followed up with the adulticide) and he came through fine. FWIW, her dog is around 10 and has infrequent seizures but was still okay throughout treatment and is back to a normal version of himself.

[jamierenae]

Mara thanks so much did they do the doxy and then waited a few weeks did a shot and then waited did the 2nd? See whats so confusing this is how one vet wants to do it which sounds somewhat okay but I took her to get a second opinion today this vet just wanted to do the 1st shot today and 2nd tomorrow and not even the doxy. he said it all didn't matter it mattered only that we kill all HW right away. This sounded really harsh. He was of course only $ 450 versus the first vet wanted $ 1200 but had overnight stays with monitoring of Simbi after each shot included.

[Maralynn]

I'm not 100% sure of the specifics but I'm pretty sure they used the treatment recommended in the link that Liz provided (scroll down the page in the link to find it).

[NorthfieldNick]

You're over-reacting. I'll just say it.

 

During routine bloodwork, my good working dog was found to be HW+. He wasn't on HW preventatives because I lived in an area where it wasn't recommended because of an incredibly low incidence of HW. He survived the months of crate rest and the injections just fine, aside from gaining some weight. Many, MANY dogs are treated for HW. My dog is now 10, sound & healthy as can be. He never missed a beat, went on to work nearly every day, run in trials, and is now enjoying a more-or-less retired lifestyle- my life changes being the cause, not his. He'd rather we were still raising sheep.

 

No known purebred Border Collie has been shown to have the mdr1-1delta mutation (the mutation that leads to the adverse reactive to ivermectin), at least from what I've read. Liz is correct in that the slow kill method is basically doing nothing.

 

Get to a vet, get the current best treatment, follow their protocols. The longer you wait to treat, the more likely the HW will cause problems.

[Liz P]

The link I provided has a detailed, step by step treatment protocol. Never had a dog do poorly on it (knock on wood). Find a vet who will follow that treatment plan and get her started. Is there a risk? Yes, but lower than doing nothing and hoping the worms fail to damage her body. Dogs tend to die because the heartworm infection was too much for their body OR an older, less safe treatment protocol was used.

 

Yes, the dog was probably infected before you got her if she tested negative in November and positive this month.

 

I guess my question came about because you said the rescue didn't give you pills. If they didn't provide food, would you not feed the dog?

[juliepoudrier]

Since no one has completely addressed this point, I will make it. The active ingredient in Heartgard is ivermectin. Many working dog folks use ivermectin as a heartworm preventive. There is a slight risk that your dog could have the mutation that makes it sensitive to ivermectin, but the risk is minimal compared to the damage that could be caused by heartworms. If your dog is under a vet's care and receiving ivermectin as part of a treatment plan, you shouldn't need to worry greatly about it.

 

J.

[simba]

Arsenic- the dose and the type of arsenic makes the poison. Leafy greens and rice often contain arsenic naturally, for example, it doesn't mean broccoli and kale are bad for you. Look at the safety of the actual drug itself, not the scariness of the name.

[Gideon's girl]

The dogs I've known of dying due to heartworm treatment were, one and all, because the owners didn't follow through on their part and allowed the dogs to run around when they were supposed to be on strict crate rest.

[Ancient_Dog]

Hi! I'm with All Border Collie Rescue in Texas....Heartworm Central. We rescue 250+ dogs per year . Over 30% we treat for Heartworm. We use the slow kill method on dogs that are old or in poor health and are high HW positive. Ones that are young, healthy and low HW positive we treat normally. We have good results with both methods. Your rescue should have a vet that provides a substantial discount for the treatments. If not....shop around.

 

On a side note: It's shameful that the rescue would treat you that way. Our dogs are always fully vetted and we treat dogs (not euthanize them) that are Heartworm positive. We supply Heartworm preventative to all our fosters year round. Our Vet bills last year were over $125,000 and we are proud that we adopt out healthy dogs. We solicit donations and work fundraisers to pay these vet bills. It's what we do as a responsible rescue.

[alligande]

My first dog was diagonosed with heartworm a couple of years after we had her, they think she most have only just got it when we got her, and heartguard kept its growth rate down. She was treated with the traditional 2 injections 24 hours apart, the first injection did cause her a lot of pain. She was not crated but kept in the house, and we just made sure she she did not run around. She lived till she was almost 15.