Test Again. Six months after your dog completes their treatment, you should retest for heartworms. And then be sure to continue with annual testing and a monthly heartworm preventative.
What should I do? You need to consult your veterinarian, and immediately re-start your dog on monthly preventive—then retest your dog 6 months later. The reason for re-testing is that heartworms must be approximately 7 months old before the infection can be diagnosed.
It takes several weeks or months for dead heartworms to break down, so recently treated dogs will still test positive for an extended period following treatment, even though no live worms are present. Some dogs will test negative within 3-6 months after treatment; some may remain positive longer.
Complete rest is essential during treatment.
This can be a dangerous period, so it is critical that your dog be kept as quiet as possible and is not allowed to exercise until one month following the final injection of heartworm treatment.
“No running, jumping, playing or high-impact exercise as these activities may cause the worms to break loose and cause significant harm to the pet being treated.”
Prognosis: heartworm treatment success rates
With the three-dose adulticide protocol described above, in conjunction with doxycycline and macrocyclic lactones as recommended by the American Heartworm Society, 98% of dogs will be cleared of heartworm infection.
There is no reason to allow running, jumping, or other physical activity at any time for 8 weeks after the start of the injectable heartworm adulticide treatment.
Approximately 6 months after treatment is completed, your veterinarian will perform a heartworm test to confirm that all heartworms have been eliminated. To avoid the possibility of your dog contracting heartworm disease again, you will want to administer heartworm prevention year-round for the rest of his life.
Enforced Rest is ESSENTIAL! Positively NO Strenuous Exercise for 8 weeks! The heartworms will die over the next 6 weeks. As they die and are broken down, pieces of them could lodge in other parts of the body's blood vessels, causing unnecessary complications–if your pet's activity is too strenuous.
You should know that although heartworm can be fatal, it is very treatable if caught early. And even more importantly, your veterinarian can prescribe preventatives that are highly effective in stopping your dog from getting heartworm in the first place.
Most dogs can be safely leash-walked during the treatment recovery period and providing appropriate chew toys can help relieve some of that stored up physical energy.
Dogs with heartworm disease can live high-quality lives as long as they are given appropriate care. After completing treatment and following your veterinarian's recommenda- tions on heartworm disease testing and prevention, the chances of any long-term effects are very low.
Restrict exercise– no running, walks for exercise or rough-housing. Generally speaking, it's ok to walk your dog outside to use the restroom or to sit outside to enjoy the weather, but no walks (short or long) for exercise. Your veterinarian may have alternative recommendations.
Strict rest is imperative for 6-8 weeks. This means that your pet can be leashed walked outside to urinate and defecated, but must come back inside to rest. Do not allow your pet to run, jump, climb stairs, or play rough with other dogs or children.
Dogs with heartworm disease, for example, require exercise restriction before and heartworm treatment, as well as for a short time after treatment. Physical activity increases the likelihood of adult worms causing a pulmonary thromboembolism, which may be fatal. Limiting a dog's physical activity decreases this risk.
When your dog's heartworm blood test comes back positive, your veterinarian will run a few other tests. These tests will determine the stage and severity of your pet's illness in order to come up with the correct treatment plan. Some of these important tests include: Urinalysis.
When a dose of heartworm prevention is given to a dog (either topically or orally) it acts as a dewormer and kills off any of the possible larval stages that mosquitoes have transmitted to dogs. The medication is usually in and out of the dog's system within 24 hours and does not stay in the dog's body for 30 days.
Stop all play and active training that will encourage excitability. Do not allow the heartworm positive dog to have any free reign in the home or yard. Restrict the activity of the other dogs in the home.
Heartworms can also cause nosebleeds, pneumonia, high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, and excessive sleeping.
If exercise or excitement cause the treated dog's heart rate to rise, pieces of decomposing worms can be forced into the tiny blood vessels of the lungs, causing further complications. The more pronounced the clinical signs of heartworm disease are, the more restricted any activity or excitement need to be.
The only product currently available for the treatment of adult heartworms is melarsomine dihydrochloride (immiticide). During treatment, the patient receives an intramuscular injection deep in the lower back muscles. This is a painful injection and it is common for the patient to be quite sore at home afterwards.
With heartworm disease treatment can be extremely difficult even for the young otherwise healthy dogs but our senior dogs can see more severe side effects and death if progressed disease is present. Know that 1 in 10 dogs will develop some form of heart disease as they age.
Although there are fewer mosquitoes in the winter, there is still a risk that your pet could get heartworms if you stop giving heartworm prevention medication during this season. That's one reason veterinarians strongly recommend pets receive heartworm prevention medication year-round.
Even if heartworm infection is treated, we all know it does serious, permanent damage to the body. This in-depth look at that damage will renew your commitment to consistent prevention recommendations for your veterinary patients.