Success Stories

Murphy3, May 2002

Dear LABMED,

Thank you very much for helping my mother pay for my heartworm treatment. Mommy said that now we can eat next month. I think she is just kidding, but I am not completely sure. I am hoping she will buy me and my sister a new toy. We got a really cool soft thing that was sort of flat and oval and it was like a puzzle. We pulled it apart into a million little pieces. We tried to put it back together but were not very good at that. Mom yelled something about sleeping on the hard floor for the rest of our lives. I don't know what she was talking about, but it was sure a cool toy. My heartworm treatment hurt when they gave me the shots in my back, but mommy came and sat with me. It made me cough and cough but I am all better now and can run and run with my sister. The other day I saw a duck with little ducklings. I swam out to play with them. Momma duck played duck duck goose with me and swam around in a circle and splashed me. Then she swam to the land and we played follow the leader and then we went back in the water and my mom was calling my name (cheering me on I am sure.) Then the momma duck swam over to my mom and we got out of the water and mom grabbed my collar and the momma duck went back to her ducklings. It was really fun.

- Murphy (aka little boy)

My "little boy" is doing great and fully recovered from his heartworm treatment. He did develop some pulmonary hemorrhage and edema but I put him on a few days of prednisone and that helped. As you can see from the above, he is quite active now. I think he inherited the lab gene that told him to retrieve ducks, but not the gene to wait for someone to shoot it first!! He continues to be a great dog. Sadly the dog rescued at the same time was recently euthanized because of erlichiosis. We thought it was his sister, but now the veterinarian thinks it could have been his mother. She was also heartworm positive. Because there is at least one species of erlichiosis that can be transmitted transplacentally, I will have Murphy checked for that as well. I will send on some newer pictures when I get some.