We just went thru this with my parents dog. He's an outside dog. Not sure what
kind. He showed up about 12 years ago and never left lol. He was on deaths
doorstep so we took him in. He had lost a ton of weight really fast. The doc
did what he called a slow kill because he is an older dog. They gave him
steroids and antibiotics and preventive. He was feeling a ton better in a few
days. It's been about a month now and he is acting like his old self. He's
still not really gaining much weight. Our dogs get Blue Buffalo too. In fact,
my chihuahuas were never food aggressive until we switched to Blue Buffalo so
it must be some good stuff lol
`’•.¸*♫♪(✿◠‿◠)♫♪*¸.•’´
(♥) Crystal (♥)
¸.•’´*♫♪(✿◠‿◠)♫♪*`’•.¸
On Nov 23, 2011, at 2:50 PM, "Alexis and Tim" <[email protected]> wrote:
> We had a Chihuahua show up in the dark Friday night – we live where everyone
> has 5 acres and he doesn’t belong to anyone around here so he was apparently
> dumped (we have three other dogs and two of them were dumped too!) This
> little guy is very sweet, deer head type it seems, wonderful temperament and
> appears fairly healthy. I took him to vet today to be checked out and he has
> heartworms. He has not coughed or anything which is a good sign but I’m
> worried and it’s also a big expense we didn’t plan on. However, no way could
> I let him die or get sicker! The vet first has him on antibiotics for 30
> days to kill a parasite she says they have found that causes the heartworms
> to be resistant to the treatment! He will also be on preventive to keep
> young worms from growing up. Then he is to go to phase 2 (followed by phase
> 3) treatment in 60 days (not sure why that long) – this will require some
> hospitalization and then rest when he is at home. So it’s going to be a long
> haul. They think, from the amount of tarter on his teeth, that he is at
> least 5 years old but he does not act very old at all. She said she has not
> had a dog die from heartworm treatment in years. I guess I want
> encouragement and any tips anyone can give. We tend to be holistic with our
> own as well as our dog’s care. They all get food like Blue Buffalo and
> Canidae and sometimes I supplement with a little raw meat or canned wild
> Alaskan salmon and sometimes a vitamin supplement. I want to build him up as
> much as possible before the hard part of his treatment.
>
>
>
> Obviously he had bad owners (he has hookworms too) who then figured they
> would just drive down a country road and dump him in the dark! I can’t
> imagine doing that to this little guy!
>
>
>
>
