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Originally Posted by beausgrrl  I would def. find out if your dog got Immiticide (for adult heartworms) or Ivermectin (for baby/microfilarea), just to keep it straight, etc. Either the adults and/or babies dying off can cause embolisms with the Immiticide or slow kill methods....
We had the 2 shot protocol one day apart of the Immiticide last November. This was after Beau had xrays and bloodwork done to determine (I think educated guess now) what stage he was at and whether he was healthy enough to withstand the Immiticide. His xrays showed an enlarged heart which our vet said he could have been born with but could also be from heartworm disease. I don't believe seeing baby/microfilarea in a blood smear is a standard way to determine any stage before treating adult heartworm but just shows there are or had been adults... I've read that the babies can stay in circulation in a dog's blood after treatment for up to a year.
That all being said... Beau had been on Interceptor since we adopted him and when we had our vet records sent to them they helped pay for his Immiticide treatment and they sent us a year's supply of Interceptor. Just this summer we changed to Heartguard Plus as I just didn't think the microfilarea were dying off enough with the Interceptor.... who knows if I'm right. 
I think our second followup to the adult heartworm treatment with Immiticide, our vet was concerned the babies were still pretty abundant in his blood smear so we asked if we could do anything for that. I think I asked about it as I'd read about a shot of Ivermectin (to help clear the babies) and she said that was possible to do. We did that and then continued to 'manage' Beau's activities to keep him as 'quiet' as possible, etc.
Now that it's a year later and he seems to still have alot of babies in the smears I don't know what stage he would be considered as he still doesn't show signs. My understanding is that when the dog does show signs, coughing, etc... the dog is in later stages and weaker. I hope my rambling helps someone.
I think also, vets are finding out the heartworms are becoming resistant to the adult treatment as well. And it's not a clear science how to rid a dog of them always... also... can't recall if this has already been discussed.. but here's a quote from a site "Ivermectin does not kill adult heartworms. It does weaken them and will speed up their death. Heartworms typically live two years. To further speed up the process of heartwormDoxycycline. The Doxycycline kills off an organism within heartworms called wolbachia. Wolbachia is a symbiotic organism that lives within adult heartworms. By treating an infested dog with a 30 day regimen of Doxycycline, you kill off the wolbachia, weakening the adult heartworms. This also is reported to lessen the inflammatory immune response of worm die off when the dog is receiving HW treatment of any kind. By weakening the heartworms and then continuing to treat with Ivermectin, you can clear a dog of heartworms typically in 18 months or less." |
Thanks so much. I appreciate all this info you're giving me coz quite frankly, no one here knows how to treat it properly. I've noticed more coughing now from my dog, especially when I take her out for a walk. We just do leisure walks but she gets really really nervous and jumpy, and I don't know how to correct this. I want her to feel safe around me, that I won't allow anything to harm her but I think she's just like this coz she's always been caged and never allowed to socialize. Her previous owners must've been cruel to her. It's that or she just wants her old life back. I try not to take her for walks and stuff so she won't be tired and stuff, but I think she gets bored around the house and just sleeps all day. She doesn't do potty in the house, I think she's used to doing it outdoors and I never yelled at her for doing it in the house or hurt her. I allow her to pee and poop in the house but she won't. She holds it in until someone takes her out. And she gets easily distracted too so when she does it outside, it takes her forever to feel safe enough to pee. Pooping is another story. I know dogs are supposed to poop after every meal right? Well she sometimes poops once in 2 days, sometimes once a day. And she eats more than 1 meal a day. I dunno if that's supposed to be a concern for me but almost all vets I speak to are never alarmed by this.
I'm sorry but I'm just not used to sick dogs, I'm used to healthy dogs that aren't sick and then eventually get sick. So for me, everything is a concern.
Like just today she coughed twice, like one of those loud coughs as if she ate something and choked. She's fine, but I dunno if that's the heartworm worsening or a symptom of something else. She used to have like small coughs, kinda like a hiccup, but today's cough is different. I just got her for 3 weeks so maybe I'm just slowly seeing the way she really is but I'm just concerned.