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Heartworm complications


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:(
I am new, just joined today, trying to find any information at all possible, that would help me and my daschund. She is a mini daschund about7 years old, and weighs 15 lbs. She was diagnosed and got her treatment last week. She started having breathing difficulties yesterday, and i took her in. She is experiencing PTE, pulminary thromboembolism (sp), and cardiac problems. She received a shot yesterday with steriod and antibiotics, which she went in this morning, and no more fever, but still difficult to breath. so she got another injection, this time 2 shots, not sure if same dosage, cause i asked what were they, and he said same steriod, and antibiotic, but this time was 2? Was reading online, and saw that heparin was also helpful. so maybe the second syringe was that? will have to ask him, she has to go back in this afternoon as well for more shots. Now she is refusing water and food, canned food. What can i do for her, more than crate and offer the drink and food. It is heartbreaking. We had a lab mix that was 8 years old get diagnosed at the same time, but she passed away in March. That was horrific for me, she died in my arms, taking her last breath. Sorry it still hurts. I just dont want Calli to go yet, she could have so much more time. Thanks so much for listening, sorry to make my first post this doozy, but time is of the essence. thanks so much any help/advise is GREATLY appreciated.

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I wish I had something to add. All I can suggest is that you ask your vet millions of questions, get a second opinion if you don't feel confident in your vet, and get your other animals on heartgard to prevent future problems. You might also try searching the internet for heartworm treatments, side affects and such.

Hugs and good luck!!!

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Thanks for your replies, however my baby passed away last night :angel: , she had terrible complications , and we had high hopes for her to pull thru. Her heart couldnt take anymore, at least i know that she is with her best friend and brother now, probably destroying heaven's mini blinds.
thank you so very much, i am going to keep this page bookmarked and watch with interest the posts, and when i get the courage to add to my heart again i will be back i am sure. thanks, karen !

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Thanks, and yes we did have them both on it. We took them both in for a regular check up, and having had gotten the pills online, the vet had us do another blood test for them. They were both positive, the vet explained that it could happen 2 ways, if we had missed doseage by 1 day or more, they were at risk, or simply because the mosquito's where we lived were and are still so bad that he is seeing record #'s of cases of heartworms this year. Dogs that he treats himself and supplies the heartworm preventative to them, are coming up positive. He is very upset by this. The mosquitos are terrible here, in South Texas, we lived in a bay city, with a river, and lots of storm drains where our house was. They are constantly spraying, we had to get vector control out to spray constantly for them. The fleas are just as bad, we didnt get a significant freeze this past winter, to kill the fleas and mosquitos, or standing water areas.
To explain the heartworm preventative technically, the pill kills the baby heartworms, so it isnt a prevatitive for them to not get the heartworm, the pill kills the babies so that they cannot mature into adult worms and invade the heart. So missing a dose by a day or so, can just hit the worm just right, and it could slip thru and mature, then once the worm is adult age, the heartworm pill will continue to kill the new babies, but has no effect on the adult worms. Which can inturn risk the animals life and organs, with the adult worm in there, fighting the medicine.

Heartworm resources, that i researched.

[url]http://www.petcaretips.net/heartworms_in_dogs.html[/url]
[url]http://www.vetinfo.com/doghw.html[/url]
[url]http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_heartworm_prevention.html[/url]
[url]http://www.allpetsmacomb.com/parasites.html[/url]

and finally one that gave some conflicting advice

[url]http://www.danebytes.com/heartworm.htm[/url]

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Some medications are better than others...some have a wider "window" for missing a dose. living in missouri, it's not quite as bad here...but lately it's been heating up as it gets closer to summer and there are more gnats, flies and mosquitos around standing water. i have been using a flea/tick/mosquito killer from hartz. apply down the back and neck, it naturally spreads around the body, won't make them sick and lasts for a full month. i've noticed it actually does keep the little buggers away. our youngest isn't old enough for it yet and i have to keep him constantly moving or in an area with no standing water/high grass. he's up to date on shots, as is our oldest...but i've had one dog die of heartworms before. he was staying at my moms in louisiana (i had moved out) and they didn't notice any problems until it was to late and he had to be put down. :(
some dogs never have a problem with heartworms and they never get a pill or anything...other dogs aren't so lucky...regardless of climate, water, etc.

have you ever been to chazhound.com? it's a nice forum and there are lots of people you can talk to.

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