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I'm taking in my first foster in the very new future, and the dog I'm likely to get has tested heartworm positive.
I know that I'll be getting adequate support from both the rescue and the vet, but I was wondering if anyone had any personal experience or particularly helpful resources they'd like to share on heartworm treatment. I've not gone through this situation before, so I'm in research overdrive.
There are a number of threads relating to heartworms. Do a search for heartworms and you will see one from Stacy123 in June. You should find some helpful info on that thread. Thanks for fostering.
First, do you know what treatment method they'll be using? The quick kill method will require months of crating and as little activity as possible, no excitement. That method kills the worms fast which floods their system with the carcasses. If they get too excited or wound up, those worm bodies can clog the lungs and cause heart failure. If the dog is young and healthy, chances are there won't be much of a problem and the outlook is pretty good.
If they say the dog is light positive (we just adopted a female GSD that is light positive, so we're going through this treatment now) they can do a slow kill. In this method you just give your dog the monthly Heartgard preventative like you normally would. It can take a year or two to kill all of the worms, which is a year or two of them living off your dogs heart. It obviously can cause more damage to the heart so most vets still prefer the fast kill method.
In our situation, the dog we adopted was very light HW+ and in our house with all the other foster dogs and activity, keeping her kenneled and calm was a concern if we went with the quick kill. In our case it was decided that the slow kill method would probably be safest for her.
As SMX said, there are quite a few posts here about it. It's unfortunately much more common than it should be, seeing as how a single dose of meds a month is the difference between life and death. Makes you wonder why people can't just pu themselves out once a month, ya know?
And as said, thank you so much for fostering. To those of us doing rescue, it means so much!
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