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My point being: Instead of putting my dog through the trauma of the Arsenic/Ivermectin method and then try to keep the dog confined for 2-3 weeks (with a verty active dog I might add! ), then the thought of possibly killing my dog with this method, and lastly the $3,000.00 expense for this process that might kill my dog - but they would still want their money.... I thought I would try my method first!
Best part it worked!
Not too sure about using this method on smaller dogs as my dog is a larger hunting dog breed. Not too sure about using this method on an older that is clearly showing signs of being severely infected with heartworm. Here is my history & method I used. I bought my dog at 8 weeks old, and she was also only two years old when she tested positive, she had been on the heartworm meds since the Vet said she was old enough to start taking them. I chose to give them to her only April- September when the main mosquito problem existed. She had been heartworm tested once before(the previous Spring) & negative - during her annual exam, & shots. I had used my 6 mo. Of heartworm meds. Over the Spring/Summer & the next Spring when I brought her in for her checkup, shots, and new meds... She came up positive for heartworm. I knew she could not have been infected long enough with heartworm - as she did not show any signs yet. No cough, no tiredness/lethargy, and no bad coat/skin. I even had her retested for heartworm at another vet - that used a different lab from the first vet. She came up positive again. For that reason I chose my method......
Over the years, from seeing the vet "tubeworm" my horses for worms - a process where the vet 1. Places the recommended amount of dewormer & water forming a solution in a clean pail, 2. Places a plastic clear tube up the horses nose, and/or down the throat of the horse into the intestines of the horse. 3. Gets the wormer med. mixture into the belly of the horse. This is done by first getting the liquid wormer from the pail into the horse by starting the syphoning method with the vet's own mouth, then letting the solution/mixture go into horse until the dewormer was in the horse stomach, and pail empty of solution. Several times when one of my horses "acted up" during this process I would see... the vet have a mouthful of this mixture as he syphoned it! His reply: "hasn't killed me yet, and I bet I'll never have worms! " We even did this procedure to foals.
As years went by, the drug companies came out with paste wormers where one could buy a prefilled tube of medicated de-worm paste and "shoot" the paste into the back of the horses open mouth. This was so much easier than taking the life of the vet or oneself in jeopardy while trying to coax the "tube" down the horses throat!
This oral ivermectin equine paste comes in a tube that has weight measurements on it by 100lb increments. I decided to do this early in the AM so that if any adverse reactions occurred, the vet would hopefully be open. My dog weighs about 70lbs. I chose to start out at 100 lbs. - moving the dial to the 100 lb measurement and making sure it was tightly closed for this amount only! (Past experience taught me to double check the dials tightness - from foal worming a couple times the plunger moved passed the designated weight I chose - but I caught it in time. ) I opened her mouth and shot the paste into the back of her mouth, then grabbed her mouth and held it shut so that she could not spit the paste the out, but could swallow and move her tongue around. Once I thought the paste was down her throat, I would examine her mouth to make sure. The first time I carefully watched her for hours to make sure she was OK. She handled it fine. Two weeks later I gave her the oral dog pill she would have taken had she not been positive. Two weeks later - gave her the equine paste -100 lbs again. She handled all this fine. No adverse reactions ever- not even diarrhea! I thought for sure she would have diarrhea as the worms passed out in the poop - but no. We did lightly examine her poop with a stick, and could see small things that could have been worms after we gave her the equine ivermectin. From here, I increased the timing to weekly - but still stayed at the 100 lbs. as to not overpower my dog with medicine. Any worm has a life cycle. Usually Larva, Pupa, Adult. With each having their own time frames for each phase in this cycle. I was trying to disrupt the life cycle. Trying to kill off the heartworms - first the youngest ones, then by having the medicine put weekly in the dogs bloodstream - keeping the med. Levels high at all times in the bloodstream to work on the nervous system of the mid life cycles, and then the oldest life cyles - the adult stage heartworms. This seemed to work! At end of 6 months - went and had her retested. The vet called and said the lab had to rerun the test as it was "inconclusive" and the would rerun the test for free to make sure! I took this as a good sign... That the level of heartworms in the blood had gone down to the level between positive and negative. The test came back positive, so I kept her on the same weekly 100lb. Ivermectin equine paste. Six months later tested again & she came back - negative/no more heartworms. Due to this all clear test - I dropped back to giving her just the dog oral heartworm pill, and 1X per month giving her another mouthful of the oral equine paste - 100 lbs. Last time tested - (6 months later again), she tested negative again. Now I have gone back to strictly the oral dog pill. We will see next time what she tests - this test will be a yearly test though.
Hope this helps anyone going through this difficult decision with their own dog. After doing your research on the de-worming process for heartworms in dogs, and you decide to try another route - an unconventional route. More power to you. It was a huge step for me to take. A route that other vets won't tell you to try as it will get them in trouble with their vet license. I was willing to start slow, and go from there. I got lucky - it worked for me. Will one dog recovering be enough for you to try this method? Only YOU can answer that. With humans - when one gets so sick the family sometimes will make a decision to try another route - the drug companies call it "medical research" and the person or family must sign their life away to not seek any damages towards this company for their medical "research" if the outcome is not what one expects. Again - I am not a vet & I can't guarrantee anything! All I can say it worked on my dog. You will have to decide in your own mind if this is something you want to do - you and only you will be willing to take any of the consequences that may arise with your dog. Do your research online, and then decide.
