Chapter 16: Caring for Heartworm Positive Dog

Sweetie was a hyper young lady who was full of energy and loved attention. She came to us shy as ever and any eye contact would make her submissively pee to surrender. With her, we learned if we or anyone ignored her she felt "invisible" and allowed her own timetable to get comfortable with people.


After opening up she loved to cuddle and needed to be by your side at all times. When she wasn't interested in walking or the leash she was plant her butt down and you couldn't pull her if you tried.

Sweetie was forfeited due to her heartworm positive status. Unfortunately owners believe heartworm preventative medication is expensive. HOWEVER, treatment is even worse. It's 2 shots of almost lethal medication and the dog HAS to be low energy for 6 -8 weeks after. (Imagine our surprise considering how energetic Sweetie is). We were very lucky she didn't have symptoms of bad heartworm so treatment was an option, some dogs are too far gone to survive treatment.


CRUCIAL UNDERSTANDING: The treatment kills worms growing inside all the parts of the heart. Once the worms die, they break down into chunks and these "chunks" can turn to clots which IF move around can cause your dog to have a stroke and DIE. Therefore low energy keeps the clots from moving into areas of the heart, lungs and brain too quickly to cause stroke. The rescue has had dogs who didn't make it through treatment (imagine how scared we were).

Even though she was an energetic dog, she also loved being mellow and cuddly. We never want to constantly keep a dog sedated with medication, so there are many ways to prevent them from being "too" hyper.


1. Keep them on a leash so they cannot run
2. Make sure they take their time at meal times not to rush and scuff their food
3. If they usually jump/scale couches and beds, give them steps or a way to get on the furniture without jumping
4. Do not rile them up with excitement and try to calm them down after returning home
5. Keep your activity to a minimum so they don't need to keep up (dogs feed off your energy)
6. Crate them or gate them in a small area when you are not home so they aren't roaming around potentially jumping on furniture
7. All family members should be on the same page about the expected energy level
8. If there are other dogs, let them out separately if need be, your dog in treatment will HAVE TO have special treatment, don't feel bad, it's saving their life!!


We made it through our 6 weeks, and she was adopted with much education on heartworm prevention for the rest of her life AND year round. Dogs who have been infected before have increase chance to get this again.


Her family contacted us several times after her adoption regarding her shyness and asked for suggestions. Her new family was god send, and so patient with her and kept re-reading our blog for her and realized she was beating all her milestones in shorter times than with us. They were motivated and loved her sweet face. It's all worked out and they just love her.