Is the following suitable for heartworms, which my newly adopted has?

I know you do have to treat heartworm medically – I’m not sure what the medication is. If you don’t trust this vet for some reason, go to another vet.

Thanks. My adopted dog has an appointment tomorrow with the vet that takes care of my cat. I made the appointment last Friday when I brought the new dog home.

Sounds good.

Sounds reasonable if it isn’t a heavy load of heartworms. The Iverhart kills the worms and the prednisone reduces the inflammation from having dead worm bits floating around the dog’s system.

A heavy or life-threatening load of heartworms will require in-hospital care and very close supervision of the animal.

Thanks Darwin! :-)

The use of ivermectin is a less expensive and less effective treatment for light loads. It kills only microfilaria, not adult worms (although it has been shown to shorten the lifespan of the adult worm Source). The idea is that you will prevent additional infestation of adult worms while you wait for the current residents to die off relatively naturally.

My suspicion is the the shelter has already performed the initially treatment that consists of an injection of an arsenic based drug and they have sent the dog home with you for the second part of the treatment (ivermectin).

In any event, make sure to talk to your veterinarian about what’s going on with you new family member’s health.

Syz, I shall request my vet call the shelter vet and confirm exactly what treatment, if any, he may have done. If a treatment for heartworms was performed, I should have been told. I have generously sponsored one of their shelter dogs and that should account for some respect—I make no allegations, however.

Take a look at the source I cited – it’s a nicely comprehensive write-up of heartworm treatment.

I did earlier. Thanks again, Syz!