[Madraga]

Hi, I have a Yorkie Mix that's been infected with heartworm. The vet said she's in stage 3 coz when he took a drop of her blood to see if there are any larvae, they found a few under the microscope. So we opted to treat her coz the vet said she had a fighting chance. She's very skinny though and she's a rescue dog so she's probably had heartworm all her life and was never treated nor cared for by her previous owners.

She was put through doxycycline for 2 weeks (1/4 of the pill twice a day). A few days before the end of the 2 week period she received her Ivermectin shots. But on the same day she was also given shots for rabies, distemper, hepatitis and leptospyrosis. Her ALT was within the normal range at 47. The rest of her bloodwork was also normal. This was Sept 21, 2010. Then last night (Sept 23) she showed signs of severe dehydration. She's already been avoiding water for a few days. She just won't drink water so we had to force feed her water. She would eat very little as well. So i took her to the vet and she had to undergo IV drips of Ringer solution for her hydration. They had to keep her overnight at the hospital to check if she vomits again. This afternoon (sept 24) she appeared to be well hydrated and the vet opted to test her blood again to check her liver. Her ALT level was at 680+. It went that high in less than 4 days. Now she's still in the hospital and they gave her dextrose instead of the ringer's solution.

Has anyone ever had this experience before? It's depressing really coz she's so well behaved. She's scared of everything and this was brought about by being caged most of her life and not really being cared for by her owners.

Please advice as to how long she should stay at the vet's. They want to keep her till Sunday or Monday but I'm hoping she'll get better by tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks.