by SisMorphine » September 21st, 2011, 12:42 am
I can't even say this is my "worst nightmare" or anything of the such . . . as frankly I NEVER thought it would happen to me.
Blue is heartworm positive.
As many of you know, I am very low key when it comes to meds for my dogs, erring mostly on the side of holistic. For heartworm treatment, from the research I've done, I only treat my dogs every other month for the months where the nights are all over 47 degrees.
Well since I can buy a package of Interceptor and it can last me a few years with 2 dogs, I'm not exactly anal about purchasing. Combine that with my numerous friends in this area who do not do HW preventative at all. Now, you see me, continually forgetting or poor-timing my purchase of the new heartworm preventatives, and frankly I'm not overly worried.
HW isn't prevalent in Mass. Most vets will tell you that they have either never seen a case or have only seen it in dogs imported from the south. But a case of HW in a dog who has always lived in New England and is rarely outdoors (I call my two "The Indoor Kids"), is nearly unheard of. Most vets offices have not seen this.
So when my vet called me on Monday, about 5 mins after I got to work, to give me the news, I was bawling my eyes out. I was at fault. There is no doubt there. But also just the randomness of it all. The randomness that has friends who haven't used HW preventative in 10 years rushing to their vet's office.
Now the kicker . . . there is only one medication that kills adult heart worms . . . and there is currently a production issue so this medication is NOT available to anyone anywhere. Now this is where, at work, I completely lose my crap and just bawl on and off for hours . . . wishing I could be home with my baby boy that I did wrong.
For the past few months he has slowed down a little. Nothing huge, and nothing I could truly put my finger on. But now it all makes sense. Tomorrow morning we go in for a different blood test to see how advanced it is (though he tested negative last October so the most recent infection could be early summer) and we discuss treatment options while we wait for the Immiticen to become available again. There is a good chance that this will be an 18-24 month ordeal if the Immiticen doesn't become available. Currently looking at a combo of allopathic and holistic treatments, but will discuss tomorrow with the vet. I hope it doesn't take too long to get the bloods back. And fingers crossed we caught it early. At least my big blue dog is relatively low key . . . though coming home and greeting him sedately and not encouraging him to jump and wiggle-waggle and just be crazy kills me . . .
"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France