Heartworms

I took Holly and Boo to the vet yesterday for their annual checkups.  I was doing ok right up until the tech showed me the results of Holly's heartworm test.  Positive.  Can I tell you that I am EXTREMELY upset about this since I have been giving her Heartgard on a regular basis all her life?  I checked my calendar, and there was one month when I went 5 weeks instead of 4 but the vet said that since the medicine really only needs to be given every 6 weeks we were still within the "comfort zone". 

I feel like crying and hitting something, someone, anything.  I KNOW there's treatment for this and the vet said that every dog they've treated has come through successfully, but do you know how UNFAIR this is?  I know several people who don't give their dogs Heartgard--hell, my own mother didn't give it to Boogie for years and she's ok, so far.  The fact that it's expensive doesn't fly with me--if you can't afford to keep your dog healthy and protected, you don't deserve to HAVE a dog.

We are notifying the makers of Heartgard since they do guarantee the product and if you can prove you've given the medication as per instructions, they will (probably very grudgingly) pay for the treatment.  Which at my vet comes to a grand total of $585. 

My vet also said that they're finding that, for some unknown reason as of yet, dogs in the Mississippi Delta region (that's central--we're in southern Mississippi) are not responding to certain meds, as well as Heartgard, so that is under research.

Please pray for my darling Holly.  I will be positive about this and I KNOW she'll get through it.  There's just this little nagging bit of guilt that keeps saying, "You let her go over 4 weeks.  How do you know that's not how she got it?"  Ah, jeeeeeeez.