Our oldest pup, Jack, visited the vet yesterday for a yearly check-up and shots. Sadly, the check-up revealed that Jack has heartworms. He is nine years old, but he is a healthy boy, so he is scheduled for the first treatment Tuesday. First they will run a series of tests to make sure all his organs can handle the treatment. Then he will be sedated and treated two nights in a row. Then he will be returned home for 4-5 weeks of absolute rest and relaxation. So he'll get to do his favorite activity for a little over a month:
We suspect Cooper (our 1 year old lab) will not be as excited about this as Jack will be, so it may be a long month for Coop.
While we fell like awful pup parents for having not done what we could have done to prevent this, we are glad it was caught early and Dr.Buckler is confident that Jack will do fine with the treatment because he is strong and healthy. He will, however, have to change is diet. After Tuesday he will no longer be allowed to eat his 4 or so cups of Purina Dog Chow. He will have to begin eating a diet dog food so that he doesn't gain any weight while not exercising. Right now he weights 80 pounds. Dr. Buckler suggested that we try to get him down to around 70. Because he doesn't really eat that full four cups everyday as it is and because he will soon be doing no physical activities, diet food will be the best way to not only prevent weight gain, but maybe even help him lose a little.
2 comments:
Chester and Millie wish Jack the best. Tell him 70lbs is more acceptable for a lap puppy ;)
The vet actually did call Jack a large lap puppy because ran and sat in Andrew's lap after a few minutes with a technician. She also called him timid.
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