HW treatment over!!!

WONDERFUL!  Bet it was a long 2 months!

Yeah i was a really long 2 months.. And i feel for Hogan and his mom since they are still going thru this.. they have to keep him quiet a lot longer... not sure why though..

thank goodness for my dad... if he wasnt retired I dont know what i would have done during the day to walk Coal.   I think they are buddies now.  Coal would lay on the floor and dad would lay on the couch...lol.... they both have health issues so they didnt walk for long just enough for Coal to do his buisness and then right back to the same spots... 

Anybody reading this please please make sure your dog gets HW meds....  after learning about this disease and living thru the treatment its a lot easier paying for the meds and marking the calender each month than having to crate a dog and spends lots of money for the treatment and its not good for the dog either.  very painful.  And note that I was out with back surgery last year for about 2 months and was in a lot of pain and on meds and I totally flaked on their HW meds and this is the result.   Just 2 months and it was in October not even in the summer! 

thanks again!

We are so happy he's feeling better just in time for summer!  []

Yay!  Glad it is over for you and your boy.

You said is SO well -- I know a lot of people in less hw-prone areas argue a great deal over whether or not to use the preventive and I do understand that.  But I also understand first hand what it is to have to take them THRU the treatment.  It's very hard on the owner and it is VERY hard on the dog.  Since you know the approximate time the dog was infected it wasn't a huge infestation -- the longer they have developed the worse it is. 
 
I think in some areas people feel that their dog getting heartworm is like "winning the lottery" - as in "it's just not gonna happen".  But the algebra of this (the statistics) of it are growing by leaps and bounds.  And the sad fact is that with the advent of refrigerated food trucks, mosquito larvae can ride all the way to the furthest reaches of Canada and everywhere else and THEN develop.  So my point is it IS spreading.  And just because you don't necessarily have mosquitos *usually* after a given day, all it takes is one warm evening when you're out for a nice walk or near a bonfire (and who doesn't usually use Deep Woods Off in the woods at night?? Isn't that where bugs are the worst??) -- but this evening happens to be AFTER the dog's last heartworm tablet for the year.
 
Those pills only last 24 hours in the body. THAT IS ALL.  They call it 'preventive' and that's such a misnomer.  It only prevents the maturation of microfilaria ALREADY IN the body.  So if you give the tablet on Thursday and Saturday you're out and the dog gets bit -- there's no furthe protection.
 
I'm SO over parasites -- Billy's got this whatever it is -- tick disease maybe ... we still don't know.  But I DO *know* he got bitten by a tick in March.  It was a COOL morning and I found the darned thing on a Sunday morning when we were all in bed snuggling.  It was still cold down here then -- well, maybe not to the rest of you but 50 is cold here for March. 
 
Ticks aren't heartworm -- I realize that.  But my point is the darned parasites don't seem to have a calendar.  *sigh*
 
But having someone who has taken their dog THRU the disease say I'll never let that happen again goes a long long way.  Well said.

AMEN.  As most of you know, our golden mix had heartworms when we adopted her and the ONLY experiece I had ever had with them was when my Dad lost his elderly English Setter to them some 30 odd years before--firs time any of us had ever heard of them.  Commander was given arsenic (treatment back then) went blind and died. 
 
I may be paranoid, but I just never would chance my dogs getting those nasty buggers, and then when we found our adopted dog had them, I was in a panic.   I worried the entire time she was crated that somehow i might goof up, or that the drug would kill her, or the drug wouldn't work for some reason.  And then of couse, she was barely 1, still a puppy and it was hard for her.  But today, 3 1/2 years later she is as healthy as can be and I had all that worry for nothing.
 
Now Cole can run and play and BE A DOG, and soon Hogan will be the same.  I am so happy Cole's done with the treatment and is fine and I know Hogan will be the same.  YEA!

That's great news; I'm very happy for him.

thanks everybody...
 
its soo funny... i let him outside friday afternoon and he followed me around the yard like ok lets go for our walk... and i left both of them outside for about an hour later  and he was sitting by the back door ready to come back in....  they woke me up at 4am on saturday to go out...  and i let them out and they ran full out to the back fence and started barking I know my neighbors LOVED me at that moment but was happy to see him running.    I left them outside later that morning for a few hours and again that afternoon and a little longer on Sunday... and this morning is their first full day outside together... I am sure I will have new holes all over my yard.   The past 2 months I have discovered who the digger is.... COAL!!!   Casey has one spot inside the dog Kennel (i leave the gate open) under this tree but the rest are Coals...lol.l  He wasnt a happy camper this morning he followed me to the back door and gave me a look and was looking sad at the fence when i left but i know they will be fine...
 
thanks again...