My dog tested heartworm positive. Can I wait to give preventative?

The vet will give the dog a general exam. Normally we would use a snap test to determine if the dog was heart worm positive. Since your scenario prescribes that a result of the test is not available until the next day, the vet will not send heart worm medication home with the dog but tell the owner to call the next day for the result and if the test result is negative, pick up heart worm medication the next day. so yes the clients would be required to return the next day to pick up the Heartgard.

You will need to make sure that you schedule the 2nd and 3rd injections so that they can be given within 24 hours of each other. So you will need to schedule it for a Thursday and Friday that week to ensure both injections are done back to back as per the American Heartworm Society guidelines. I would also contact your veterinarian and make sure that this is ok to schedule as well. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Yes, it would show up even if on prevention. The test is only checking for the presence of the adult heartworms in the heart. It takes approximately 6 months from the time the dog is bitten by a positive mosquito to the time they would show up positive on a test. I suggest you not wait and get a confirmatory test now. If Shiloh truly is heartworm positive you should have him treated. The prevention is only going to keep him from getting more worms. It does nothing for treatment. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Depending on their physical condition it may be advisable to wait until the spay incision is healed. However your vet, who knows your dogs, should discuss this with you. If they are otherwise healthy and happy, then you will not have to wait long with treatment. Here is a lot of information for you: https://www.heartwormsociety.org/

Wait two more days and it should be safe. Make a note in the calender to give it a month from now so you do not forget. Make a check mark next to the entry when you have given the medication, so you have a record of giving it to your dog. Happy Holidays!

If he has always been on it and hasn't missed any doses, then he should be fine to continue with the prevention. Now, that being said, no prevention is 100% effective so the reason we test every year is to check and make sure there was no break-though issues with the product. If a dog has heartworm disease there is a chance the prevention could cause a medical problem. In this case, I think the benefit of him taking the heartworm prevention outweighs the very tiny risk that he could be positive and have a reaction to the medication. Hope this helps. If you have more questions you can always opt for a private consultation where we can chat back and forth. That way you can ask as many questions as you'd like. Best wishes!

Hi there. What a great question! I am pretty certain Willow is going to be just fine but that being said, it is possible she wasn't fully protected. There is really no sense in testing her now. If she was infected sometime in the last couple months when she was over the weight range she wouldn't show up positive on the heartworm test. The heartworm test only tests for the presence of adult heartworms in the heart and that process takes 6 months from the time the dog is bitten by a mosquito carrying the heartworm larvae. Those larvae go through many stages in the dog's body before becoming adult heartworms where the test can detect them. If she was my dog I would just keep her on the correct dose of heartworm prevention for the next 6 months and then have her tested. I see you are in Maryland. I'm guessing you haven't had a lot of mosquitos yet these past few months and since that is how heartworms are transmitted I don't think she has really had the opportunity to be infected. I hope this helps. Best wishes to you and Willow :) Try not to worry too much, keep her on the correct dose for her current weight and get her tested in 6 months. Dr. Amber