Blood test positive for heart worm disease?
The vet told me today that the blood test is positive. It's been 6 months since the treatment. My 1 1/2 year old Boston Terrier has gained weight and is active and play full. The vet told me that in 6 more months the test might be negative. Has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing that might make me feel better? My dog is on Heart Gard.
Dogs - 6 Answers
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1 :
This isn't sitting right. If the dog is positive for heartworms, then he needs to be undergoing additional testing to see if the worms are actually present, or on treatment, not just on preventative medicine. http://www.heartwormsociety.org/article.asp?id=11 This should not be a 'wait and see in 6 months' situation. If it were me, I'd be asking for a better explanation of what's going on and if it's doesn't satisfy me or match up to research I've done, I'd find a new vet.
2 :
If your dog was treated for heartworm and cured, the tests now are just to be sure and certainly should NOT show any heartworms - you are misunderstanding something, either he wasn't treated fully or he is reinfected. As long as your dog was cured and is on monthly heartworm preventative, he should be heartworm free. To be specific, there have been cases of heartworm occuring in dogs on preventative, mostly in the New Orleans area - seem some heartworm do not get blocked by the normal preventatives, but that is very rare. You need to get a better answer from your vet - or you did not understand what the "cure" was. The preventative does not cure - it prevents, if your dog had heartworm already, the cure is a 3 stage, rather expensive treatment.
3 :
your dog is on heart guard and got heart worms?????????!!!!!!!! I would file a law suit against heart guard
4 :
My dog, a shepherd/chow mix, had heart worms and he lived for 17 years. We didn't find out he had them until after the fact. So don't despair, it is possible for a dog to get them and live even without treatment. However, if you know your dog has heart worms why isn't he being treated. If your vet has told you to wait and see how it goes I would, absolutely, find another vet. Even if it's just for a second opinion. You owe that much to your dog. I hope all turns out well.
5 :
This is from the Heartworm Society: "Confirmation of Adulticide Efficacy The goal of adulticide treatment is the elimination of all adult heartworms. However, clinical improvement in dogs treated for heartworm infection is possible without completely eliminating the adult heartworms. Heartworm antigen testing is the most reliable method of confirming the efficacy of adulticide therapy. If all the adult worms have been destroyed or very few survive, heartworm antigen should be undetectable after six months post-adulticide. Dogs that remain antigen positive at that time could be considered a potential candidate for repeat treatment with an adulticide only after a full review of each case. In some cases, an alternative is to not retreat with the arsenical but to continue with a preventive such as ivermectin which will gradually eliminate the remaining worms." http://www.heartwormsociety.org/article.asp?id=1143 It looks like your vet is taking the alternative route, by not treating your dog again with Immiticide, but having him on Heartgard to gradually shorten the life of any of the remaining worms. This may be to lessen the shock to his system.
6 :
The industry standard heartworm test measures antigens (protein) from adult heartworms and is a very sensitive and specific test. If your dog was treated for heartworms with Immiticide properly, he should have tested negative about 3-4 months later. It doesn't matter if he's been on Heartgard because that product doesn't kill adults, only microfilaria (babies) and larvae migrating through the body. It's good that he's on Heartgard because it is essentially keeping the adults sterile and preventing disease related to the microfilaria. If I were you, I'd repeat the test elsewhere - if positive, it represents possible treatment failure and you should have the dog retreated with Immiticide. If you dog was on Heartgard during the time he aquired the infection, the manufacturer will pay for treatment if you purchased it from a veterinarian (not on line
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