The Accident That Saved Her Life!

While Luna was playing outside (one of her most favorite things as an energetic girl,) she cut her back open trying to crawl under a fence.  The laceration was significant enough to require a thorough cleaning and stitches under anesthesia.  But before doing so, our veterinarians required pre-surgical blood work to verify pertinent internal health information-- one of the optional items being a heartworm test/blood parasite screening.

Emily, Luna’s owner, said, “Unfortunately, we did not realize the importance of giving monthly heartworm prevention at that time.  She had not been on anything.”

The heartworm test (a 4DX, which also screens for 3 tick bourne diseases) yielded a POSITIVE result— a diagnosis Emily said she never would have known about without agreeing to add the test at the time of Luna’s other blood work. 

Luna was lucky that she was screened and diagnosed early, before any symptoms set in. The most commonly presented symptoms are persistent cough, fatigue after moderate exercise, and heart failure.  Once a heartworm treatment option, timeframe, and cost were discussed and began, Emily says the hardest part through it all was Luna’s exercise restrictions.

“She’s such an active dog, so keeping her calm and her heart rate low during and between her long-term treatments over several months was difficult but necessary for her recovery.”

These days, Luna continues to thrive and show a heartworm negative result through annual testing!  “[Luna’s] back to her happy, normal, bouncy self!,” Emily reports.  “We now give her and all of our other dogs their monthly heartworm preventative like clockwork and screen for heartworm disease annually with the same 4DX blood parasite test.  Now I know better.  And I never want to go through that again with any of my pets-- including the out of pocket treatment cost without pet insurance.”

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🌟Learn more about Heartworm Disease, signs, and symptoms:  www.heartwormsociety.org/pet-owner-resources/heartworm-basics
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🌟Check out how you can get a FREE multi-disease screening heartworm test for your pet in April AND save even more on monthly preventative products with manufacturer rebates:  http://www.adairanimalhospital.com/april