Jinny's Journey: A Brief Overview of Heartworms and HW Treatment

Miss J resting more comfortably

I want to update everyone on how Jinny's doing since beginning her heartworm treatment this past weekend. As I wrote in my previous post, she had a hard time Saturday after her second Immiticide injection. She's since doing much better: she has her appetite back, she's not nearly as sore from the injections, and she's stopped panting all the time. This is great news. Of the three dogs we've seen through heartworm treatment (Oliver, Cowboy, and now Jinny), Jinny's initial reaction to the Immiticide was the worst of the bunch. We are very relieved to see her improvement since Saturday.

I also want to explain heartworms a little bit better than I thought I had in past posts. For those

who are not very familiar with heartworms and what the treatment entails, I'm sorry this blog has gone on for so long without breaking it down. Heartworms are just what they sound: worms that grow in a dog's heart, lungs, and blood vessels. The disease is spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes and is rampant in the southern part of our country. These nasty worms are like angel hair spaghetti noodles and can grow as long as 14 inches. You can google a picture of an infested heart...it's disgusting. You may never eat spaghetti again (unless you're me, then that's just simply an impossible thought). If left untreated, heartworms will ultimately cause heart failure. See why it's SO critically important to give your dog heartworm preventative each month?

Going through treatment to get rid of a heartworm infestation is not a walk in the park. Just ask

Oliver keeping Jinny company while she rests

Jinny, Cowboy, Oliver, or any of the lucky dogs from DeKalb County Animal Services who beat heartworms thanks to the sponsorship of rescue groups like Perfect Pets / See Spot Rescued / Friends of DeKalb Animals. It sucks. I told Jinny as I dropped her off at the vet on Friday: "Last time we brought you here, you walked out the door feeling much better. This time isn't going to be the same, but I promise you it will be so worth it very soon!". I wasn't lying. The fast kill method that Jinny, Oliver, and Cowboy endured involves two shots of a drug called Immiticide. Immiticide is an arsenic-based drug (yes, arsenic) that is injected very deeply into the dog's lower back muscles to kill the adult heartworms. The infected dog gets the first shot on day one and a second shot on day two. Drew thinks of it as being injected with liquid fire. I think that must be accurate. The worms slowly break down and are absorbed by the body. The dog must stay VERY calm during this time because the dying worms clog the arteries until they're absorbed. If the dog exerts itself during this phase of treatment (whether through exercise, excitement, stress, or anything that gets the heart/breathing rate up), the dead worms are more liable to break away, clog the lungs' main artery, and cause death. After 30 days, the dog gets an oral dose of ivermectin to finish the process. Ivermectin is the same drug that's in your regular old monthly heartgard. It kills off the remaining heartworm eggs. At this point, the dog can gradually return to normal activity level. Slowly but surely is key here. At the six month mark, a blood test is done to be sure the treatment worked. After this long and painful treatment process, the dog should now test heartworm negative. And that's how it works! Yikes, right?

I'll never forget the day Oliver tested negative and I am so excited for Cowboy and Jinny to get to that point. We like fostering dogs through heartworm treatment. It's super rewarding to help a dog get rid of what's likely his/her greatest obstacle standing in the way of adoption. We have a very structured routine around our house and it seems to work well for keeping dogs calm during their treatments. We've also been so fortunate that Oliver, Cowboy, and Jinny have all been so incredibly mellow. That makes our job WAY easier. I'm so thankful that there are awesome rescue groups willing to take HW+ dogs out of the shelter and into their programs, despite the high cost of HW treatment. Thanks, Perfect Pets Rescue, for helping Jinny and so many others like her! To help Perfect Pets Rescue cover this summer's medical costs for Jinny and her rescued friends, please follow this fundrazr link: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/4Yqqf

Update on Jinny: Heartworm Treatment Begins

I dropped Jinny off at the vet Friday morning for her heartworm treatment. They gave her one shot yesterday morning when she came in and one shot this morning. She stayed overnight in between for observation and Drew picked her up this morning after her second shot.

Jinny is definitely uncomfortable, which is par for the course with heartworm treatment. She's panting, whining, and constantly shifting positions on the couch. I wish she knew that all the discomfort is worth it; she'll have a strong healthy heart at the end of this difficult ordeal. For a brief explanation of heartworm treatment and recovery, check out my old blog post about Oliver's journey: http://ohfortheloveofdogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/oliver-our-very-first-foster-dog.html

Keeping Jinny calm is going to be easier than easy. She is so chill, it's ridiculous. She makes Oliver look like a hyper spazz. 30 days from now, Jinny will need an oral dose of ivermectin to finish off the heartworm eggs. Then she'll be home free and hopefully on her way to her forever family not too long afterward. We'll be sure to keep you posted on Jinny's progress. Paws crossed for a smooth and speedy recovery!

Jinny Goes to the Vet

This is how Jinny spends most of her time

Now that Jinny is recovered from her spay surgery, we took her to the vet to evaluate the next step in preparing her for adoption. After talking through some of the issues we've noticed over the past two weeks, the vet decided that it's best for Jinny to postpone her heartworm treatment for a couple more weeks. Jinny has a couple of bad teeth that need to come out and a piece of her gum has grown down around a rotten back molar. This causes Jinny a lot of discomfort and difficulty eating. The vet said her belly irritation is a staph infection that looks like it came from licking razor burn around her spay incision. Poor girl. She'll be on antibiotics for that. Her ingrown dewclaws healed very nicely.

One of a few broken/rotten teeth

A full dental (which requires general anesthesia) and heartworm shots all in one weekend would tax Jinny's system too much. So, we'll get the teeth taken care of and get rid of any infection before taking her back for heartworm treatment. Jinny should feel much better in a couple of weeks without those painful teeth and that itchy skin infection. We ought to see her energy level and personality pick up a bit. She's been wanting to do nothing but lie on the living room rug 24/7. I'd feel junky too with rotten teeth and a fever. It will be wonderful to see her perk up a little! We'll keep you posted on her progress...she still has a few hurdles to clear before she's ready for her trip to New York.

Get well soon, Jinny!



Update: Pickles the Proudly Pugnacious Chihuahua

Guess what? Pickles has his very own Facebook page! We are very excited about this and have high hopes that Facebook will help Pickles gain visibility and ultimately meet his forever family. He is doing SO much better and is officially ready for adoption, but he needs a little help spreading the word about how awesome he is. So please visit, like, and share Pickles's FB page to show your support. Sharing makes a HUGE difference! It doesn't seem like much, but dogs and cats really do get adopted because someone shared their photo/page/info on Facebook. If you need a quick reminder of just how sweet and adorable Pickles is, check out the video below. Pickles says, THANKS!

https://www.facebook.com/PicklesTheProudlyPugnaciousChihuahua

Update on Jinny!

Hey everyone! Thought I'd hammer out a quick little update on our girl, Jinny. She's settling in rather well. She hasn't had a single potty accident, not ONE! She sleeps perfectly through the night with her crate door open (sometimes she likes to lay inside it, other times she just sleeps on the floor next to it). She usually spends all day just laying quietly on the living room rug. She seems to like Bunkin and Oliver quite a bit. Bunkin is convinced she's his fluffy Collie girlfriend.

We haven't had a female dog since little Cindy Lou back in December, so I forgot how much they

seem to even out the doggy dynamics in our house. With all of our boys, things tend to stay fairly rowdy. Jinny is completely unfazed. She's like, "Whatever, boys. I do not have time for your crazy games. I'll just sit here next to the air purifier and enjoy this nice breeze while you all bound around like a bunch of fools." Oddly enough, the boys tend to do less bounding around since Jinny's been with us. She never protests or gets snippy with anyone, but she does seem to demand a certain level of order. Everyone just kind of falls into place around her. Even Pickles, who LOVES to play (oftentimes roughly) with other dogs, hasn't jumped on her once. They all respect her space and just go about their own merry ways. Fine by me!

Slowly but surely, Jinny's beginning to show a little more personality. The first few days we had her, she just laid around and hardly wanted to move. I'm sure it was mostly because of her recent spay (she's had to wear the comfy cone because she's been licking at it a lot), but you could just tell she really needed time to decompress and regain her energy after leaving the shelter. It's a very overwhelming process and each of our fosters has dealt with it differently. When my alarm clock goes off each day, my dogs go bananas. Totally nutso. They spring into action, jump all over me, lick my face like crazy, bark like mad, and cry cry CRY until I finally sit up. See, alarm clock = breakfast. During this morning ritual, Jinny just kind of sits back and looks like what the heck are they making all this racket for...some of us are trying to sleep! Then something exciting happened yesterday: when my alarm clock went off and all the other dogs did their usual batty routine, I sat up to find Jinny standing alert in front of the bed and happily wiggling her butt. She was downright jolly! As soon as I opened the bedroom door, she bolted out with everyone else and did a very brief breakfast dance before deciding that was enough exertion for one day. It made me so happy to see her face brighten, even for just a few minutes. I love watching all of our fosters come out of their shells. It's such a rewarding process (even though sometimes ya wish they'd go back into their shells, just a little!).

Jinny gets a little more comfortable each day. Her toes look MUCH better and her coat is beautiful now that she's had a bath and two weeks of regular brushing. Jinny will go to the vet for her heartworm treatment shots soon. She'll stay the weekend at the vet's office, but once we pick her up I'll be sure to write a blog post all about how she's doing. Check out the video of her and the rest of my crew enjoying their bones from Park Pet Supply. Paws up for Jinny's progress!



Paws Up: 5,000 Views!

Hey everyone! Thanks SO much for reading and sharing...I'm super mega excited to announce that we just broke 5,000 views! I've thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog and sharing our foster journey with everyone over the past year. It makes me really happy to know that others out there enjoy reading about our doggy adventures. Beyond the joy of story-telling, it's been very humbling and inspiring to watch my little bitty dog blog raise awareness for our homeless pets at DeKalb County Animal Services, share the awesome work of some amazing rescue groups, and even help recruit a new receiving rescue group for transport. While it is often said that actions speak louder than words, words have the power to spur action. Never be afraid to speak what's in your heart! Now, for the love of dogs, please keep reading!

Paws UP for 5,000 views!