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Sunday, March 7, 2010

Pepsi Refresh Project for heartworm dogs in Houston, like Emme

I have neglected to give an updated status, I am so sorry!

We were stuck at #18 then #16 place for much of the 1st  Pepsi Refresh promotion last month. I decided not to try again in this monthly project because I didn't want to be intrusive to people. Pepsi however automatically reentered
every one from #11 to #100.(yea!) We have not been below #9 yet this month. Since they fund the top
10 projects in the voting, I am so pleased and excited that so many people have stuck with it.

This is Emme, a silky terrier mix, who has been waiting for heartworm treatment since November 09. I will be fostering her as
long as it takes. She is 3 years old and weighs 14.6 lbs. She is so very shy she will need a fairly quiet, all adult home. She says a home with other small dogs and/or cats is ok.

2 comments:

violetserendipity said...

Your idea is great!

I wanted to let you in on some info, though. In some dogs (it depends on each individual dog), and it works good with older dogs and hyperactive ones, heartworms can be treated with an ivermectin preventitive (Heartgard or Iverheart) by treating them bi-monthly, so ~every 15 days. Like I said it depends on each individual dog, but the worms dissentigrate as they die, so the risk of complications is lower. I have had a dog that was treated this way (adopted, older, didn't know how he'd respond to the injections), and 1 year after starting he tested negative, and remained negative the rest of his life. It's just something to consider.

Janet said...

Thanks for your suggestion. This is
a common method in use lately, but I am leery of it.
Heartgard only kills the microfilaria, so the adults are still doing their damage before they slowly die off. This damage increases the potential for cardiac
damage later. The risk is not lowered with Heartgard, just different.
I do recommend doing the long treatment with immiticide, sometimes even longer than the standard 1 shot, 2 shot protocol.
I also recommend starting doxycycline ahead of time to deal with the wolbachia.
(and I am not trying to be a vet:))
Please keep following the blog to read our (hopefully) good news about saving more Houston dogs:)