Success Stories

Dixie5, January 2006

Dixie5 is the Buddy Arnold Memorial Fund Dog for January 2006.

Dixie5 suffered years of neglect before being taken in by a South Carolina rescue group. She had lived her life tied up in a yard and had birthed several litters. Her owners also neglected to give her heartworm preventative, and indeed Dixie turned out to be heartworm positive. LABMED contributed toward Dixie's treatment in hopes that her future would be brighter than her past.

Dixie is one of the many Labs and Lab-mixes whose heartworm treatment was funded with help from LABMED.

Prevention of heartworms is easy, but the treatment is hard on a dog. Heartworm preventatives kill the immature worms in a dog's blood and have little or no effect on the dog; killing the adult worms is very stressful for a dog, requiring hospitalization and four weeks of limited activity to prevent damage to the lungs as the adult heartworms die.

Please help us to educate dog owners about heartworm disease. Not everyone is aware of how life-threatening heartworms can be and how easy it is to prevent them. Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, and there are very few areas of the US where heartworm is not a threat for at least part of the year. Administering heartworm preventative on a regular basis is an important part of responsible dog ownership!

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