We have made it through 28 days of twice daily doxycycline in preparation for Heartworm treatment, and now we have a month-long break before the next phase in the treatment plan. This antibiotic pre-treatment we just completed targets a strain of bacteria harbored inside the heartworms, Wolbachia. The loss of this symbiotic bacteria is not going to be enough to kill the heartworms, but we hope that they will be weakened, and as a result, more likely to succumb next month when we administer the treatment intended to kill them, melarsomine dihydrochloride. Eliminating as much of the Wolbachia as we can now may reduce the chance of Hiro experiencing dangerous complications in the next stage of treatment.
Hiro’s nails have grown long, and he misses his exercise. He has an assortment of chew toys designed for dogs twice his size to keep him occupied, but he’s still like a kid without recess. He cries when I put on my running shoes and leave without him. He used to inhale his food, but now, he takes a mouthful a a time and drops it on the floor to inspect it–he knows I’ve been giving him medicine all this time and he’s looking for it!
Sometimes, I used treats, such as Pill Pockets or Pill Buddies to give him the medicine, but he caught on to that and I had to watch him closely to make sure he didn’t spit out the pills. I found that what worked best was to smother the tablets with peanut butter and smear them on his tongue-he became so interested in licking the remaining peanut butter from my fingers that he seemed not to notice that he would have to swallow the pills to get it.
He has been experiencing a couple of side effects from the antibiotics. I noticed some burping/reflux, but the most obvious was his reduced appetite, which led him to actually share his food with his brother:
…..Or just let him have it:
Hiro eventually overcame his shame and started chasing the cat away from his food after a couple of days…not that he needed another reason to mercilessly pester his elderly cat brother.
I expect that Hiro’s appetite will return to normal in a few days, but really, it’s probably fine for him to eat a little less, now that he is sedentary–he’s getting a bit portly.
All things considered, Hiro is doing pretty well–he doesn’t know that he’s sick yet, and we’ll try to keep it that way as long as we can.