Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Heartworm Treatment for Mojo

Heartworm treatment is a costly procedure and can be draining for a family. I have found this out first hand as a dog I have taken in from someone has heartworms. The previous owners did not keep him on preventative and now our 7 year old Min Pin Mojo has do undergo treatment. From people I have talked to I have heard that it is very hard on the dogs and some personalities change.

The way the treatment goes is this. Step one is fighting the bacterial side of things. Mojo was on medication for 30 days for this.

Step 2 is killing the baby heartworms. They have him on a monthly heartworm preventative to take care of this. He is taking iverhart plus every month.

Step 3 is the first injection. They inject medication into his back muscle to start killing the adults. At this point mojo is put on exercise restriction. The reason they do this is the medication starts breaking the worms up into pieces and if he gets too excited they will be pumped out of his heart and could kill him. That is why he needs to stay calm.

Step 4 is one month after step 3 and is one injection one day, and another on the following day. This would be the worst pain for the dog. He will be on pain medicine for 3 days following this set of injections.

Step 5 is the final tell all step. The retest. Some heartworms may make it through one set of treatments and need to be retreated. If the test comes back positive, treatment will start over right away. If it comes back negative then you are in good shape and everything is taken care of for the time being.

The only thing is the cost is up there and it is hard to pay for in this economy. I love my dogs and I want them to be healthy. I hate this part but if you would Like to donate to help Mojo with his treatment I would really appreciate it. Money is really tight for me as I know it is everyone and I just want to make sure my dogs are taken care of like they should be. Thanks for your consideration and keep Mojo in your prayers.