Heartworm positive dogs should not exercise. From the day they are diagnosed and receive their first dose of heartworm preventive until the heartworm treatment is complete, the American Heartworm Society recommends that you restrict a dog's activity.
All physical exertion must be stopped beginning the day of the first injection, 24 hours a day, for the full 8-week period, to reduce the risk of serious (catastrophic) heartworm-related problems.
The exercise restriction during melarsomine treatment is so important. As the heartworms die, they float around in the bloodstream and lodge in the walls of blood vessels. If your dog exercises too hard, the fragments can get shoved into narrowing blood vessels potentially causing a blockage/embolism and even death.
“No running, jumping, playing or high-impact exercise as these activities may cause the worms to break loose and cause significant harm to the pet being treated.”
The American Heartworm Society does state that exercise restriction should begin the same day the diagnosis is confirmed. Usually, my vet instructs me to keep my heartworm positive dog from engaging in any activity that elevates the heart rate until the end of treatment.
If the dog's heart rate is increased by exercise or excitement, the worm pieces can be forced into the tiny blood vessels of the lungs, increasing the chances of complications.
Enforced Rest is ESSENTIAL! Positively NO Strenuous Exercise for 8 weeks! The heartworms will die over the next 6 weeks. As they die and are broken down, pieces of them could lodge in other parts of the body's blood vessels, causing unnecessary complications–if your pet's activity is too strenuous.
There should be no physical activity for 6 weeks or until cleared by the veterinarian. No play, no running. Active dogs that have a hard time resting after treatment, may be prescribed calming meds during recovery. The recovery period is a great time to train the brain.
Do the heartworm treatment injections hurt? The injections are given within the muscle and can indeed be uncomfortable, but the inflammation that develops within the days following creates the most discomfort. Restlessness, panting, trembling and reduced appetite can all be signs that the dog is uncomfortable.
Prognosis: heartworm treatment success rates
With the three-dose adulticide protocol described above, in conjunction with doxycycline and macrocyclic lactones as recommended by the American Heartworm Society, 98% of dogs will be cleared of heartworm infection.
You may be surprised to still see live worms in your dog's feces after deworming them, but this is normal. While this can be an unpleasant image, it's actually a good thing — it means the worms are no longer living inside your dog!
Restrict exercise.
But your dog's normal physical activities must be restricted as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed, because physical exertion increases the rate at which the heartworms cause damage in the heart and lungs. The more severe the symptoms, the less activity your dog should have.
Though some dogs do not experience the muscle soreness, it is particularly important not to pick up the dog or put any pressure on the back for 2-4 days after the injections. Even a gentle dog might cry out and snap in pain if that area is touched.
Dogs with heartworm disease can live high-quality lives as long as they are given appropriate care. After completing treatment and following your veterinarian's recommenda- tions on heartworm disease testing and prevention, the chances of any long-term effects are very low.
The only product currently available for the treatment of adult heartworms is melarsomine dihydrochloride (immiticide). During treatment, the patient receives an intramuscular injection deep in the lower back muscles. This is a painful injection and it is common for the patient to be quite sore at home afterwards.
Heartworm disease is not contagious, meaning that a dog cannot catch the disease from being near an infected dog. Heartworm disease is only spread through the bite of a mosquito. Inside a dog, a heartworm's lifespan is 5 to 7 years.
If you forget a month of preventative, make sure to give the next 2 doses on time to "catch up" for that missed month. If you miss several months in a row, you should give your vet a call for advice on when to plan for the next heartworm test and how to get started back on preventatives.
Myth: Heartworm disease is contagious for pets.
Truth: You should be concerned if we diagnose one of your pets with heartworm disease, but you do not need to quarantine your infected pet. Heartworms must go through a mosquito to develop into adults, so heartworm-positive pets are safe to be around.
Heartworms can also cause nosebleeds, pneumonia, high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, and excessive sleeping.
Heartworm preventatives can cause serious side effects in some dogs, including depression, lethargy, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, dilation of the pupil, loss of balance, staggering, convulsions, and hy-persalivation.
As mentioned above, the infected blood is carried by affected mosquitoes from host to host. This means that if your dog is located in close proximity to another heartworm infected dog, the chances could be higher for your dog to be infected. They cannot be spread from one pet to another pet directly.
Some dogs may feel nauseated from their heartworms as well, and may vomit often just because they feel so sick with the disease. Vomiting does not occur in every dog that has heartworms.
After treatment, the adult worms die and are carried by the blood to the lungs where they lodge in small blood vessels. There they decompose and are absorbed by the body over a period of several months.
Myth #3: If my pet has heartworms, I will see them in her feces. Although many worm types, such as roundworms and tiny hookworms, are shed in your pet's feces, heartworms do not live in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and are not found in feces.