| Additional information on heartworm
disease
Scenic Hills
Veterinary Hospital
1301, East Nine Mile Road
Pensacola, FL. 32514 • 850-477-6225
CANINE HEARTWORM TREATMENT
Heartworms live in the heart. Until a large number of heartworms
collect in the heart there are no symptoms. When symptoms develop,
it is too late to treat safety. The dogs that survive treatment
seldom recover completely. Dead heartworms are even more damaging
than live heartworms. A large number of worms dying at once
can cause death of the patient. Dogs generally tolerate one
live heartworm per pound of body weight without symptoms but
dead worms are about 10 times as dangerous. A 50-pound dog would
die if even 10 worms died suddenly. Most cases of heartworms
are detected quite early but there are options of treatments
if your dog has heartworms: 1). No treatment. 2). Extreme treatment.
3). Mild treatment.
1). If you elect no treatment and your dog gets no more heartworm
larva from mosquito bites, your dog could live a normal life
and could actually free itself of heartworms over a period of
several years. Without treatment it is more likely that your
dog will continue to get more heartworms until it finally develops
symptoms and irreversible damage has been done.
2). Extreme treatments have been used in the past when alternatives
were limited. These medicines contain arsenic and are poisonous
to both heartworms and patients. Immiticide is now the only
drug of this type on the market. The problems with this drug
are twofold. The drug itself can kill or severely weaken your
dog. In cases where heartworms are killed, the added stress
of even a few dead worms can kill your dog. In cases where many
heartworms are killed at once, the dog will probably die of
pulmonary emboli. The death rate using Immiticide in dogs with
minimal numbers of heartworms is still 1% to 2%. The death rate
of dogs when this drug is used with moderate infestations approaches
20%. Using Immiticide the death rate of dogs with severe infestations
is about 100%. Most dogs treated this way are antigen positive
for many months and even years.
3.) The mild treatment is the treatment we recommend for nearly
all dogs with heartworms. This treatment uses ivermectin as
the active ingredient and other drugs to decrease the reaction
to dying microfilaria. Ivermectin is extremely non toxic. The
dosage is begun at a low level and increases at subsequent treatments
to help prevent the death of a large number of microfilaria
at one time. When the treatment is completed a blood test for
microfilaria will assure that heartworm prevention can be safely
started. Heartguard with Ivermectin as its active ingredient
is the prevention recommended for dogs that have been treated.
Used with permission.
Note from GSGRR: Based upon the number of doggies
that we have placed with heartworms who have received the mild
treatment, a majority of them test heartworm free within 18
months of placement when the mild treatment was commenced. This
can be controversial for some vets but we strongly urge that
you consider this method.
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