If a dog is heartworm positive, that dog is fixed and heartworm treated in GA with
immiticide injections PRIOR to coming to our rescue partner.
Any significant damage increases the risks
of Immiticide treatment.
Generally, dogs should be treated with
Immiticide ® to kill the adult heartworms, although ivermectin often along with the antibiotic doxycycline is still used to kill the larva and prevent additional infections.
What's more, for the foreseeable future, the treatment for heartworm disease in dogs (a drug
called Immiticide) may take a while to procure (due to manufacturing issues), and there may be a potential for greater difficulty as demand increases into the summer.
There were periods of time
when Immiticide ®, the Merial melarsomine product, was unobtainable.
I personally have had much better luck with corticosteroids like prednisone
following Immiticide therapy.
Whether you elect to do the fast - kill method
using Immiticide, or the slow - kill method using monthly Heartgard, either is preferable to leaving the dog untreated, or using unproven, alternative methods that may have no effect or even be harmful.
After a dog has
started immiticide treatment it is critical you follow these guidelines from the American Heartworm Society:
At 8 weeks
post Immiticide treatment, we would not expect any physical chunks of worm to still be present.
Lewis received his first injection of
Immiticide for his positive heartworm infection.
As of August of 2011, and sporadically before that,
Immiticide became unavailable in the United States.
After several weeks of medication, he was ready for his first series of
Immiticide therapy which included a single injection followed by one month of strict cage rest.
Because of this, more and more veterinarians are pre-treating with an antibiotic, doxycycline, to destroy Wolbachia prior to
administering Immiticide or ivermectin.
It is called melarsomine dihydrochloride and it is marketed
as Immiticide by Merial Pharmaceutical Company.
Your veterinarian is the person best equipped to discuss whether you should be
undergoing Immiticide treatment again, or just re-testing in a few months.
If Immiticide treatment is not available, or if you have a dog with early - stage heartworm disease, then long - term use of ivermectin with doxycycline is a reasonable alternative.
We have a «young» boxer mix rescue who is five weeks past his
final immiticide injection.
In 30 days, Max will be rechecked by our doctors here and potentially
begin Immiticide treatments.
So I opted to do the conventional
Immiticide heartworm treatment, with the thought that it would be best to get the worms out of her more quickly.»
Both tested heartworm positive and both were treated with
Immiticide about a month ago.
We usually recommend restricted activity for 5 to 6 weeks after the
last Immiticide injection.
«She just had her 60 -
day Immiticide injection to treat her heartworm.
We are still using the
standard Immiticide for almost all of our heartworm positives and have been lucky in rarely seeing any adverse reaction, most dogs seem to do very well following treatment.
The only time that I do this is when I have an elderly patient with very few worms, or the
effective Immiticide treatment is not possible, due to the owner's financial circumstances.
ie using a monthly preventative or ivermectin vs the
traditional Immiticide, both because of costs and many state that it is easier on the dog.
The American Heartworm Society states that it is imperative to restrict exercise, excitement, and overheating from the time of diagnosis through the period of treatment and recovery, with the most extreme degree of exercise restriction recommended for the first 4 weeks following
Immiticide administration.