Dog owners dread hearing it when they get their vet's opinion: Rover has heartworms. Heartworms are parasitic organisms that take up residence in the heart and pulmonary arteries, feeding on blood. Their presence causes many painful and potentially fatal symptoms in dogs, including poor breathing, irregular heartbeat, loss of consciousness and coughing up blood. Thankfully, veterinary medicine has a proven treatment that can eliminate the worms. However, this treatment is not without risk.
-
Lengthy Recovery Time
-
The most common heartworm treatment, Immiticide TM, kills all the worms over approximately four weeks, with recovery completing approximately six weeks after treatment is administered.
Worm Shift
-
When the heartworms are killed, they change position. Approximately one week after treatment, the first of the worms will die and change position, causing several symptoms in the dog. They may have a fever, a cough, lose their appetite, have difficult breathing, or even cough up blood.
Arterial Clogging
-
Heartworms maintain their position in the heart and lungs by swimming against the current of blood flow. Once the worms are dead, however, there is no way for them to resist the blood flow. This causes them to be pushed through the arteries, eventually coming to rest where they can no longer be pushed through. It takes white blood cells time to break down these large, sometimes foot-long worms, into small enough pieces that they can safely pass through the arteries.
Restricted Exercise
-
As a result of the arterial clog from the dead worms, exercise should be extremely limited. Exertion causes the blood to pump faster as the heart works harder. This pushes the dead worms further, possibly shoving them into an artery that they fully obstruct. Over-exertion with a heart and lungs filled with anywhere from one to 250 dead worms could cause serious pulmonary and cardiac distress, and could even be fatal.
Reinfection
-
As soon as the veterinarian gives approval, place the dog on a heartworm preventative. Immediate reinfection is unlikely, but a further infection before the dog's system has time to heal from the first can be extremely detrimental to the dog's health.
Other Complications
-
The most common and mildest complication, and the only one directly caused by treatment in otherwise healthy dogs, and not the dead worms, is slight soreness at the Immiticide TM injection site. The drug itself may cause more serious complications if the dog has a preexisting severe liver disease. Other serious complications that can occur, but are extremely rare, include blood vessel rupture due to worm blockage, or an allergic shock-like reaction.
-