I have a 5 year old west highland terrier he's has heart worms 4 about a year can the treatment still work ?

Question

pets

Answer 1

Do not give him treatment now. If you do the worms will die but as they come out of ur dogs body they could clot his heart and kill him. Take him to a vet and have him seen to. They will give you the safest options :)

Answer 2

Hi Bolo

Sure the treatment can still work.  Many older dogs get heartworms, and most are sucessfully treated.  Your Vet will need to evaluate his overall state of health, and decide which approach to treatment would be the best.

Best of luck.

Answer 3

The treatment, even in the best case scenerio, can kill a dog.  They can still try, but the medication they use to kill the worms is hard on the dogs.  Also, these worms are in their heart, so as the medication starts to kill them off, the dead worms release toxins into the dogs bloodstream.  That makes them pretty sick dogs.  As well, after a year, the dog is likey to to have heart damage from having the worms living there for so long.

This is horrible.  If you're dog broke it's leg and you didn't get it treated you could be brought up on criminal charges for neglect and/or animal abuse.  Leaving heartworm untreated for a year isn't much different from that.  If you can't afford to treat the dog for heartworms, you can't afford a dog.  Either get it treated or drop it off at the SPCA so it CAN get treated.

Answer 4

Go to a vet and ask them.  From my understanding, once they have the heart worm, the treatment will kill them.  

Answer 5

From what I understand, a dog positive for heartworms can be treated by a vet, but it has to be done very slowly to avoid the death of the dog.  Only your vet can do this.