Heart worms in dogs

Our dog back in January started loosing weight and his coat started looking dull. Then he became listless. The last month his stomach was bloated and it started being hard for him to breath, and when he would walk across the pen which is about 75 feet by 75 feet he would cough.

I was told by the time they start showing symptoms it's too late to treat them.

I'm so sorry. I've lost 2 dogs due to heartworm complications. I loved and took care of them the best I could. They got the arsenic tx years ago and it damaged their hearts, although, they lived to 12 and 13.
The last one I lost like this was due to a newer tick disease called erlichea (?). Bad stuff, but she swam with our Lab all the time and I couldn't seem to keep tick tx on them. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, it just gets them before you get the money to help them.

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Vickie

your response caught my attention..i was just informed that my 3 y/o german shepard has heart worms. (both he and my lab have been treated with revolution for the past 2 1/2 years) my lab is negative. i was also advised not to get the treatment for him because the 6 month shot would keep him from getting more heartworms and the old ones would eventually die off. how safe is this approach? i don't want to lose my dog. thanks, scottie

I'm sorry to say the other dog died about a week ago. I think she just gave up after he died, and greaved herself to death. She quite eating and would not even look at us anymore. She was so loving it was very hard to have to bury her also.

Ruby I am so sorry that you have lost your pets. I cannot imagine my life with out my girls. My heart goes out to you.

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www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm

Scottie, waiting for heartworms to die off naturally is only safe if there are very few worms present in the heart. Even a moderate infection can cause damage to the heart.

While I am sorry for anyones loss of a beloved animal, I am at a loss as to why so many own animals but cannot pay for basic medical care or take so long to get to the vet. There always seems to be atleast one post floating around with someones dog having a small mutant weasel growing out of its rear end and people asking for home remedies "what should I do?" Take your dogs to the Vet for God's sake!! If you can't afford the couple of dollars a month for heartworm pills you don't need a dog. You can buy the thing from animal supply stores you don't have to pay jacked up vet prices. If your dog gets regular check ups you don't need to wing it with some Navajo smoke test. Your dog cannot talk it cannot tell you to take it to the vet. Do these people take their children to the doctor? You make think I'm being harsh, well I am because anyone who's dog gets heartworms is being irresponsible it is a preventable disease.

Ruby,

I am sorry to hear about the death of your two dogs. I am writing to offer you & others some hope in the form of herbal treatment for & prevention of, heartworms.

I am in the early stages of my own research, as I have four dogs & moved to the south & the mosquitoes here are amazing. I cannot give you specific doasge info, but I can tell you that treating your dogs with a tincture of black walnut hull has worked for vets & laypeople.

You can buy the tincture, or you can buy the herb & make the tincture yourself--which is usually much much less expensive.

Please do some internet searches on : "black walnut hull" + "heartworm prevention", and then search how to make a tincture. Try to get organic black walnut hulls, if you can. You don't want to add funky chemicals & pesticides to something meant to heal!

There are several vets who have authored articles about alternatives to massive & toxic chemicals present in the conventional treatments.

Please consider these alternatives before you either dose an animal with toxic chemicals, or do nothing, either for financial reasons or a perceived lack of viable alternatives.

Beck

I am sorry hear about the loss of your dog. Like a few other posters here, I also use black walnut hull extract for heartworm prevention. My dog has never tested positive for heartworm.

magical panda, thanks for the sarcasm. It just so happens the dogs already had heart worms when they were puppies. We do take our pets to the vet. We also have a 2 year old schnauzer who we have on heart worm preventive. There is times when you just can't keep them alive no matter what. Those animals were well taken care of as best as we could.

I guess people who cannot afford to run to the vet every time their animals sneezes should not have the pleasure of having a pet. We have our cats and dogs spayed and neutered.

Sorry that was me, I had cleared my cookies and for got to log back in.

I looked into the black walnut tincture, I have a huge black walnut tree in my back yard. I did a search online for dosage and found this:

http://www.curezone.com/clark/parasites.asp#pet

The recipe for making the tincture is in her book, which I got from our local library. Her recipe says to put the whole nut in, but others I've read say just the husk. Anyone have any experience making the tincture? Do you use the entire nut or just the green outer husk?