Murray and his heartworms

As many of you know, I adopted Murray 4 weeks ago who had undergone treatment for heartworms the week before I got him. My vet gave him a 2nd treatment to kill the worms 2 weeks ago. He has been fine and we've been keeping him quiet as the vet ordered. Yesterday, we let him out in the backyard and before we could stop him, he engaged in a strenous run with the dog next door, down the fence line. We brought him in and he was panting really hard, suddenly he threw up a very thick, white sustance. It was quite a lot. But now he is acting fine. Could this be the dead worms? We feel really guilty that he was running and then got sick. He has appt with the vet next Friday to be rechecked and to start his Heartgard.

Ugh! Dunno, Irish. As long as he's okay now though. It might be worth a telephone call to the vet to get the question off of your mind.

I know it is very hard on a dog to be treated for heartworms.

I believe how the treatment works, it kills the worms, and then are absorbed by the dogs body. I will do a search for more info. though.

I bet your dog just over did it with the exercise, and became sick from it. Heartworms are in the heart not the stomach, so I doubt he threw them up. Glad he is feeling better.

*Will the vet do another heartworm test to see if it is negative, before starting on heartgard? (just wondering how that works?)

Julie.

Yes Julie, Friday he will test to be make sure there are no heartworms and then he will start the heartgard. Today, he is fine again too, so I'll keep a watch on him.

Ugh is right Rene, it was THE grossest thing I've ever had to clean up in my life!

I agree with Rene, too bad know one thinks to save it and have it tested by the vet, but I bet that gunk was worms & stuff, its gotta go some where....

I think he just overdid the exercise and will be just fine ecspecially after going threw two heartworm treatments he has just had a really couple of months and probably kept quite all that time as much as possible and your vet probably knows that it won't be possible to keep him absolutely quite the whole time just do the best you can

no..heartworms are in the four chambers of the heart..the reason it would kill a dog to take the preventative without being tested is because it would kill the worms without the vessels being dilated.causing thombosis..or blocked vessels.that is why you have to keep your dog calm..all his vessels have been blown wide open..i imagine the worms are broken down by whitecells anad phagocytes if i remember correctly..they act like little pac men and swollow the bad things taking them to the lymph glands, liver, and kidneys..not the stomach. I have seen a dog heart cut open and have seen the worms themselves..they look exactly like speghetti and are alarmingly large. if i am wrong on this i would gladly be corrected, but i believe that is how they are disposed of by the body. Could he have round worms? they look similar and are in the stomach to begin with. Dogs that are loaded often to vomit them up...especially puppies

Exactly right, Smkie! At least that's the way it was explained to me.

Smkie - you are a wealth of information on heartworms. Thank you! I did not actually see any worms or anything in his vomit. If I'm not being to gross here - it was just white and kind of the consistency of phlegm. (sorry, I know its sickening). Now that I'm thinking about it - Murray did steal a bag of snowflake rolls and he ate the whole thing the day before...

that is what you cleaned up and i agree icky..all dog puke is icky..thanks for confirming me Renee..i was hoping i remembered my education right..biology was a long long time ago..they did show the heart and film at a retriever dinner.."dinner that a lot of people didn't make it thru hehehe) a vet gave a lecture. I was about 14 at the time so i hoped i remembered it all right. hooks, make the gums pale are in the digestive track..if you see them they are small and have a hook at one edn, make a dog lethargic...when the slaves were considered lazy..it is a fact that a lot of them were infested with hookworms and were actually anemic (sp?) at least that is what my bio teacher told me in college..he said the larvae are in the dew..and enter the body between the toes..a good reason for wearing shoes.
rounds are long and resemble speghetti..signs are often vommited up, a swollen belly..poor coat and over all appearance, tapes look like rice, signs increased appetite, rubbing of rectum on the ground, segments left where the animal slept..looking like dried up grains of rice..or around the rectum and hair around the rectum as well..they are also in the digestive tract..i have heard of a round worm accidently making it's way to some other part of the body..but don't know if my source was accurate..one of the reasons i really don't believe children should have sandboxes especially if they have cats..my Charlie picked up a strange kind of worm in Arizona at the cattle stock yards..i don't remember what it was, but it destroyed the lining to his stomach and he had to eat rice and boiled hamburger for the first year. We almost lost him, he was only 8 weeks old when he got them. My vet took him home and gave him transfusions from his own dog. That is about all i know about worms in a nutshell. Tapes won't kill ya,,are carried by fleas and flys.. and lions need tapeworms to digest their food..weird huh?