Neutering and Heartworm
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| As far as I know you can neuter the animal at any point. The heartworm doesnt effect neutering. I would keep a very sterile field for working in though and all blood should be cleaned off very well but thats with any surgery. Heartworm can't be transmitted through dorect contact so no worries there, there has to be a mosquito involved and stuff. But anyway, I dont believe there is a specific time you have to wait before or after treatment to neuter/spay. I do want to say though that if this dog happens to be a collie of some sort or a similar type dog to watch out with treating him/her with the standard ivermectin treatment because collies are prone to bad reactions to ivermectin. Just a heads up thats all. Hope this helps a bit. |
| All dogs with the irish white spotting gene (collies, oes, etc) Most with white feet.... are senstive to ivermectin. The treatment in this case outweighs the risks though since the dog is definitely heartworm positive. |
| Thanks for the info.
The dog is a chihuahua. I guess it is more important to treat the HW, that could kill the dog, before the neutering. No mosquitoes around this time of year, so no worries about transmitting for a few months, and hopefully by spring he'll be clear. I have been told that in a severe case putting a HW postive dog "under" could kill them, but if not bad it can be done beforehand. I've also been told that some vets will wait for months AFTER treatment to spay/neuter. Varying opinions, I guess.  |
| It would depend on the severity of the adult worms in the heart.
If it's a low positive the dog could safely go through a neutering now but if it's a high positive the dog would need to be treated first. Our vets usually wait 6 weeks after treatment for a high positive HW dog before they will neuter it. We get a lot of HW positive dogs in our area, our vets treat about 20 HW positive dogs per month on average and I'd say over half of the Boxers the rescue we volunteer for pulls, are HW positive. WISH we were more like up where you are in Canada. That would be great not to have to deal with Heartworm positive dogs on such a regular basis. |
| I have Willie Nelson here with me...He was in a Kill Shelter in Jacksonville Florida......He was intact and High HW positive.....They were going to neuter him there.....The shelter manager siad she could pull some strings and have the HW treatment done there for a very reasonable price...About 1/2 of what it would cost me here to treat it......So I agreed.....Mistake!!!!!!! I was told that they were going to do both proceeders 1 week apart .They did neutering one day and HW the next day...... I was called that day of the HW treatment.Then they wanted him picked up.... ....One of Our Rescue Helpers drove from Houston to Jacksonville, Florida to get him and brought him back...... He has neurological damage because of it......Had the HW not been so bad maybe he could have handled both procedures .......SO he will stay here with me.....The point of this is I ASSUMED that the shelter would do what they told me they were going to do.......Don't Ever Assume Anything when it comes to the Care Of Your Baby.......Kaye |
| I guess the reasoning behind waiting on a high positive dog is that the sedation and anesthesia drugs depress the heart rate. The heart worms live in the heart and with a decreased heartrate they are more likely to float into circulation and into the lungs. treatments should be done a time apart just because we dont want all the dead heartworms to swarm into the lungs and stuff. I would honestly treat the heartworm first that is the most important. he can always be neutered afterwards. |
When we rescued Buddy a few months ago, he was heartworm positive and the pound that he was at before we pickd him up neutered him before they even tested to find out he was positive. 
He came through the neutering without a problem and went on to have the treatment aout a month later. he was low positive and only in the larval stage so he wasn't in a very weak state during the neuter. He's now the bounciest, happiest dog ever! |
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