Ginger is a two-year-old German shepherd mix that first came to our hospital in July.
She was adopted by her owner not long before coming to our hospital. Up-to-date on all vaccines, she had come to our clinic to be treated for tapeworms. After speaking with the owner, Dr. Forbes recommended a heartworm test and starting Ginger on prevention. Bad news: the test was positive. The diagnosis was confirmed when Dr. Forbes discovered microfilaria (“baby heartworms”) in the blood by looking through the microscope.
Realizing this was life-threatening condition, Ginger’s owner knew we needed to take action. Heartworm treatment involves months of special requirements to keep Ginger healthy while simultaneously killing off these parasites.
To start treating Ginger’s heartworms, Dr. Forbes wanted to insure Ginger’s overall health was not at risk. A complete blood chemistry and urinalysis were both performed to find her in otherwise perfect health.
The first day of treatment, we killed the baby heartworms, and Ginger was monitored for signs of shock throughout the day. For three months after being diagnosed with heartworms, Ginger was prescribed heartworm prevention, steroids, and antibiotics. The preventative insures no new heartworms can begin developing, steroids reduce any inflammation, and the antibiotics help to weaken the adult heartworms prior to the adult heartworm treatment.
After three months of this regimen, it was time to move on to the next steps: treating for the adult heartworms. An injection in the muscle surrounding the lumbar vertebrae was given in November to kill off half of these parasites. Ginger was hospitalized throughout the day to be monitored for drug reactions, then she was sent home with steroids and her activity was restricted. This was repeated one month later, except the injection was two days in a row and hospitalization continued overnight. In the weeks after these injections, there was a much higher risk of life-threatening clots in the lungs due to the worms dying in the bloodstream.
For this entire process, Ginger’s activity has been restricted to leash walking only to go potty to keep her heart rate and blood pressure down, with no playing or exercise. Ginger and her owner have both been through the ringer, but she will soon get to resume her normal activity! The last step will be checking a heartworm test six months after her last injection to insure the treatment was a success!
Written by Zachary
