#giantmicrobes

What a great idea! I love those guys, I have the common cold and he is so fun to throw around and then say “you caught a cold” lol

Maggot stimboard

The only heartworm allowed in this house is a plush one - after nine months of treatment, Jackie is heartworm-free!

Her journey's been a bit different from the traditional path. For one, she's been on heartworm preventatives for a long time. The problem is that heartworm takes six months to show up on a test. She was taken in by a shelter at two months; we adopted her at seven months. Somewhere in her early puppyhood, an infected mosquito must've gotten her and the worms grew until they could finally be detected after she'd settled into her forever home with us. So takeaway #1 - always test for heartworms, even if they've been on preventatives, especially if there's a gap in their history!

For another thing, we opted to try the Moxi-Doxy protocol, a method less tested than the traditional treatment, but super promising in cases like hers, where the dog is healthy and the disease is young. The problem with Moxi-Doxy is that it takes longer than arsenical injections, so it's not a great pick if the worms are already doing damage or causing symptoms. The advantage, however, is that the restrictions and side effects are WAY fewer!

You start off with a month of Doxycycline, same as with traditional treatments. It kills a symbiotic bacteria in the worms and weakens them. This was actually the hardest part of the treatment for Jackie, as the dosage is high and is given all month, but she only had issues in the last week of it, so we were able to push through. The big difference in treatments comes after that - with Moxi-Doxy, the next (and potentially final) step is application of drops containing Moxidectin as directed for as long as it takes. For us, we put Advantage Multi on Jackie once a month.

Since the worms are being killed so much more slowly than with arsenical injections, the risk of embolism from multiple worms detaching/breaking down at once is considerably lower. We couldn't take her on any super long walks or to dog parks or other places that would raise her heart rate and keep it up for a prolonged period, but she was still allowed normal walks. She still got to play fetch. She could still wander around the house freely and thrash her toys and even have brief stints of zoomies. And there was no pain from injections or deleterious side effects - just some painless drops on her skin once a month.

the mcricobes

Brain, by Giantmicrobes