Austin Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Anyone have experience with heartworm in dogs?
Our dog has heartworm. I'm not sure how advanced it is. How bad is this? What are our next steps? How much does treatment typically run? (I know I shouldn't be concerned about money right now, but unfortunately, it's in the back of my mind since we just had a baby and money is kind of tight right now). I'm waiting on a call back from our vet, but meanwhile, I'm freaking out.
Re: Anyone have experience with heartworm in dogs?
Hi Sarah! I can help you! I have had a dog with heartworms but I also volunteer with the Animal Trustees of Austin (ata). They have a great program through their spay and neuter clinic that offers heartworm treatment at a very reduced cost.
To answer your question, heartworms are bad but they are treatable, and with a little prevention after this your dog can live a long healthy life. At the ATA the treatments run anywhere from 120 (for a small dog) to 350 (for a large dog with 3 treatments)
First step you should know is put the dog on preventatives now. It will protect them while you wait to get an appointment.
Second you will need to have tests run called a heartworm profile, which is a quick lab test (5 tests are done) that they send off that will give them all the details they will need to know about the dog along with the dogs health. They can do that for your at the ATA but you will need to schedule an appointment for that. The cost at the ATA is about $45 for this and then you will need to pay an additional $10 for the medicines that are used to kill the bacteria off the worms.
The next step is to schedule your appointment for treatments. There is usually a wait for this because of the space considerations, but they are really good about getting the dog scheduled and treated.
Once you have an appointment the visits are either 2 treatments back to back or a 3 step treatment but that will be determined by the staff. After the treatments the dogs will need to be kept calm and crated for 4 to 6 weeks while the dead worms are processed by their body.
Good luck and let me know if you need anything else.
Amy
My dog had stage 1 hw's and because she is a high energy/ high-anxiety outside dog, we decided not to treat. If you keep giving them the hw meds every month and lay low for the few days following, the system is able to kill the heartworms and break them up without the hardcore, expensive treatment.
This isn't the option for everyone, as it can sometimes be dangerous (but not moreso than the treatment), and it's a long-term deal, but it worked for us. We went back to the vet last week for a checkup and she was heartwork free!
This is a good resource. I hope your dog is okay and everything works out.
amycathy, I just called ATA and they can't get us in until May 27. And then treatment wouldn't be for another six weeks or so. I have no idea how advanced his case is, so is that too long to wait? He was last tested in September of 2008 and was negative.
Our dog is on heartworm meds (Advantage Multi) but I wasn't very diligent about giving it to him. He never missed a month, but we were sometimes a week or two late giving it to him. I had no idea that could make a difference. I feel like such a bad pet owner.
our dog was diagnosed in February with heartworms. she has stage one (they had to do bloodwork and body scans/xrays to determine). that was about $200 including the vet fees.
the treatment from here is about $500. this is for "short" treatment which requires that we keep her activity really low/confined for 30 days after treatment.
because our dog has stage 1, the vet said its not a problem to hold off on treatment awhile (financially easier on us for one). so we're keeping her on heartworm preventative which keeps them from multiplying (doesn't kill them though)
if you have specific questions, let me know since i've been going through this as well!
Sarah,
That is pretty standard on the time line because of the limited number of spaces. If you have had them on the treatment the whole time and only been delayed by a few weeks, is there any chance that this is a false positive test result? I don't have a lot of experience with the topical treatments but I know with the internal ones the dogs are still covered if they aren't given at the same exact time.
How old is your dog and did the dr say what stage that it is in? (that is what is typically determined by the blood panel that is drawn but they might have already done that at your vet)
Let me know if you need anything else.
Hugs,
Amy
The vet said the lab they use ran the test twice so I doubt it's a false positive.
He's 7. They just called with the results today so we haven't had the blood panel done yet. Hopefully it's not too advanced. Thanks for your help!
I would talk to your vet about concting Bayer (the makers of advantage multi). Only being a couple weeks late a time or two shouldn't result in an infection. Unless of course the sept. of 08 one was to early to detect a positive result and maybe she was infected at that time?
If you have records showing that you bought the heartworm prevention they will pay for the treatment. However if a six month supply lasted 9 months they probably won't cover it...
Just some thoughts...