Hello. This is my very first post here and I hope I'm posting in this right section. We recently went to our local animal shelter looking to expand our family and I'll be honest I've never adopted an older stray dog before. We currently have one 7 year old cat and a 10 year old Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix (that's everyone's best guess) Anyways when we went to the shelter looking to adopt a pupp... I saw Luca a 2 year old Husky who has had a rough life. The tips of his ears were eaten away by maggots and he has a huge scar above his left eye because of them as well. But, aside from superficial wounds that can heal easily. He he heartworm positive. We had our consultation about it and our vet explained everything thoroughly to us, I've done as much research as I could on my own as well. Even after hearing what all we have to do for him during this process, it made us even more committed to giving him a loving furever home that he deserves. I'm so sorry I'm rambling...I'm just anxious and excited to get him home so everytime I talk or text about him I explain everything. Anyways, I know that Huskies are full of energy and curiosity so if you have had a personal experience with this or known someone who has any tips or extra knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Again, I apologize if this has been posted before or if I posted it in the wrong section.

No personal experience with heartworm positive dogs, only from reading. As I understand it, the big issue is keeping them quiet during treatment. Hopefully, he tolerates a crate. Things to chew in the crate (supervision at first - some dogs aggressive chewers and can swallow things they should not.) Puzzle toys. Hopefully others will chime in.

Good luck with the treatment.

Once you get through some of the rant of this thread there's some info on what to expect as far as the treatments go.

Storm Tested HW+

This has some pretty good info on treatment breakdown. I will say if you go the Ivomectin route watch the dosage like a hawk. My aunt had a HW+ dog years ago and they gave too high of a dose of Ivomec and it killed him.

Heartworm Recommendation

Do a lot of mental stimulation to help with excess energy. Teach tricks that don't get him excited too much or are easy physically to do. Get puzzle toys and things to chew on. You might be able to teach hide and seek in small areas so that he isn't trying to run or climb on stuff during the search. He's a young dog and should bounce back from the treatment very well. Just be ready for a crazy dog potentially that tries to convince you that he's find to run and romp when he isn't yet done with treatment. Don't give into him.

Thank y'all for the replies. Twister, I'm very sorry about the loss of your Aunts dog. I believe he will be on Melarsomine. He gets 3 injections and within 5 months he will be done and hopefully cleared up We bought him numerous things for stimulation, mostly the Kong toys. We are looking forward to tomorrow.

@Mia27 You are going to keep us updated on how he handles the treatment, won't you, please.

It's odd that when I lived over in Houston - the city built on a swamp - heartworms were the bane of our doggy problems. A person *had* to keep their dog on heartworm preventive or they would contract them. Somewhere around midstate - say just west of San Antonio - where the desert begins and no-one has their dogs on much of any preventives. No mosquitoes so no heartworm; no ticks or fleas - they just don't live in this hot, dry climate - so no problems there.