Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 3/3/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello.  I have an eleven or twelve year old Golden Retriever.  I noticed yesterday that she started coughing or something similar to clearing her throat.  The sound she is making is similar to after she drinks water - like clearing her throat.  The problem is that this is almost constant now.  She has been an outside dog for years.  

I am embarrassed to say that she hasn’t had her shots in years.  She hasn’t had her heartworm treatment either.  I could never afford to pay for them.  What do you think this could be?  You can email me at frankmarx@bigstring.  Thank you very much.  Frank    

P.S. I am sorry if I have already asked you this question.

ANSWER: Most likely she has heartworms. At her age you probably couldn't treat her anyway- it's a very hard treatment for them to go through. She could also have heart problems now from the heartworms, which causes fluid build-up in the lungs which makes them cough.

A cough is a very common sign of both heartworm and heart disease. I know that it's not cheap to get their shots every year but heartworm prevention is not something that costs that much when you compare it to the cost of the treatment. It costs about $4 a month to prevent heartworms and untold suffering for your dog.

The problem here is that letting her go like this without any treatment is going to result in a very painful ending for her at some point. It is not a good way to go. I implore you to get her into a vet and see if there is something they can do for her at this point to alleviate her suffering.

Our dogs give us unconditional love and acceptance- it is not so hard to see that as owners it is our responsibility to give our dogs the best health care we can.

I hope that your dog is treatable Frank and I hope that she isn't in any pain. Please let me know what you find out at the vets and how she is doing.   

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dr. Connell:

I can't thank you enough for your help and advise.  Actually, I thought the same thing that she might have heart worms.  What are the symptoms of heart worms and what do heart worms progressively do to dogs who have them?  Our problem doctor is we don't have two nickles to scrape together.  Our phones have been cut off and they are threatening to cut off our power.  I am disabled and am living on a very fixed income.  

This is a very sad day :(

ANSWER: Frank,
You are welcome. I am not a doctor, however, I am a vet tech. I am sorry to hear of your circumstances. I too, am on disability and a fixed income. I know how tough it can be.

Don't let them turn off your power Frank, by law they cannot do that to you if you are disabled as far as I know. You can call the company and explain to them that you are disabled and arrange to make small payments if nothing else.

I was told if you paid even $5 a month it shows intent to pay so they cannot shut you down.

The symptoms of progressive heartworm disease is almost like heart failure. The dog becomes slower as the heart becomes less efficient at pumping blood due to the lack of space from the heartworms in the heart and the fact that that heart becomes basketball shaped and doesn't pump as well as it once did.

Because of this there is a lot of fluid buildup in the lungs and then in the abdomen also. They sometimes develop a large belly full of fluid due to the excesses and also the liver starts to fail. As the liver fails the belly becomes hard and round with fluid and that put increased pressure on the heart and lungs. The dog generally gets really thin on top and you can see all the bones in the spine while having a huge belly underneath.

Some dogs don't get to that point and die from heart attacks just like a person does. They seem to suffer longer before they die for some reason from them, which is really hard to see.

None of this is pretty Frank and I am sorry to even be this graphic but you asked for the symptoms. If this were my dog and she started to show distress, such as crying out, or having trouble breathing all the time, unable to move much or she stops eating, then I would do the kind thing and have her put down. There is no need for her to suffer. Giving her the last gift to end her suffering is the kindest thing you can do. You can ask the vet if he might take payments for that or see if your local pound will put her to sleep for you. Just make sure that they use injections and not some other form. You will not get to be with her however if the pound does it, but you can stay with her at the vets.

I am truly sorry for all of this sadness and her pain and suffering. I am so sorry. I will pray that her end will be fast and painless, no matter how it comes. I know that there isn't much you can do, but I hope you can see a way to give her this gift.

Please let me know how it all turns out.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I really appreciate your advise about our power.  I sure will take your advise and call them.

Rio, my Golden also has an oblong cyst for better terms in her skin below her belly in the left flank area.  It started about the size of a plum.  She's had this for years.  The vet said they can remove it but if it were cancerous it could spread and kill her.  Consequently, we just left it there.  It doesn't seem to bother her.  It's now about the size of an oblong grape fruit.

Her only symptoms are the coughing.  Recently, I had a doctor's appointment out of town and we were gone for about a week.  We had a friend feed her.  When we came back, Rio had gained at least 15 pounds.  I don't think this has anything to do with her heart worms.  I think our friend just free fed her and she will never stop eating lol.  She's a big fan of food lol.

We have started to keep her inside to make her more comfortable.  If she starts coughing constantly, she will put put down.  I will never ever sit and watch a pet suffer just because I am selfish in wanting her around and not to put her to sleep.  I cannot think of anything more inhumane keeping a pet alive knowing they are suffering simply because you don't want to suffer the loss of putting them down.  Rio will not suffer, I can promise you that!  

An old farmer vet always suggested using Ivomec for help with heart worms.  What do you think?

Ms. Connell, I cannot put to words how much I really appreciate your help and advise.  Who ever asks you questions is a very lucky person because you seem to have a very large heart and you seem to care a lot about animals.

I will certainly give you the highest of ratings because you have been awesome.

Answer
Hi Frank,
First let me square you away with Ivermectin. It is used in chews like Heartgard to prevent heartworms, but it does nothing to kill the adults. You need a very powerful drug to kill the adult heartworms in the heart itself.

We used to use a drug that was arsenic based- and at times this was very hard on the dog. We had a build up program for the dogs before treatment and had a huge success rate with this treatment. In twenty years I only saw two dogs die from the treatment and both were in really bad shape but the owners admitted they didn't tell us how bad the dogs were at home.

I have seen two dogs die from heartworm related heart attacks and that is something I never want to see again.

The second drug came out about 13 yrs ago. It is a drug that is injected deep into the muscles of the back of the dog and it is a very dangerous drug also. When given carefully and correctly it has a high success rate in killing adult heartworms as well.

This is why prevention is so important. We tell owners to keep their dogs on it year round because they can get heartworms any time of the year now. Even in the dead of winter there is a mosquito lurking somewhere looking for a meal and it will find the dog and bite it and pass on the baby heartworms that eventually migrate to the heart and grow up to 14 inches long.

You also don't want to give Ivermectin for another reason-microfilaria. These are the baby heartworms that the adults in the heart have hatched out and are circulating in the blood stream. Giving a dose of Ivermectin when the dog is full of these can stress out the babies as they die and make them put out something (like a massive stress hormone) that will send the dog into shock and many have died that way.

So never give your dog a dose of Ivermectin that way. For dogs that are heartworm free Ivermectin given properly is a preventative.

As far as the tumor on your dog's leg or flank is, I would say it's a fatty tumor, or Lipoma. Those are not cancerous and cutting them off does nothing to the dog but remove the tumor. Without having done even a needle biopsy to know what kind of tumor it is the vet was incorrect by what he told you.  Cancer spreads without surgery so I have no clue why people cling to the false notion that surgery spreads it.

I wish more people would rate me as you do, but not everyone feels that way. When I try to be tactful but honest, people don't like to hear the truth sometimes and get mad at me and give me a terrible rating and say things that are not nice, but that is okay. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, including me.

Thank you for the kind words however. I hope she does okay for a while. Next time you get a dog (if you do) you might want to get a smaller one since the heartworm prevention is much cheaper for a little dog. My dog is 5 lbs so I know this to be true!
take care and please let me know how she does.