Heart(Worm) Attack

Often, the foster dogs that we take in have not been taken care of properly. (I must be feeling nice today, because that's putting it mildly. One of our fosters was found with a fish hook attached to him. But I digress.) It's very common that the dogs test positive for heartworms--this unfortunately is the case with our current foster, Bubba. Before we started fostering, I gave Bailey her heartworm prevention every month and never gave much thought to what heartworms actually are and what they can do to a dog (or cat). Basically, as the name suggests, they are worms that live in the dog's heart...when a dog is bitten by an infected mosquito, the mosquito deposits larvae that migrate to the heart and can grow to be several inches long (nasty!). They are dangerous because they can eventually obstruct blood vessels between the dog's heart and lungs.

The treatment for heartworms sounds pretty crazy--the dog is injected with a compound that contains arsenic! The arsenic kills the worms, but then the real fun begins...the dog has to be kept quiet for about six weeks. This is because any kind of exercise can cause the worms to dislodge too quickly and cause a pulmonary thrombosis. So for about six weeks, there can be no running, playing, walks, games of fetch...basically no fun! As you can guess, keeping a young, otherwise healthy dog quiet for this long is quite a challenge.

So I dropped little Bubba off at the vet's office this morning to get his injections. I hated leaving him there...we have had him for two weeks now, and I think he was just beginning to feel secure with us and in his new surroundings. But I know he is in great hands, and I will pick him up on Monday when we'll begin our quiet time. Here's hoping Bubba does great this weekend and we have an uneventful six weeks of rest!