Caring for dogs with heartworms

If you know me outside of this blog, you're probably not going to be too surprised by most of what I say in today's post. But even if you do know me, you probably don't know that all three of our pups were recently diagnosed with heartworms - something no animal lover wants to hear.  Let me start from the beginning....

Over Memorial Weekend, my elderly greyhound (she's 11 years old) was feeling particularly frisky and pinned my 9 year old mutt down in a corner of the yard. I was in the shower at the time so, even though I could hear the ruckus, I couldn't get to them to see what was going on. My husband was working in the attic. By the time either of us to get to the girls, they were both bloody and injured.

We looked them over and discovered Sweetie, my 9-year-old mutt, had a chewed up ear and a canine tooth ripped out of her jaw but not out of her gum. Twyla, my 11-year-old grey, had a pretty good laceration on her forearm.  Fortunately, we have a vet tech in the family and after a few frantic texts and calls, we decided we could bandage the girls together and call the vet on Tuesday instead of the holiday weekend.  Both girls were pretty sore and laid low the rest of the weekend.

Since the vast majority of the household administration duties fall to me, I will admit that I had fallen a bit behind on their shot records. But, having worked for a vet previously myself many years ago, I knew we were still within the safe range of the necessary vaccines - but, we really did need to get things updated. Since we were at the vet and I had my husband on hand to help me with the dogs, we went ahead and had everything done.  Sadly, both dogs came back positive for heartworms.  We made an appointment to bring our youngest pup, Roscoe, in to be tested as well. Sure enough, his came back positive.

Our family vet has been aware that I prefer to take a more holistic approach to care and I had not been using traditional heartworm preventative. She said, that's fine, but clearly it's not working. Which is true, but I had to admit to her that it can't work if I don't give it to them. And I had gone back to look after the first tests came back and sure enough, it had been about a year since I had given any of the pups their treatment. Up until then, all their tests had been clear.

Standoff with the neighborhood cat.

I felt HORRIBLE.  Worst fur mama - EVER. We discussed our options and treatment plans. We were both concerned about the stress of the treatment for my older dog, but the vet strongly encouraged me to have the other two brought in for the traditional eradication treatment. I took the information home. I discussed it with my husband. And we began to research.

So this is where you might not be surprised if you know me already. I tend to take a rather cautious approach to modern medicine. I'm not sure if it stems from watching family members undergo chemo, or just a firm belief that God created our bodies to work in harmony - if we provide the proper environment of exercise, real food, and even down time. I belief our bodies can do a lot more than we give them credit for. If you find you need a little extra help, well, I try to take a more natural approach - oils, herbs, and vitamins. I'm not opposed to modern medicine by any means. I just don't feel like it should be the first and only option.

After a few restless nights and lots of research, we decided to stick with our holistic treatments.

The HWF and COQ10 supplements we're using.

So here's what I'm doing:

• HWF by Amber Technology 2x a day
• COQ10 supplement 2x a day during heartworm treatment, then down to 1x a day to provide heart support
• Raw Honey mixed with either raw peanut butter or plain yogurt, about 1 teaspoon each, 1x a day for additional anti-viral and protein support since they're likely not going to eat much
• Apple Cider Vinegar mixed in with their daily water for overall health support
• Bug spray daily, made from natural oils

Here's what I was doing before, but wasn't doing consistently that we must resolve to do a better job of:

• Keep fresh cedar chips in their outside dog houses
• Keep yard mowed and treated as naturally as possible for bugs
• Dump out any standing water as often as possible
• Keep up with monthly flea treatments (which we do monthly and year round in Texas)
• Go back to daily supplemental treatments to prevent further heartworm infestation. We've been using a product by Only Natural Pet. This time, I'm putting it on AutoShip.
• Dig up my unproductive flowerbeds (read - full of weeds) and replace them with natural mosquito repelling plants, such as catnip, lavender, rosemary, basil, lemongrass, and marigolds.  There's also a citronella geranium if you can get your hands on it.  

I was able to get my hands on some COQ10 over the weekend and we started the dogs on a 1x a day treatment.  Honestly, my 11-year-old should have been on it already.

We got the HWF in the mail today - Monday - not too bad considering I ordered it on a Friday afternoon.  I wanted to get the treatment started asap, so we gave them their first dose as directed on the pamphlet, followed by a honey and peanut butter ball as a treat.





I hope this is not something you ever have to face.  However, if you do, know that I'll share our results here, as openly and honestly as I always do. I'm not getting paid to endorse any product or method, so my opinions are my own. We're due to go back to the vet in a couple months for another heartworm test to see how the treatment is going. I'll post an update then.