Quote:
Originally Posted by ladyjane  This is something I have never heard of. The Doxycycline, to my knowledge, is given to eliminate the Wolbachia (spelling?) organism. I have never seen where it has any effect on the heartworms.
Do you perhaps recall where you read that? |
DogAware.com Health: Heartworm Disease in Dogs - Prevention and Treatment Doxycycline should also be given to dogs that are being treated with monthly Heartgard (slow kill method) or any type of alternative heartworm treatment method, as it will weaken the heartworms, prevent them from reproducing, and reduce the chance of adverse effects caused by the heartworm infection itself, and by the worms dying. Wolbachia will repopulate over time, so the treatment with doxycycline should be repeated intermittently. A study on cattle infected with onchocerca volvulus (a filarial parasite similar to heartworms that cause a disease called River Blindness) showed that the Wolbachia repopulated within six months following short-term (two week) daily treatment with oxytetracycline. A combination of this short-term treatment with long-term intermittent treatment (double the dose, or 20 mg/kg, injected once a month for six months), eliminated 80% of the adult female worms as well as sustaining the depletion of Wolbachia. See
this abstract for more information. In dogs, this might translate to giving doxy for two or three weeks at normal doses to start with, then repeating the treatment at twice the normal dose for one week out of each month as long as adult heartworms are present. The double dosage (10 mg/kg twice a day) is used to treat
tick disease, so it is safe.
Wolbachia-lives symbiotically inside heartworms. | Medical Reference
Studies indicate that this parasite contributes to the adverse effects of both heartworm infection and heartworm treatment, including inflammation,
embolism and allergic reaction.
Treatment with doxycycline for 30 days to kill the Wolbachia parasite weakens the heartworms and makes them unable to reproduce, and greatly
reduces the chance of adverse reaction during heartworm treatment.
The Evolution of the Cell
There is compelling evidence that mitochondria and chloroplasts were once primitive bacterial cells. This evidence is described in the endosymbiotic theory. How did this theory get its name? Symbiosis occurs when two different species benefit from living and working together.
When one organism actually lives inside the other it's called endosymbiosis. The endosymbiotic theory describes how a large host cell and ingested bacteria could easily become dependent on one another for survival, resulting in a permanent relationship. Over millions of years of evolution, mitochondria and chloroplasts have become more specialized and today they cannot live outside the cell.
As the Wolbachia is a living, thriving, inseparable part of the Heartworm, if one hurts/kills it, one is damaging the Heartworm itself.