Our Vizsla has been on Sentinel since he was a puppy (hes 4 now). Doesnt show any signs of having heartworms other than the positive test result....any advice?

He has always weighed around 50lbs, and weight has remained the same

I have always been told that once they get'em, it's too late... DVM or the other vets on here would know better than me though. Good luck.

Maybe a vet on the board knows better than I do, but I've always been under the impression that if your dog gets heartworms while on a company's preventative, the company would pay for the treatment.

What did your vet have to say?

It's not too late for the dog, especially if there aren't any other symptoms. Treatment does cost a few hundred dollars though.

I had a 3 yr old Red heeler, same story on Heartgard her entire life, come down with heartworms. Treated her and a year later she had a litter of twelve pups, everything clean, she has been negative since.

I am not a vet, although in vet school, but as long as the process has not progressed too far treatment is possible.

I will also say that the course of treatment can be tough, because of the drugs used, lots of cage rest. It nearly killed me to have to leave a working heeler in a crate, but you have to.

DVM or some of the other vets on here may know about the company paying if they were on a preventative, but I am not aware of that.

Best of luck!

The vet really didnt seem to concerned (heights animal hospital in Houston) Said to come back in for lab tests....chest x-rays...etc. Vet said they didnt hear anything in his chest or see anything on the exam (it was in the bloodwork)

our dog, doesnt seem to have any symptoms...very active, eating normally and ALWAYS BEEN ON SENTINEL.

Not too worried about the couple hundred bucks, although for pure principal, I would be interested in how to make the company pay

In my experience, if you can prove with medical records that your dog has been taking 12 doses of Sentinel per year with a yearly heartworm test, then Novartis will pay. Your vet will have to give them a call to work this out.

You can find out all about heartworm disease at heartwormsociety.org

My old dog had heart worms and wasn't given a good percentage of survival. She made it through treatment no problems and lived another 8 years. That was 13 years ago so I'm sure there have been advances in treatment. It was very expensive though. I don't know how much it would be now.

The problem is with dogs with adult worms. If the worms die and detach before the body has a chance to break them down, they can cause heart attacks and strokes by blocking arteries. You keep the dog from getting excited or exherting itself for about a month during treatment, and the odds of dislodging an adult worm before it is broken down goes down substantially.

We once treated and rehabilitated an abused rescue collie. He was the sweetest little dog, really tugged on your heart, watching him trying to "learn how to be a regular dog" from our own collies. He tested positive, and we thought he would survive the treatment, but he had a very advanced case and a couple of weeks after he got adopted out, he had a stroke. It was sad, but again, he had a serious infection.

I'd make sure to get a confirmation test, and then perhaps try a different preventative treatment regimen for heartworm. Most likely, the preventative meds have really minimized the extent of the infection, and a treatment regimen will work well.

The disease wouldn't be nearly as prevalent if so many jackasses didn't let their dogs go without treatment, allowing it to spread.

Our boxer (who was always on preventative) tested positive with the rapid test once. Doc told us to wait a month for complete blood work. When we did it he was negative in two samples. Vet said he has had several false positives before.

There's been issues noted recently in the veterinary community with cases of heartworms becoming resistant to the medicines we use as preventatives -- and that's been topped off in the past year by a shortage of the drug that's used to treat heartworms, which is called immiticide.

Here's an article from a veterinarian's blog that discusses it...
http://www.yourpetsbestfriend.com/your_pets_best_friend/2008/04/heartworm-preve.html

You can get another vet to do another heartworm test, "second opinion" so to speak, but I'd recommend getting the treatment started as soon as possible. You can contact the Sentinel people and see if they can help you out with the treatment cost, but you'd have to prove the doses were given regularly.

my english pointer was treated for heartworms about 6 years ago, they used arsenic and I had to keep her from running or any strenuous activity. Recovered just fine but is getting old and crippled...mind says go body says no!
Get the treatment.

Col. A 1976

Good news (I guess). The first blood test 2 weeks ago, revealed positive (he was in the vet because he was sick) After the trip yesterday (annual shots) they did another blood test that came back NEGATIVE.

I guess the blood test has some high false positives. (and low negatives) Should be good to go now....thanks for all the responses.

I am interested in what kind of test they are doing.

Working for a vet for 6 years through Hs and college I never saw a false positive snap test.

But Good news anyways!

The product is guaranteed if you have been purchasing 12 doses a year and have a yearly heartworm test performed. It is unusual to have false positive positive results with the test we regularly use, but it can happen. The split treatment protocol generally works very well with minimal complications.

I can call tomorrow and find out.

The test used that gave the false positive was a an anti-body test....I guess used to determine if he was producing antibodies to fight off heartworms....did the same test a month later, and it was negative.

Any more comments from you vets out there? Mrs Herkimer MD degree doesn't help as much with canines.

[This message has been edited by HERKIMER80 (edited 8/11/2010 5:45p).]

my heeler-mix tested positive for heartworms soon after I got him. I adopted Jack in November and then in June when he was due up for his shots. Since I adopted him in November, he had been on heartguard.

Him coming up positive shocked both me and my vet because Jack was adopted from another vet clinic.

Since he was just a slight positive...ie, the blood-dot test changed colors, but was a light pink not dark...we decided to just go with heartguard monthly instead of doing the full-blown treatment of arsenic. I was told it could take up to 5-years to get a negative heartworm test.

I adopted Jack in 2005, he tested positive in June 2006. This summer, he for the first time tested negative for heartworms.

If your dog has been on something, I would not think the heartworms could be too bad. But, I also thought a vet would make sure he got heartworm preventative as well

Yeah hes been on them them his whole life (we have had him since 6 weeks) Ive literally never been a day late with them either.

We only use an antigen test (proteins from female heartworms). A positive antibody test only shows exposure, not actual infection. Not really sure why they're running an antibody test in dogs. Wouldn't miss any doses of preventative as it looks like your dog has been exposed. FYI the preventatives kill the previous 30 days of heartworm larva if your dog has been exposed.

BM:

should we take him somewhere else for second opinion? Do you have any other rec's in Houston besides Heights Animal Hospital? Thanks for the advice.... Besides being a wonderful dog, and family member...I have nearly 3k wrapped up in the dog with field training. Most importantly I cant afford to lose the family member (and would be ashamed to lose the investment due to incompetence from the vet.