After I started to adjust more to being in Dr. Ray's home and around her family, I got some more confidence and started to come out of my shell. I have now started to fully be myself and really feel at home with Dr. Ray and her family. I still come to the clinic quite often with my two doggie sisters Holly and Chloe.
Thank you so much for reading about my journey, and I hope I have helped some of you understand more what it's like to take a rescue dog home. Patience and love are the two things that will help us shelter dogs the most!
Some of you have asked my mom Dr. Ray about me and my heartworms. I'm proud to say now that I am officially heartworm free! The road getting there sure was tough, but my family is happy that I can run free and be a true dog now. Many of my friends don't really understand heartworm disease, so let me help you with some facts. According to the American Heartworm Society, we have some of the highest incidences of heartworm disease in the country! This is due to the large population of mosquitoes we have, because that is how heartworms are transmitted. Basically, any time I get bit for a mosquito while I'm outside (or if one comes into my house), I'm at risk for contracting the larvae of the parasite for heartworms. Those parasites are called Dirofilaria immitis, and as the mosquito feeds off of my skin, the larvae are deposited into my bloodstream. When the juvenile worms mature into adult hood, they can reach between 10 and 12 inches in length! Heartworms are not fully detectable until between 6 and 7 months after the initial bite from the mosquito...and they can live for up to 7 years in the dog's system! If left untreated, these heartworms can lead to heart failure, coughing and fluid in the stomach. Our lungs start to sound bad and we start to get slower in our movement...basically, we don't feel very good at all. It's super important for all of my doggie (and kitty) friends to stay on their heartworm prevention, because treatment is pretty painful. When I was treated, I was on cage rest and could only be leash walked for 6-8 weeks following my injections. I got my heartworm treatment fairly soon after my test was positive here. Dr. Ray and the girls think maybe I was given away initially because of my heartworm status, and that since heartworms can be expensive to treat, especially in a big dog, my previous owners may not have been able to afford it. While I was being treated, I had to have big needles stuck near my spine so the medicine got into my body effectively. Man, they hurt, but I tried to be as brave as I could. My symptoms hadn't started flaring up at that point and I didn't want to go through the coughing and the exhaustion, so I just took the medicine like I was supposed to. I was so lucky to have such a good group of people who helped me through my heartworm disease, and now I take my Heartgard each month to make sure I don't have to go through this again.
If you don't have your fur kid on heartworm prevention, call my mom's clinic today and schedule an appointment for a test. I hope this has inspired some of you moms and dads to keep my friends healthy and happy with a delicious chew each month!!
Until next time,
Gabe
No comments:
Post a Comment