Registered: Jan 2012
Location:
Posts: 12

I have a dog the vet said he has heartworms but they can treat him for them just want to know if anyone has done it lately good or bad.Vet says it a new medicine been out couple of years.

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Pomeroy, Ohio
Posts: 2843

How old is the dog and how hard do you hunt the dog?

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John Smith
Ohio Valley Bluetick Kennel

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Registered: Jan 2012
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Posts: 12

4 yrs old hunting him about four days a week one turn out a night two or three on the weekend he's in good shape

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Pomeroy, Ohio
Posts: 2843

You can read all kind of stuff on the internet about Heartworms. Every one of them says if they have heartworms then you need to treat them at the vets. But, one thing that I found interesting was that the Hearworm Prevention Council said to treat for heartworms but if the first treatment didn't get all the heartworms, then to just give them their regular heartworm prevention dose and I believe it said the adult worms would die off in 18 months. My vet has told me that it will take more like 9 months if the dog didn't have a bad case of them. So, you can treat at the vets, gonna have to lay the dog up for awhile because of the risk of a clump of dead worms could clog an artery, or you could treat with heart worm prevention and kill them off slowly. You'll probably get a lot of different opinions but best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

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John Smith
Ohio Valley Bluetick Kennel

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Laurel, IN
Posts: 1478

Here's what I did to a 5 year old Redbone male I had that was eat up with heart worms. The vet told me this would work (and be a lot cheaper) just as good or better than their treatment where they inject stuff into their spine.

Give him Ivermectine (sp?) 1/2 a cc every 2 weeks for a month. Now Ivermec will kill a dog with heartworms if you give them a big does (like 2 cc's) all at one time. By only giving 1/2 a cc you are slowly killing the adult worms that would block the heart up if they died at one time.

After a month give them 1 cc every 2 weeks for 18 months. I did this and it did work. I can give you the number of the guy I sold him to (he was still taking treatments) and he kept giving it to him and the dog died heartworm free several years after I sold him.

I would check with your vet before you do anything. I know my vet was a pretty good old boy who was looking to help save us some money and frustration.

The bad part about the spine treatment they do is 1) you can't hunt them while they are taking it and 2) some dogs come out of it acting goofy. A buddy's dog got cured of the worms but he never acted right a day in his life after. The Ivermec treatment you can still hunt them and it usually doesn't effect their minds.

Best of luck to you. At least it's not a death sentence like it used to be.

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Registered: Jan 2008
Location: alabama
Posts: 351

I had one treated and it nearly killed him. I will never have another one treated again. The dog I have now I raised and he had heartworms at 15 mos old. The vet told me he needed treating. I took him home and started giving him Ivomec once a month. When he went back for his yearly shots my vet checked him again for heartworms. He told me to keep doing what i had been doing, there was barely a trace of heartworms. The next year he had no trace at all........

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Registered: Mar 2010
Location: Mulberry Grove, Illinois
Posts: 638

A heartworm has a bacteria inside them called wachovia( spelling)
A heartworm needs that bacteria to thrive. You can dose a dog with 100 mg Doxycycline, which is real cheap, twice a day. This kills,weakens the bacteria and in turn weakens the heartworm. Give normal monthly heartworm treatment to help stop reproduction. Ivomec will only kill larva that is younger than 1/4 stage. Doxycycline will shorten the adult heartworms life span. Overdoses with Ivomec will only damage liver and kidneys. As long as they don't reproduce, they will die off but it sure won't happen overnight. Alot of people think they have cured dogs with high doses of Ivomec because the blood slide test, old very common test, shows no larva when treated with Ivomec. Take the same dog and have a heartworm antigen test done, a more accurate test, and indeed they are heartworm positive. If you have any doubts, go to the National Heartworm Ass.com website. Never overdose a dog unless you are sure exactly what you are doing. JMO

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Registered: Apr 2010
Location: jamestown,pa
Posts: 612

I did a bunch of research on ivromectin for heartworms. If the dog has them and you full dose them it kills all the little ones in the blood stream. This is what kills the dog by blockage. The ivromectin doesn't kill the adults but it does shorten their life span and makes them sterile. Small doses kills the littles slowly so they pass through the blood stream and with regular protection the adults will eventually die with none to take their place.

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Registered: Jan 2012
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Posts: 12

After all the treatments are done will i be able to hunt him and how hard can i hunt him? Will i have to worry about hunting him and him having a heart attack. I have had this dog a short time but i have come to see this dog is the dog of a life time for me the one i will judge all dogs buy the dog i will always think of is the best .my heart just sunk when the Vet said he has heartworms.

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Pomeroy, Ohio
Posts: 2843

From what I read, heart worms actually start out in the lungs. In the late and worse stages the worms migrate to the heart. If your hunting him and not noticing any symptoms of heart worms, like voice or stamina issues, he probably has minumal worms and isn't ate up with them. The heart worm test doesn't show how many or how bad they are so it may not be as bad as it sounds. If he is still acting normal, I'd give him an Ivermec treatment every other week. Another way to look at it is if the dog is doing ok now, and you control the worms from getting bigger or producing more, nothing is different that what your dog is dealing with now.

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John Smith
Ohio Valley Bluetick Kennel

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Pomeroy, Ohio
Posts: 2843

Would caution you though to find out from a qualified vet the correct dose of ivermec for prevention. I don't use as much Ivermec as some people on here say you should use. If a dog didn't have heartworms and a higher dose was given than needed, a dog shouldn't have problems. However, overdosing and hunting a dog with heartworms would cause problems. It would be almost like a vet treatment and then not keeping them quiet and overexerting them causing the dead worms to clog an artery. I would mix 1cc of Ivermec with 9 cc's of mix and give 1/2 cc every 2 weeks for 18 months and then go to every 4 weeks in mosquito seasons. By the way, I had a female treated at the vet once and she was nuts for over a year before she finally went back to normal. lol. And I've also treated dogs for mange using Ivermec daily for 30 days with no ill effects to the dog.

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John Smith
Ohio Valley Bluetick Kennel

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Registered: Oct 2012
Location: alabama
Posts: 1026

I've had two dogs that had heart worms they lived to be over 10 when they died that ivomec hurts a dogs liver I mean enything you can give or take and buzzards want even peck you can't be to healthy for you. Haha why do you think we have all these heart issue,cancer etc nowdays ain't really from drinking and smoken eating fatty foods its the dang perservitives they put in are food its poison so stuff don't grow to decay it.

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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Rural Hall, NC
Posts: 654

Jim e
Don't lose hope!
I'm sure each dog is different and a lot probably depends on how bad the dog has got heart worms, but there is every reason to believe that if you get him treated and follow doctors instructions for recovery that your dog can be hunted regularly without worry of heart attack or something.

Just relating our own experience our dog Red River won the Purina race 2011 and was treated for heart worms in June of that year. We do believe his infestation was fairly new as he had been on heart worm prevention prior to latest heart worm test before we got him. He showed no obvious symptoms before finding out he was positive for heart worms. But following treatment we followed dr advice to keep him calm and cool, so he lived in our basement for 5 weeks after. No hunting for 4 or 5 weeks either! It took him a little while to get back to himself but winning the Purina race should tell you that a dog can be hunted after without worry. He didn't miss a single Purina event the last half of the year. And doing that involved a lot of travel so this dog didn't just lay around not breaking a sweat. In fact he is a hard tree dog also so I'm sure his heart gets a good workout at every tree.

I won't tell you that your experience will be like ours but I'm saying yes have hope! Especially if he is that dog of a lifetime!

Best of luck with your dog!

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Registered: Jan 2011
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Posts: 74

Do what Bobby Reynolds said. Had a four year old diagnosed two years ago, vet told me it was either fork up 500 dollars or the dog was dead. Couple old timers told me to dose the dog with Doxciclin (or however you spell it), keep him on regular heartworm preventative (I use Trifexis, or however you spell it) and hunt the crap out of him just like I normally would. Followed the advise of the old timers and just two weeks ago got a clean bill of health from the same vet. Made the vet eat crow right there in front of me. Bobby has given you good advise.

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