Removing Heartworms Before They Do Too Much Damage

Treating a heartworm infection is conceptually straight forward, kill the adult heartworms in the heat and lungs, and then kill the larvae throughout the body. However, the medication for killing the adults is very hard on the dog’s system. It is after all poison, a derivative of arsenic. This is especially true for a dog’s system weakened and damaged by the heartworm infection.

Further complications occur once the adult heartworms die. Dead heartworms will clog the arteries worse than when they where alive. These dead adults will also take several weeks to break down, and leave the immune system to clean up the foreign material. Toxins can also be released from the dead worms and all this new garbage and poison will increase inflammation and can cause bad reactions.

The first step is stabilizing the dog’s basic life functions, mainly breathing and circulation. Then, any damage from the heartworm infection must be dealt with. A dog with partial renal failure or experiencing poor liver function, for example, is not prepared for the onslaught of poison and dead worms.

Next, the adult heartworms must be killed with the harsh medication. Veterinarians often will keep moderate or severely infected dogs at their veterinary hospital, if they view the dog is at high risk for severe reaction.

Side effects can occur immediately or as long as two weeks after treatment. The entire process usually takes a month, after which a preventative is administered to kill the larvae.

After four months from when the medication was administered, the dog will be retested for heartworms. The adolescent adult heartworms can be resistant to the medication so sometimes a few survive. In this case, the dog is treated once more.

It’s definitely better to prevent heartworms than to end up treating them. Maintaining a consistent preventative plan is essential for all dogs. Additionally, taking measures to reduce your local mosquito population will not only reduce risk to yourself and your dog from disease, it will also reduce the presence of disease overall.

I believe it is the responsibility of all land owners, especially Doberman owning land owners, to maintain their land responsibly in a way that will improve our environments. Be a good Doberman owner, build a bat house.