Ever get that feeling that your friends and co-workers are rolling their eyes in silence when they hear you talk about a topic for the 1 millionth time? Yep. That’s how I feel with the subject of medicine and dogs. I have a strong opinion based off of personal experience and will tell my story any chance I get. Today I am going to focus on heartworms specifically. I will save my experiences on dog aggression and animal fatality linked to medication in a future post. {You are welcome}

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Background:
Derrick and I are fur-baby rescuers. Always have been, always will be. I tend to focus on the less wanted animals: maybe a senior, maybe neglected, maybe not very attractive. Lord knows I have had some really ugly dogs that I thought were just the light of the world. <3. Let us fast forward to Abby.

Abby was an adult pure bred German Shephard that had spent the first 3-5 years of her life tied up outside of a breeders home. She was a “nuisance” and the breeder let a concerned neighbor just take her. She came across my newsfeed and I knew she was our next love. June 29th 2014, we drove this sweet girl a couple of hours to our home. I was surprised to see that her behavior was very puppy-like. She bounced around and played just like a goofy young pup would. Obviously happy to just be free and have a new family!

Diagnosis:
We went through the normal process of taking her to our local traditional vet who gave us some overall good news on her health except for the fact that she was full of heartworms. They explained it as a very advanced case, and it apparently was affecting her in ways that we didn’t realize, like coughing and heavy breathing.
Read more about heartworm symptoms>> Here

My initial thought process was, “we have been through this before, where do I sign?” But as we continued to talk through the risks, for some reason this time I was listening harder. They explained a very common practice but in the same conversation mentioned that after the procedure Abby would need to be on exercise restriction. Below outlines the procedure provided.

  • Medications: Protocols for treating heartworms often call for the use of multiple medications including several injections to kill the adult heartworms, doxycycline and prednisone taken orally to reduce the chances of unwanted side effects, and heartworm preventative to kill the juvenile heartworms and prevent further infection. In some cases, other medications may be prescribed or different protocols recommended.
  • Exercise Restriction: Exercise restriction is a vital part of successful treatment for heartworms in dogs. This is required before, during and after treatment for a prolonged period of time.
    (Source)

I can remember the conversation like it was yesterday. My vet was very matter of fact – almost as if she had no heart. I know, I know.. this is very transactional to her and she has to remove her emotion to do her job well. Here is how I remember her explanation, “After the procedure don’t let her get excited about anything for about 3 weeks- if she does, her blood can start pumping quickly and the heartworms we are killing could create a blood clot and she may die. We tend to say there is a 50:50 chance of survival.”

Excuse me? 50:50 shot? 3 weeks?! That sounds like a terrible chance of survival! Derrick and I both worked full time jobs and wouldn’t be able to be home to ensure she didn’t get excited about anything. I kept looking down into those big brown eyes meanwhile she is bouncing around like Tigger who found his Pooh. Even better news followed (insert eye roll), this whole procedure would cost around $1200. Just like most families who take in many dogs, we don’t do it because we have money laying around everywhere so $1200 felt pretty steep at the time. Not to mention we had poured hundreds of dollars into the last rescue we got just a couple of months before. I just kept telling myself there has to be a better way.

I immediately let them know I needed to do research and left in complete disbelief. Is this the same procedure that my older rescued dog (Belle) had to go through before I could adopt her from the shelter? I had no idea how serious it was, but thank God she was 9 years old and super chill.

Our first homeopathic experience:
My Aunt, who has a large passion for natural healing and a degree in alternative medicine, suggested I go see her holistic vet for a 2nd opinion. It was an easy sell and within a week we were at the office of Dr. Sandra L’Amie (Oceans Edge Veterinary clinic in Daytona Beach) with hope in our eyes! Using the LifeLine energy technique Dr. L’Amie confirmed that Abby had heartworms, and it was a high count (a level 9 on a scale of 10 if I am remembering correctly.)

Just as we hoped, she was very calm and presented us with an option that was completely natural, and easy to administer. Even better news, it was only going to cost us $25 a bottle and may take about 2-3 treatments. Ok, I will be the first to admit- it really did sound too good to be true. But we were willing to try anything! So we purchased the bottle of Para Solve. We were to spray this remedy on Abby’s food (3 sprays twice a day for her moose weight) and after 30 days we would take her back to be checked. When I ran out of the spray I simply bought some more on Amazon, it’s less than $40 a bottle!

We took Abby back for a follow up appointment and she still tested positive for heartworms but it was a much smaller level. It was working! We knew we may need 2-3 rounds and so we continued on for 2 more rounds with a total of 3 before we received the green light from Dr. L’Amie that Abby was finally heartworm free. A total of 3 months. This process still seemed unreal.. a bottle of natural liquid cured my dog of heartworms?

Although we were about 90% sold in this new method.. we still felt the urge to get traditional confirmation via a blood test for heartworms. I knew I would be telling this story to everyone I crossed paths with, and who would believe me if I didn’t confirm it worked via the same traditional test they usually use? I took Abby back to our original traditional vet and had a heartworm test done. Sure enough.. the same vet who told me that I needed to pay $1200 and risk my dogs life, walked into the room to tell me the great news that Abby is heartworm negative and we can start her on preventative meds immediately. I did take the opportunity to share this journey with my vet, however I am sad to say they are still not using this method in their practice and they still recommend the harsher treatment.

We did recently have another family pup rescued heartworm positive and because of this experience my Aunt was able to get our local shelter to use the described method above. Sure enough, he was cured naturally as well! I hope to keep sharing this story so that more fur-parents question the harsh heartworm method most vets practice and take a different safe, cost effective route.

Here is Abby- 5 years later and skill Heartworm Free!

Share this far and wide! Continue rescuing those HW positive babies!! There are cost effective solutions out there!!
less than $40 a bottle, no side effects/no risk of death > $1200 and 50:50 shot of living

Feel free to ask questions below, I will do my best to answer! For specific diagnosis and treatment for your dog, please schedule an appointment with your nearest holistic vet!

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