Heartworm is a word that we hear all the time at Lucky Dog. For our own dogs we give a pill or flavored tablet every month as preventative, and some of us have even taken “heartworm positive” dogs into our homes. Monthly preventative can often seem like a challenge to give on a regular basis, and it is common for give a dose late or miss it completely. While many of us are guilty of this at some point, it is important to remember why we give this pill every month, and how easy it is to prevent this life threatening disease.

Heartworm has been diagnosed in all 50 states, and any area with mosquitoes has the potential to infect our dogs. Well, then why do we see it so commonly with our dogs from South Carolina, while it appears to be rare in our dogs in the DC area? Many of the dogs we transport up from the southern states spend most of their life outdoors, and are exposed to a higher number of mosquitoes for longer periods of time. Also, there are many more infected dogs and wild canids living outdoors, enabling the parasite to multiply and causing more of the mosquitoes to potentially carry heartworm disease.

You might ask yourself, why not just test for the parasite and deworm like we do for intestinal parasites? Unfortunately, unlike most intestinal parasites, adult heartworm infection is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition. Prevention is a much cheaper, easier, and safer method of treatment then waiting for infection and killing the adult worms. It is very important to understand how this little worm is transmitted to our dogs, and how testing and prevention works.

Adult heartworms live within the pulmonary artery, which is the large vessel leaving the right side of the heart, connecting to the lungs. If left untreated, severely affected dogs can develop right sided heart failure and/or other changes within the heart, lungs, liver or abdomen. The adult female worms produce very small versions of themselves, called microfilaria. When a mosquito bites an infected dog, it collects these microfilaria into its own body. Once inside the mosquito, they develop into larvae, an infectious version of the heartworm parasite. After a mosquito feeds on an unsuspecting victim, the larvae are released back into the dog, where they travel to the heart and mature into an adult heartworm over a 6 month period.

Your veterinarian tests for adult heartworms by collecting a small blood sample and checking it for very small pieces of the female adult worms, called antigen. A positive result indicates an active heartworm infection, and a negative indicates that there are no adult worms. However, there is a 6 month period where dogs can be exposed to heartworms and will not come up positive on our tests! That is the stage between when the mosquito bites and deposits larvae into the dog and when the larvae mature into adult heartworms. This leaves a grey area in our diagnostics, where even if a dog tests negative they could still have immature larvae which will go on to develop into an adult heartworm despite starting preventatives.

So why not simply give heartworm preventative every 6 months?  The fact is most of our oral preventatives are only effective at killing off that heartworm larvae which our dogs were exposed to within the last 4 weeks. After that, the migrating larvae cannot be treated with our preventatives OR the treatments for adult heartworms. So, if you don’t treat every 4 weeks (1 month), you risk having larvae grow unhindered into adult worms. There are many preventatives available from your veterinarian, all of which are effective at prevention. However, some preventatives are potentially harmful if your dog has an adult heartworm infection. Therefore it is always important to make sure to let your veterinarian know if you have missed any doses; they will likely switch you to a preventative that is safe for potentially heartworm positive dogs.

Once infected with adult heartworms, there are a number of treatment options. The most common and most successful treatment is immiticide (melarsomine) injections. These are usually administered via injections into their back muscles, using either 2 or 3 injections depending on the protocol. The injection sites are often very painful, but the main concern is that, once the heartworms are killed, they have the potential to suddenly dislodge and travel to the lungs. This could potentially lead to hospitalization or even death. This is why it is so critical to restrict our recently treated dogs from any high impact activities such as running, jumping or playing for at least 4-6 weeks after treatment. Ideally, they should be restricted to a crate when not under supervision, and only allowed short leash walks during the day. In order to ensure that the heartworms have adequately treated, it is recommended to retest for adult heartworms 6-7 months after treatment.

As with any infectious disease, prevention is key. Therefore always keep your dogs on monthly heartworm prevention 12 months out of the year and have them tested at their annual exam. If you have missed one or more doses of your heatworm preventative, please let your veterinarian know before renewing your prescription. For more information, please visit the website for the American Heartworm Society (http://www.heartwormsociety.org/) or visit your local veterinarian.

Lucky Dog is especially looking for these essentials:

• bowls
• treats
• crates
• dog food
• leashes
• collars
• harnesses
• toys
• bones
• beds
• towels
• bleach
• trash bags
• paper towels
• frontline
• other dog care essentials

Location: Lincoln Restaurant, 1110 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington DC

Monday, December 12, 2011
Cocktail Reception: 7-8pm
Dinner: 8pm
Entertainment: Music Performances, Arts, Silent Auction

All proceeds from the event will benefit Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, a 501c3 non-profit rescue group working to save shelter dogs from certain death. Every year 6-8 million dogs and cats are left to the mercy of shelters due to animal cruelty, abandonment, and uncontrolled breeding; some 3-4 million of these end up being euthanized because shelters have too little room. Lucky Dog Animal Rescue is Washington DC’s leading rescue organization, helping defenseless animals by saving them from the shelters and placing them in loving homes. Since May 2009, the rescue has saved and placed more than 3000 dogs in homes around the DC area.

We sincerely hope that you may consider this unique opportunity to join Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, Lincoln Restaurant, and Wagtime for an evening of fundraising to help provide hundreds of dogs with the gift of a new home.

Purchase Tickets

Download Sponsorship Package here. 

The Lucky Dog Sponsor – $1500 SOLD OUT

• Reserved table for ten people at the event with two bottles of champagne + dinner and a welcome drink during the reception
• Signage at the event with your company’s logo*
• Logo placement in marketing materials surrounding the event
• Mention in press releases before and after the event
• Photo opportunities with Lucky Dogs outside Lincoln at the eve of the event**
• Sponsorship of Lucky Dog Animal Rescue for one full year with logo placement on Lucky Dog Animal Rescue Website and on select Lucky Dog Animal Rescue promotional materials

The Big Paw Table – $1200 SOLD OUT

• Reserved table for eight people at the event with two bottles of champagne + dinner and a welcome drink during the reception
• Signage at the event with your company’s logo*
• Logo placement in marketing materials surrounding the event
• Mention in press releases before and after the event
• Photo opportunities with Lucky Dogs outside Lincoln at the eve of the event**
• Sponsorship of Lucky Dog Animal Rescue for half a year with logo placement on Lucky Dog Animal Rescue Website and on select Lucky Dog Animal Rescue promotional materials

The Puppy Paw: Ticket or Table SOLD OUT

Table – $900:

• Reserved table for six people at the event
• One bottle of champagne for the table
• Welcome drink during the reception
• 3-course dinner
• One free raffle ticket per person for the event’s raffle

Individual Ticket – $95:

• Seating for one
• Welcome drink during the reception
• 3-course dinner
• One free raffle ticket for the event’s raffle

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

We are grateful for the immense outpouring of support from the community, and we hope that those of you who have been moved by Parrot’s death continue to pursue justice on his behalf by being bully breed ambassadors and by continuing to push police all over the country to improve their dog-handling skills.

Read more about Parrot

Schedule a mini holiday photo session for you and your pet!

For $50 you’ll get a professional photo session with Jim Poor Photography and your choice of one 8×10 print or one High Resolution Digital file. Perfect for holiday cards!

20% of session fees donated Lucky Dog’s Chief fund.

Full Professional Portrait Sessions

Schedule a full portrait session with your pet!

For $200 you’ll get a full professional portrait session with Jim Poor Photography, including multiple backdrop options, colors and enhancements.  Perfect for holiday gifts or just a work of art featuring your best friend.

Price is $150 off the normal price, and $100 is donated Lucky Dog’s Chief fund

To book call Jim Poor Photography at 703-347-4332 or visit www.jimpoor.com

Chief is a friendly, young, Chow/Lab mix, who was found tied up outside an abandoned house and taken to a rural high kill shelter in SC.  Poor Chief is missing a paw and part of his other leg, so his chances of survival were slim – until Lucky Dog Animal Rescue stepped in and brought him to DC to start a new life.

Chief has the heart of a champion. Lucky Dog is buying Chief prosthetics for his legs so he can walk more comfortably. But comfort doesn’t come cheap, so Lucky Dog is raising money to help cover the over $800 in costs. You can help by taking advantage of one of these great offers.

Not only will we have a great time, but we’ll be raising money for some great causes – Lucky Dog Animal Rescue and Parkland’s PTSA! The Silver Diner will donate 20% of the total receipts from the evening. Proceeds will be split evenly between Lucky Dog Animal Rescue (an organization dedicated to saving the lives of homeless animals) and the PTSA.

There will also be a raffle with some amazing prizes (spa treatments, movie passes, gift certificates to popular stores, and more!).  100% of the raffle ticket proceeds will go to support our designated charities.

So come support our students, help animals, and have a blast with us at the Silver Diner on Rockville Pike on Monday, November 7th from 6-9pm.

$5 for each Simple Dog item sold goes as a cash donation to Lucky Dog — just select us as your charity of choice!  Show everyone your support for rescue! http://bestpetstickers.com/home.html

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Boarding at 7:15; Cruise departs at 7:30 and returns at 9:30

Drinks, appetizers & deserts

Departing from the Alexandria Dock (Cameron and Union Streets, Old Town Alexandria) Tickets

NOTE: This is a People-Only Cruise.

$25 in advance.  $30 at the door.

All proceeds go to saving homeless and abandoned animals!