Carbón beats heartworm: treatment and recovery journal

[Oberon]

Forgot to say that it’s awesome news that he doesn’t have any heart changes and has no waving worms!

 

[Ashley]

We have heartworm in Australia too but I've never known a vet test for it (unless there was a reason to). Dogs are given heartworm prevention from day one, either by monthly wormer or annual vaccination and that's the end of it.

Do you know why you test prior to the preventative? Is there a risk that the preventative isn't effective?

This is just a guess, but if you give preventative all year long because you are in a warmer climate, you might not need to test because there is no risk of infection. We only give preventative in high risk seasons (spring through to late fall), which in theory leaves open the possibility of not being covered if we have a warm fall/winter and mosquitos are out longer or treatments are started too late in the spring.

 

[Emily]

As I understand it....The test is done because if there are heartworms present and you give the normal heartworm prevention medications the heartworms can die suddenly and cause a toxic shock reaction in the dog. Dealing with already present heartworms requires a different program of medication.

We use the annual heartworm vaccination injection for Obi as it’s an easy, ‘set and forget’ approach. Much easier than monthly tablets.

Yep we use the annual vaccination too. It means our other wormer is three-monthly and it's not the end of the world if we're a little late.

This is just a guess, but if you give preventative all year long because you are in a warmer climate, you might not need to test because there is no risk of infection. We only give preventative in high risk seasons (spring through to late fall), which in theory leaves open the possibility of not being covered if we have a warm fall/winter and mosquitos are out longer or treatments are started too late in the spring.

Ah, that makes sense. We use prevention all year round so the prevention should overlap - therefore no need to test.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

We have heartworm in Australia too but I've never known a vet test for it (unless there was a reason to). Dogs are given heartworm prevention from day one, either by monthly wormer or annual vaccination and that's the end of it.

Do you know why you test prior to the preventative? Is there a risk that the preventative isn't effective?

As I understand it....The test is done because if there are heartworms present and you give the normal heartworm prevention medications the heartworms can die suddenly and cause a toxic shock reaction in the dog. Dealing with already present heartworms requires a different program of medication.

Yes, this is what I was told as well. In the US, my vets would test for heart worm once a year (maybe twice?) as part of writing a new prescription for the preventative meds.

 

[M.F.]

Do humans get heartworm from mosquito bites?

 

[Lab_adore]

This is so interesting @Emily_Babbelhund, thank you. Glad little Carbon is looking ok

 

[Lisa]

We know of Heartworm here in Alberta but it doesn’t seem to be a problem here. So we don’t have dogs tested or give preventative meds, etc. Most of the heartworm in Canada has been found in Ontario and B.C. where the temperatures are warmer.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Do humans get heartworm from mosquito bites?

Interesting question. From the FDA, courtesy of Dr. Google:

Heartworms are only transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. In rare cases, people can get heartworms after being bitten by an infected mosquito. But because people are not a natural host for heartworms, the larvae usually migrate to the heart and lung arteries and die before they become adult worms.

 

[Rosie]

Great news on the ultrasound! Let's keep the good news coming, now, for both of you...

 

[Aitch]

I am having trouble getting a heartworm test done. It seems our vet doesn't do them "in house" as we don't have heartworm in the UK. The vet is going to find out if the blood can sent somewhere for the test to be done. I am waiting for a call back to see how it can be done.

 

[Cath]

Thank you so much Emily for educating me.

I am so sorry for you both, but admire your bravery and courage in dealing with this for Carbon.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

I am having trouble getting a heartworm test done. It seems our vet doesn't do them "in house" as we don't have heartworm in the UK. The vet is going to find out if the blood can sent somewhere for the test to be done. I am waiting for a call back to see how it can be done.

There isn't heart worm in Germany where I am either. My vet did it was a normal 'send away to the lab' blood test. Results took about a week. Maybe more is done in-house in UK practices, but nearly all blood and urine analysis is sent away to a central laboratory here.

 

[Charlie]

Thanks for the information Emily. Glad Carbon has you to take care of him. xxx

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

We're just wrapping up day three of Carbon being on Doxycycline tablets and honestly I really can't tell a difference. He seems a bit extra chilled out about 30 minutes after eating, but this could be normal behaviour that I never paid much mind to, or it could be due to our very weird lifestyle of late.

Besides that, no effects on digestion or poos and OF COURSE he still thinks he's STARVING 27/7 which is just normal Labrador.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Spoke too soon. Carbon vomited once yesterday evening and once this morning. I'd given him a special chew last night as I thought it would help him with the stress of not being able to have free runs, and that's what came up both times along with his normal dinner.

So no more chews, poor boy.

 

[Cath]

Poor lad

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

No chews given tonight, but still more vomiting. Just a bit - it was the tiny bits of bread I'd shared with him from my dinner. I don't know why plain bread would come up.

He's in great spirits and tummy seems normal from the outside - not hard or bloated. Hopefully it was just a fluke, but vomiting two nights in a row is not good. I'll cut out the bread too (for him and for me, otherwise I'll be in the doghouse) and if anything else comes up, it's off to the vet to talk about a better tummy protector.

 

[Jacqui-S]

Doxy quite often causes nausea in humans too.
Sorry to hear this
Poor Snr Carbon.
Is there an alternate antibiotic?

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Is there an alternate antibiotic?

I can ask the vet. She did say this particular one attacks specific bacteria inside the heart worm which then weakens them, but that could also mean within the tetracycline family and not just the doxycycline.

The apartment we're moving to on Sunday is in the same village as the vet (outside Regensburg where we are this week). So starting on Monday we can just walk over to her office, which will be useful.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Carbon vomited up either a little bit or all of his dinner Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. All was several hours (3-6) after last eating. As I've said on his other thread, he's in good spirits and doesn't seem nauseated. He just suddenly gets out of bed/off the sofa, vomits on the floor (thankfully tile in our case) and then goes back to his sleeping spot and carries on with his snooze.

Last night I tried a lighter meal in the evening and he kept everything down. Could have just been a coincidence, but I'm trying the heavier morning meal after his daily stomach protector and then a lighter evening meal when he doesn't get the stomach protector.

We went to his vet today and she wasn't too concerned that he wasn't getting the benefits of the medication due to the vomiting. However in sort of a good news/bad news scenario, she wants to increase the doxycycline. This is because his echocardiogram was so good (no visible heart worms) so now she wants to treat him more conservatively over a longer time period. This would mean no painful injections, but a longer period on the doxy and a higher dose of the stuff.

She didn't really have time to talk, so we've got an appointment on Wednesday when she'll explain the slow kill off method and hopefully give me some more options for protecting his stomach.

I'm also wondering if the raw beef and turkey he normally eats is too much for him right now. I'm going to keep him on cooked white fish and veggies (that's what he had yesterday that he didn't vomit up) and see if that helps. I also picked up some sweet potatoes, which I thought may be easily digestible as well.

Fingers crossed!