A reader asked how to treat heartworms:

How do I begin? I rescued my dog, Daisy last year, fell in love
completely only to find out she is heartworm positive. we put her on
preventative from the vet along with antibiotics for the microfilia
she had, which caused a reaction of weakness in her body and allowed a
previous spinal injury to come back, and she became crippled in her
back legs. I was advised to just put her down, but I couldn’t give up
on her, I made a sling for her, and worked with her for weeks and
weeks, put her on herbs(turmeric) and a miracle happened! she started
to walk again. this was last Christmas, she is now 80%, but now the
heartworm treatment is out of the question. she is still on the
preventative but I would like to know if you could offer some natural
alternatives to get rid of her heartworms and strengthen her body.
Please help me…..

First, thank you so much for adopting Daisy, falling in love, then coping with her health challenges this year.

Please read the article on my site about heartworms in general.

Now, please do not let anything I say make you feel guilty.  You were doing the very best you knew how to do, as was your merely conventionally trained veterinarian. Generally a healthy dog will have no heart problems and the worms will die in a year or so with no specific treatment. I sometimes suggest an X-ray to determine the health of the heart. You would be carefully watching for any symptoms (cough, exercise intolerance, etc).

You are now at this point since you are not doing any treatment. There are alternative treatments (herbs and homeopathy) for adult heartworms that are 75% effective. I would begin now working with an excellent integrative veterinarian who does great TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) or great homeopathy. Read the article on selecting and working with one.  To find one, go to my links page and research each organization. Learn Reiki and offer it daily for the rest of your life to all living beings in your home (for 10-20 mins).

Build health by following the 7 keys to health.

for the future, if you chose to use preventatives, read this blog post on the dangers of  triflexis.