About Goldens - Health Care

Your dog’s health is vital to a long-lasting quality of life. Many health-related situations may arise with your dog over the course of his/her life, requiring you to educate yourself on how best to help and what resources are available. The following articles and links are intended to help with some of these health-related issues you may face.

Adult dogs living in the southeastern U.S. are highly likely to contract heartworms from mosquitoes if the dogs are not regularly treated with heartworm prevention medication. About 15 percent of the adult dogs that come into our rescue program are found to have heartworms. Heartworm is a serious illness and can be fatal if left untreated.

Up until now (Fall 2011) Neuse River Golden Retriever Rescue has been able to cure these dogs of heartworms before adopting them out to their "forever homes." However, there is currently a national shortage of the only drug approved by the FDA to treat heartworm, Immiticide.

With Immiticide not available, the only option for treating these dogs is something commonly called the "slow kill" method. This consists of giving the dog an antibiotic (Doxycycline) for 1 month each quarter and giving monthly Heartgard prevention medication. This process takes about 12 months to completely rid the dog of heartworms. It is VERY important that the aerobic activity of the dog be limited while they are infected with heartworms.  Very slow, short leisurely walks are ok, but it is very important to refrain from allowing the dog to participate in any activity that gets them panting heavily, especially for extended periods of time.   

For more information, go to www.heartwormsociety.org.

We hope you will consider adopting these special needs dogs. The dog's foster and our Medical Manager can provide you with a lot more information before your make the decision.