Ken writes: I adopted my dog from a shelter 2 years ago. She was estimated to be 1 year old at the time. She is a mix of Chihuahua and Terrier. She weighs approx. 11 pounds and is 12 inches tall. She tested positive for heartworms but I elected to adopt her anyway. I had […]
Category Archives: Parasites
Here's a note from Pat: I've read so much I am sick. Rescued my shih tzu mix 7 months ago. He was tested negative for heartworms by agency's vet. My vet did not retest (though he did health exam) until 6 months later, and he is positive. Vet gave me 2 options, suggesting we start […]
The horsehair worm is a parasite that lives in water, and its larvae infect insects. Every year or two, a panicky client finds one of these in a toilet bowl, water dish, or a bit of pet vomit. They do not infest the pets, but the crickets or beetles may be eaten by a pet, […]
Eric writes: Thank you for all the information regarding heartworm prevention and treatment. There is a lot of misunderstanding. We are an animal welfare group who took in a dog which tested positive for heartworms. The dog has received ivermectin weekly + doxycyline daily for two weeks, paused a week, and will receive another week […]
A reader writes in today: Had our cocker spaniel treated 5 hours ago with his first shot. For the past 5 hours, he can not get comfortable, fidgets, lays in unusual positions. When walking, his right rear leg is toeing-in and his walks clumsily, often positioning that right foot too far under his body. In […]
A reader writes in: Hi. I have a 12 year old mixed breed who has been on Heartguard preventative most of his life. Unfortunately, he recently tested positive for heartworms. We live in the South, and he is an outside dog. Anyway, the vet said because of his age and the expense that we should […]
Aug 11, 2011DVM NEWSMAGAZINE National Report — As a shortage of the heartworm treatment Immiticide® looms, the American Heartworm Society unveiled an interim management plan for veterinarians yesterday. "With Immiticide unavailable, veterinarians will need to take steps to carefully manage their heartworm-positive patients," says Wallace Graham, DVM, president of AHS in a prepared statement. Crafted […]
This little guy has localized demodecosis. He doesn't look bad at all, not like generalized demodecosis (aka, "red mange"). This is the "spot case" type of demodectic mange that almost always is self-limiting, i.e. the dog recovers whether you treat him or not. Since I've already talked about this at length in previous posts, why […]
Well, I've been remiss in not bringing the Immiticide status report up to date since my last post. The FDA has granted a provisional approval to the European supplier of the raw materials for melarsomine. This apparently falls under some sort of "compassionate use" guideline. The official line now is that we still cannot just […]
You may recall that I posted some time ago on the shortage of Immiticide, the only drug approved to treat dogs for heartworms disease (that is, to kill the adult heartworms). They were going to have it all fixed by the end of March. Well, now, last week it was after "March 31st", which was […]