I finally just picked him up and carried him, wriggling wildly, back into the living room. Goofy puppy!

Melissa, the protocol my vet is recommending is regular Heartguard now, plus 30 days of doxycycline, then chest films and the first immiticide shot, followed a month later by two shots 24 hours apart. I’d been meaning to ask if I needed to restrict his exercise at all during the first 30 days. Dr. Roach didn’t say anything about doing so, so I’ve been letting him set his own pace.

And yeah, I know that the presence of Trevor doesn’t dramatically change the exposure picture for my guys… especially since he’s microfilaria-free… starting the Interceptor a couple of months early is just added peace of mind for me.

I’m sure I’ll have questions as we go through this. Right now I’m mostly focused on the “normal” foster-dog stuff… getting him into a routine, housebreaking, integration w/ my crew so I don’t have to keep managing which dogs are out together, etc. As we get closer to the first immiticide treatment, I expect that’s when I’ll turn into a bundle of nerves. It doesn’t help that the schedule has that first treatment about a week before I leave for five days for FKO. I’ll see how he’s doing after the first treatment and make the call on whether to leave him at home w/ the sitter (less stress for him… more for her) or board him at the vet (less stress for me due to instant access to care if needed… more stress for him).

First, you’re getting at least some intestinal parasite control (at one time Novartis had a guarantee on Interceptor & Sentinel to cover intestinal parasites, as well as heartworm prevention – check with your vet to see if that still exists, and the “fine print”. Part of that “fine print” is HWP 12 months a year) (that was rather a longer aside than I thought it was going to be!).

Second, in mosquito season, it doesn’t really matter if the positive dog is in your home, or “down the road a piece” – there’s still likely to be exposure (but that’s why you use HWP in known mosquito season).

Third, I’ve had patients (multiple) who had owners tell me they only skipped HWP in Dec/Jan/Feb, then the dog came up positive. Based on their records of when and how much HWP they bought, I believe ‘em. For parasite control & HWP, remember you’re killing off what they picked up the 30 days before the dog was given the preventative (ie, it doesn’t stick around for 30 days, waiting to kill off the larvae).

I’m sure you’re up on the Immiticide (or will be shortly). There are two options for using it: 2 doses, 24 hours apart (used for low HW burdens & healthy dogs) OR one dose, then 30 days later 2 doses, 24 hours apart (used for sicker dogs, larger numbers of worms, or to ensure a higher kill rate of the HW). I wouldn’t expect any problems with exercise up until the Immiticide treatment; we’re generally worried about dead/dying HW leading to blood clots being sent to the lungs. It’s pretty rare, but ugly when it happens

Shoot me an email or give me a call if you have any questions, and I’ll be happy to chat about it (being entirely unbiased by drug companies or office financial burdens at this point *grin*)