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Took the Lap Yapper and Jack to the vet yesterday for their annual shots, and Jack came back positive for Heart Worm Disease. Unfortunately, due to his age, they don't recommend going with the aggressive treatment. We're working with the vet and the pharmacy on treatment options.

Yes, Jack is on Heartguard. But so is the Lap Yapper and he doesn't have Heart Worm Disease. Talk about having a day.

back in 2001 had a mutt diagnosed with heartworms. they recommended the full heavy treatment (that almost kills the dog) or it wouldn't last a year. Well It is 2013 and the dog is still alive. My dad gave it some kind of cow medicine or something. He said "she is cured". I asked how he knew, and he said after doctoring on cows for 30 years he can keep anything alive with "stuff from the co-op".
don't ask me exactly what it was but i think he gave the dog Ivermectin or some form of that.

Ivermectin is what I give our dogs as a preventive. 1/10 of a cc for every 10 lbs of weight. I can get a 30 ml bottle for around $30=$35 and it will last two years or more. The active ingredient in Heatguard I believe is ivermectin. I'm no vet but from I've been told the treatment for heart worms is much higher doses of invermectin. Knowing how much to give to cure the dog without killing the dog is the trick and where the vet makes the money. Kind of like what my Dad used to say about anesthesiology, anybody can put somebody to sleep for surgery. Waking them up is the hard part and where the money is.

I have a 10 year old lab who has had the treatment twice and is healthier than his brother who has never had heartworms. He now has heartworms again but we're in the same situation as you with him being too old to do treatment. Just for your knowledge if you decide to treat him, if you have documentation from your vet of giving him heartguard for a while they will usually pay for the treatment. Both of the treatments for my dog were paid for by them.

Ivermectin is what I give my dogs as a preventive. Much much cheaper than these others and seems to work. Find yourself an old dog man and he can tell you how much to give dogs as treatment.

"My lab", who just shoed up has heart worms. Vet has him doxycycline as treatment.

Per the Vet, Jack is in that 'gray area' regarding his age. If he were 2 - 3 years old, the Vet would say 'take the treatment'. If he were 10 - 12 years old, the Vet would say 'DON'T take the treatment'. With Jack being 8, he says to consider it.

IF we treat agressively, the Vet would do it in two stages. We would have to keep Jack from being too active for a couple of months, and keep him away from the Lap Yapper during this time. (Like that'll happen.)

IF we DON'T treat agressively, just be more precise in giving the preventative on schedule like I was supposed to do in the first place, we may see improvement in 6 months - with an eventual "cure" later.

FWIW - The pharmacy says that they'll pay for the treatment.

I've heard some say grape leaves can cure them. But don't take my word for it.

My old hard head chocolate is 12 and has had the aggressive treatment twice due to heartguard. They did however pay for it both times. The second time he went thru it he was 8 and he did fine with it. My advise would be to get the treatment. I now use frontline and have had negative test results ever since. Not telling you frontline is miracle fix, but it has worked for me so far. Vet also told me both times that my dog couldn't get overly exited for a couple months. Keeping him at home was not an option at that so vet boarded him for 2 months both times and it worked out well. Hope this helps.
..... And trust me I was pissed too, heartguard is a curse word in my household....

Both of my labs tested positive on heartgard. Both did the aggressive treatment and damn near killed my male. Switched to the proheart shot and two years later both were positive again. Told the vet I wasn't putting them through the same treatment again. Put both of them on a heavy doxicylean regiment and switched to bayer multi. It takes a lot longer this way, but they don't have to be confined. Just make sure their activity is kept at a minimum. My male tested negative after a year. My female is still positive at a little over a year, but very faint positive. We're hoping for a negative on her at the next checkup.

my vet said nothing about keeping him calm or not active on 800mg of doxycycline per day (400mg am, 400mg pm). he goes ape nuts wild all day from the way my backyard looks now. and when someone gets home he leaps dang near 3ft off on ground standing there.. hes still a puppy we think maybe a 2yo.

Well, we've made the decision. Jack is still very active and happy. However, at his age, neither I nor the bride wants to put Jack through anything that will hurt him. He's gonna be hurt enough by these infernal sunsab****es in the end as it is. Besides, we can tell that he is starting to show his age, even though he is aging gracefully, thank you very much.

God, I hope I made the right decision.