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Cute pups! Love Stitch's ears. Hope Major finds a home soon.
Thanks, me too! Major's been with me a while (8 months now). He's a bit...."special needs" so I don't see him moving out any time soon. He's lucky that he's cute and I love him! Lol
Awww he's gorgeous (I love brindles). My rescue was heartworm positive when I got him. The rescue I got him from had me do the slow kill - basically 2x heartgard a month. He was heartworm free within six months. I never knew you could do it that way and he didn't need to be kept on lock down so you may want to ask your vet about it. I'm sure a lot has to do with how severe it is, though.
Either way, I'd probably leave him home for this trip.
Think about it. The heartworm meds will kill heartworms. They will be dead inside your new dog. The quiet time during the treatment is so that the body can slowly disintegrate those dead worms so they can't do any damage. If the dog is running around with the dead worms, those dead tissues have a high likelihood of breaking up and lodging somewhere very damaging. So 10 mile hikes are clearly out. The just rescued dog will be better off anywhere there will be low activity and low stress. Good luck. You don;t want the heart pumping too hard.
I'm with mom2bulldogs, Look into SLOWKILL method, its not as dangerous or taxing on the dog. and if hes only a weak positive id choose slow kill over the old method ANY day...
In terms of the vacation time...I do agree better to leave him home this time, expecialy being a rescue not conditioned to that kidn of excersize, id feel different if the dog were already used to hiking/walking long distance in that case id say take it easy and let him rest as needed, but given hes not conditioned AND HW+ id say let him recover first so hes in better shape to REALY enjoy it net time
First, I'd leave him with the sitter. He's going to go through a rigorous treatment, so let him rest now.
Second, my understanding is that there are two methods of treatment for heart worm: a fast one and a slow one.
We learned this when we adopted our shelter dog, and she hadn't yet been tested.
So, the fast one takes weeks, and requires the dog to be very quiet during that time.
But the slow method takes up to a year, and the dog can maintain a reasonably normal activity level. The slow method is also drastically cheaper.
I would love to hear from anybody who knows different. But this is what we were told by the shelter and their vet.
(Thankfully, our girl tested negative.)
that's pretty much it.
slow kill was always the choice for dogs with SERIOUS infestations as its much safer to have them die off slowly placing much less strain on the body than to have them all die in a short period.
Fast kill is the only currently "approved" method, however many vets are now choosing to go with the slow kill method
the slow kill method relies on preventing further reproduction of the heartworm parasite, the adults cannot produce new larve to grow the infestation and thus it maintains a low manageable level of the parasite, as the heartworms age (they don't have a super long lifespan) they die off one by one, allowing the body to easily shed the worms in much smaller numbers, less stress on the heart, less strain on the body...but...obviously it takes a long time for any young worms that were hatched before treatment to "age out" and die off...
you do still have to restrict serious excersize, no marathon running lol, and will often have some coughing after hard running...
in cases of low parasitic load theres also typically no lasting damage.
in advanced cases there can be lasting heart damage simply due to the heavy worm load (this can also happen with fast kill)
generally with serious worm loads vets may use a combination using 1 dose of regular fast kill" method to kill all the adults it can in a big swoop, then using slow kill to maintain and rid the body of the rest in a gentler way.
its definatly something to research as an option, again the "slow kill" method is not approved, however many ves are switching to this as their choice method.
Not to change the subject, but I've wondered about this slow kill method, since they always said giving heartworm preventive to a dog that already has heartworm is dangerous.
Your dogs are beautiful!
Not to change the subject, but I've wondered about this slow kill method, since they always said giving heartworm preventive to a dog that already has heartworm is dangerous.
Your dogs are beautiful!
Thanks!!!
So from I've been researching, the fast kill is the preferred method due to the fact that you're strictly monitoring the dog as the worms are dying off, and you know the time period that you need to be cautious of. The slow kill, is basically giving them Ivermectin over a period of time and letting them die off. The down side to slow kill is that it can sometimes take a couple of years for the worms to die off, so the worms are still there causing damage during that time, and you're not monitoring your dog's activity as much during this time, so there is still a risk of the dead worms causing problems as they're dying off.
I'll be doing the fast kill method as that's what both vets have recommended, and that's also the method that our rescue uses. He won't start treatment for a while, as we've got a couple of other dogs in the program that are HW+ and are waiting for treatment, so for now, we're just hanging out. Waiting our turn.
Super fun stuff.
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