Late on heartworm prevention, okay?

[SillyChicken]

She'll be fine!

I spoke to my vet about heart worms this summer. Their life span is 3-5 years. If your dog contracted them, the preventative kills any larvae the adults produce. After a few years, I would imagine gritstar your old dog would have outlived her worms. I believe you can have the dog x-ayed to detect if worms are still present, but that would be a waste of money since they have to stay on the meds year round the rest of their life anyway.

The only issue with die off from adult worms is toxicity of decay, or lodging in arteries. They may have to go on an antibiotic, steroid and benedryll for a while, along with the heart worm monthly meds.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Actually the vet re-tested Charlie Girl for the heartworms yearly, since (according to the vet) her heart sounded healthy and she certainly didn't act like a dog with heartworms. It always came back positive

Doesn't matter know. We had to put her down after her kidney cancer spread to her lungs. Still miss that dog every day.