We all know Jolie came home. Yay! Well, I took her to the vet for her yearly shots and a check-up which includes heartworm testing.
Jolie has heartworms.
Seriously, I'm hating myself more than usual right now.
Two options for treatment: 1. You give the once a month preventative treatment to stop new worms from invading your dog and just wait for the existing ones to die, which may take a couple of years. 2. You put your dog through the more difficult, more expensive treatment. That includes a two night stay at the clinic, two injections of a poison to kill the heartworms, a two week return visit for oral antiobiotics, 4-6 weeks of almost NO activity, and a retest for heartworms when it's all said and done.
Because I feel I'm the cause of this problem for not getting preventative care for Jolie in the first place, I went with number two. It's going to be a bit over $300 but doesn't the poor thing deserve it. She's in my bed as we speak because I can't handle the thought of having to lock her in her crate for the next two months. As long as it's a confined space with no stimuli, Jolie can stay there.
The worse part though is the outside time. Jolie has to be walked on a leash to potty. This is probably the definition of hell for both the dog and me. Jo loves to run when she can. And roll around in the dirt. She has problems going to the bathroom as is. She is a chore trying to get her outside. Don't know why. Again, she loves to run and roll. She hates being watched when she's out. She'll stand in place the entire time if you are there. She won't pee or anything. So, walking her on the leash is bad. She just wants to walk. She hasn't gone pee since she came home yesterday morning.
This is going to be the longest six weeks of my life.
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