Strangers get dogs heartworm treatment, and homes
At Orange County’s animal shelter, the 6-year-old lab mix nicknamed “Lucky Charm” has a happy, black-and-white face, sweet demeanor and mastery of some basic commands.
He also has heartworms — the potentially fatal parasite that attacks the arteries of a dog’s lungs and damages its heart.
Yet true to his name, Lucky Charm is actually one of the fortunate ones. He’s part of a new program in Orange that recruits businesses to underwrite the cost of heartworm treatment — and part of a growing effort throughout the region to save dogs with heartworms and get them adopted.
“It used to be that if you were walking through the kennel and heard that a dog had a $1,000 pricetag on his head because he needs heartworm treatment, you would probably just move on and choose a different dog,” said
spokeswoman Alyssa Duross of Orange County Animal Services. “It was such a deterrent that those animals might never have been adopted. And we didn’t want a treatable condition to stand in the way of a dog getting a home.”
Across the region, both public and private shelters have limited funds for veterinary needs, and most can’t afford to treat heartworm infection — which is spread by mosquitoes carrying heartworm larvae — unless they know the animal will have a permanent home. So they’ve gotten creative.
The Orange County program works with the veterinary clinic at the neighboring Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, which provides the 90-day course of treatment at cost — about $350. That is several hundred dollars less than the going rate for private veterinarians, Duross said. Once a business agrees to sponsor a dog — and someone wants to adopt that animal — the treatment starts, allowing the animal to recuperate in its new home rather than the stressful environment of a shelter.
The alliance’s clinic provides the treatment free of charge to people who adopt from its own shelter, too.
The sponsorship drive, launched quietly late last year, has already attracted a dozen businesses that have agreed to collectively pay for about 40 dogs to be treated, and organizers are hoping that a publicity campaign launching this month will persuade more sponsors to sign up. Last year, the shelter took in 680 dogs that tested positive for heartworms, about 10 percent of its total.
“The program has really taken off,” said Orlando attorney Lisa Franchina, who chairs the county’s animal services advisory board and whose own family law practice is a sponsor. She’s also a shelter volunteer. “My [sponsored] dog actually got adopted last weekend, and I got to see it. I happened to be at the shelter, and there was a very nice couple that came in with their little girl, 4 years old. … I was able to say, ‘Well, there is a very sweet dog you might like …’ ”
Sammy, a doe-eyed mixed-breed stray, came in at an emaciated 28 pounds — at least 10 pounds underweight — and tested positive for heartworm. With a home and treatment, her prognosis is excellent, Duross said. And Franchina is ready to sponsor another dog.
Across the region, heartworm rates are high among strays. The parasite thrives in hot, humid climates, but it is easily preventable when dogs are given monthly medicine. Infection is less frequent in cats, but once infected, there is no treatment, which is why prevention is considered critical.
In Lake County, animal shelter veterinarian Marie Gravatt said the agency has begun offering treatment for dogs in hopes of finding them homes.
“We have a program here where, if you come in and want to adopt a heartworm-positive dog, it’s a $100 donation for the very, very basic treatment,” she said. “It’s not the gold standard, but we really can’t do more with the funding we have.”
Adoptive families also can have their private vet administer or supplement the treatment, Gravatt notes, and a local rescue group will cover $50 of the basic treatment if the individual or family can’t cover the full $100.
But each county is different. In Seminole, for instance, all dogs are tested and all but those with severe medical or behavioral issues are treated before adoption, thanks largely to a nonprofit that supports the shelter, TEARS of Seminole County.
“Because we don’t have an in-house clinic, we have to be able to oversee the treatment itself and ensure that the dog goes through the protocol,” says the shelter’s spokeswoman, Diane Gagliano. “The worst thing [about the treatment] is keeping them quiet afterwards because that’s where your real risk is — having that dog run around and getting its heart pumping before the worms have broken off and disintegrated in their system. When they’re with us, our volunteers know that that dog can only go out for a little walk and then has to go right back in. We can’t let them out for playtime.”
If I dog has too much activity during the treatment — which is something akin to chemotherapy — it can be fatal.
“I wouldn’t want to treat a dog in a shelter,” says Kim Staton, director of Osceola County Animal Services. “It’s like a hospital for humans — it’s not the best place for healing.”
Osceola has found success paying for heartworm treatment through donations from Franklin’s Friends, a local nonprofit, and by posting dogs with the condition on its Facebook page and soliciting funds specifically for each animal. When donors can see exactly where their money is going, Staton says, it helps.
“We’ve had a pretty good response with that,” she says. “We’re like anybody else — we fall in love with these dogs and we push to get them the treatment they need.”
But most places – including Orange County — simply can’t afford to provide treatment unless they know an animal will have a home. There is simply too much need and not enough money.
“Lucky Charm here just needs somebody to see what a great dog he is,” Duross says, “and want to make him part of their family.”