Average Cost of Treatment. The average cost of heartworm treatment for dogs is often around $1,000. However, it can range from $500 to $1,100 or even more depending mainly on the size of your dog, veterinary bills, and the stage of the disease.
A newer drug is available that does not have as many side effects, allowing successful treatment of more than 95% of dogs with heartworms.
Slow Kill Method
While not generally recommended, another method of handling heartworms is to only attack the microfilaria, leaving existing adult heartworms to die of natural causes. This is known as the slow kill method. It's cheaper and does not require a rest period and debilitating adulticide.
If owners can't afford treatment at the time of diagnosis, Dr. Herrin recommended delaying melarsomine therapy but still initiating treatment with both a preventive and doxycycline. This will prevent further infection and remove the dog as a heartworm reservoir.
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.
The lifespan of a dog in this condition is most likely limited to a few weeks or a few months. Your vet will guide you on the best course of action for treating your dog depending on the severity of their infection. Dogs can live for at least six to seven months after becoming infected with heartworms.
No one wants to hear that their dog has heartworm, but the good news is that most infected dogs can be successfully treated. The goal is to first stabilize your dog if he is showing signs of disease, then kill all adult and immature worms while keeping the side effects of treatment to a minimum.
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.
Caution: Get professional help for this treatment. Heartworm disease is dangerous and isn't something to treat by yourself. You can treat your dog at home, but make sure you get help from a holistic vet or herbalist.
Most of the monthly heartworm medicines have a safety factor of at least 15 days of protection if a dose is missed. This means that if you're just a week or two late, your pet is likely still within that window of protection and would be unlikely to become infected during that time.
Surgery: Severe cases of heartworms in dogs may require surgery to remove the worms from the heart and vessels within the lungs, but many of these patients die regardless of treatment. Exercise Restriction: Exercise restriction is a vital part of successful treatment for heartworms in dogs.
Active dogs, dogs heavily infected with heartworms, or those with other health problems often show pronounced clinical signs. Signs of heartworm disease may include a mild persistent cough, reluctance to exercise, fatigue after moderate activity, decreased appetite, and weight loss.
Many factors affect the cost associated with treating heartworm infection, including diagnostic testing, hospitalization, medication, and office visits. The current drug of choice is Immiticide, and due to manufacturing issues, is difficult to obtain and as a result is expensive.
Not all dogs with heartworm disease develop caval syndrome. However, if left untreated, heartworm disease will progress and damage the dog's heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, eventually causing death.
Heartworms can also cause nosebleeds, pneumonia, high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, and excessive sleeping. When heartworms reach places other than the heart and lungs, like the brain and eyes, dogs will experience seizures and blindness.
Your dog won't be able to be active after his heartworm treatment for at least a few months. “The dead heartworms take some time to be broken down by the dog's immune system,” Dr. Marteney said. If the dead worms are still intact, they can cause major issues if your dog's heart rate becomes elevated.
Black Walnut Hull works to cleanse a dog's system, including the digestive system and bloodstream. It kills the heartworm parasite before it has time to grow to maturity.
Heartworm treatment is expensive due to several factors: Heartworm medications are relatively new, and their high price is attributed to research and development costs. Moreover, the medication is often imported, making it more expensive to obtain.
But can your dog feel heartworms? In a way, yes. Your dog can feel the discomfort that goes hand-in-hand with the heartworms hatching from larvae stages into adulthood. They can also feel them migrating from one spot to another inside their body, specifically if they're affecting your dog's lungs and breathing.
Average Cost of Treatment. The average cost of heartworm treatment for dogs is often around $1,000. However, it can range from $500 to $1,100 or even more depending mainly on the size of your dog, veterinary bills, and the stage of the disease.
All of the damage that the heartworms do while they're inside the body is permanent. Sometimes we can reverse some of the symptoms, but all of the damage will still be present.
Do the heartworm treatment injections hurt? The injections are given within the muscle and can indeed be uncomfortable, but the inflammation that develops within the days following creates the most discomfort. Restlessness, panting, trembling and reduced appetite can all be signs that the dog is uncomfortable.
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.
A class four heartworm infection is also often referred to as caval syndrome in dogs. This stage is characterized by complete organ failure, and sadly most dogs with a stage four heartworm infection will end up passing away.
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.