The dog I'm asking about is a 9 month old PB GSD who for the past 2 months (approx) been coughing/hacking (sometimes coughs up blood), drooling and is now a rack of bones. Antiobiotics have been prescribed in the past (not sure what for). I do believe x-rays were done when this first started - nothing showed up then. I do not know if this dog has been scoped to check its throat for damage/infection. Thoughts, advice, comments would be appreciated. This is not my dog but standing by doing nothing is getting way too hard. TIA.

A scope would be a good idea. He may have something lodged in his esophagus or somewhere down low....poor pup.

Yuppers, that's what we're thinking especially since this dog was REALLY bad about eating/chewing anything, everything it could get its teeth on when it was a wee pup.

Sounds like advanced heartworm to me.

I wish this dog the best.

We live in an area where heartworm isn't prevalent but it sure is something to check out! A blood test would confirm this?

I was thinking heartworm, also. Classic. A blood test is done, takes 10 minutes.

Tks for confirming a blood test is necessary to diagnosis this. I haven't had any exposure to heartworm but will get it checked out if the owner can be convinced to do it.

I doubt a 9 month old dog would have advanced heartworm.

He could have a lot of things going on. If he's only 9 months, I doubt that in an area with little heartworm that he has an "advanced" case of it. Sounds more like a prolonged respiratory infection, maybe even pneumonia, to me. That being said, a respiratory infection can be caused by many things, including a fistula between the windpipe and esophagus, sometimes congenital, sometimes due to something getting lodged as others have suggested might have happened. Although a fistula won't show up on x-ray, without barium or similar radiocontrast material.Whatever happened then, whatever antibiotics were prescribed, he needs more meds, probably different meds, and x-rays now, as I am sure OP would like. He could have a lot of things going on. When was he last wormed and with what? Even untreated roundworm overloads can cause respiratory problems, and then there are also lungworms. I would not suggest a wormer without veterinary advice with him in such poor condition. Poor puppy! I hope they will let you help them help him.

It does sound like heartworm to me, and for the simple test that is available, it should be done in my opinion. Wherever there are mosquitos, there is a possibility of heartworm.

I hope the owner will let us help too & tks for the info!

Just a thought, but if scope is clear and everything else comes back normal, a screen for systemic fungus (histoplasma, etc.) might be in order.

Since we're kind of on the subject, what is the time frame between initial contraction of heartworm and end stage, just general ballpark?

That's a good question. I am sure in part it depends on the number of worms, as a low worm burden won't necessarily show up on a test, or cause the most severe problems. I think that the earliest heartworms can be detected is 6-7 months post infection, for early HW infection. Even the Heartworm Society says there is no reason to test a dog under 7 mos of age--even in high risk areas.
http://www.heartwormsociety.org/veterinary-resources/canine-guidelines.html#2
Someone from high risk areas can probably give an answer, especially a rescuer of southern dogs. I remember deciding with my vet on a 14 yr old Lab in kidney failure that the preventative was more likely to kill her than a couple years without it, but I am in north Jersey, so it is not as bad as even an hour south of me, and not at all like the deep south. The dogs with heartworm that we have taken were a couple years old, and only mildly infected, even the one that had moved north with the owner who had to give it up. That may have just been luck of the draw. The heartworms can live up to 7 years, , and could total 30 or more. There can be circulating microfilariae even in treated dogs although the dogs we had only had a couple adults as well as the microfilariae. Being mildly infected, the 2 yr old Lab was treated with 10 consecutive months of regular Heartgard, under vet care. After a couple years, she was considered totally clear. It would have been better for her if she had been on preventative.

My 11 year old is gagging , dry heaves, I took her off the heartworm prevent last year , she lives in the house. Now I'm worried. Off to the Vet I go .!

Hope your girl is A OK!

can you give heartguard to a pregnant girl?

Yes

Just a quick update. Talked to the owner and hopefully pride will go before the fall or this dog's continuing decline..........

does the dog have diarrhea?

I don't believe so.

Course of infection
Heartworms go through several life stages before they become adults infecting the heart of the host animal. The worms require the mosquito as an intermediate stage in order to complete their life cycle. Development in the mosquito is temperature dependent, requiring approximately two weeks of temperature at or above 27 °C (80 °F). Below a threshold temperature of 14 °C (57 °F), development cannot occur, and the cycle will be halted. As a result, transmission is limited to warm months, and duration of the transmission season varies geographically. The period between the initial infection when the dog is bitten by a mosquito and the maturation of the worms into adults living in the heart takes 6 to 7 months in dogs and is known as the "prepatent period".
After infection, the third stage larval heartworms (L3) deposited by the mosquito grow for a week or two and molt to the fourth larval stage (L4) under the skin at the site of the mosquito bite. Then they migrate to the muscles of the chest and abdomen and 45 to 60 days after infection, molt to the fifth stage (L5, immature adult). Between 75 and 120 days after infection these immature heartworms then enter the bloodstream and are carried through the heart to reside in the pulmonary artery. Over the next 3 to 4 months they increase greatly in size. The female adult worms are about 30 cm in length, and males are about 23 cm with a coiled tail. By approximately 6.5 to 7 months after infection, the adult worms have mated and the females begin giving birth to live young, called microfilariae.
The microfilariae circulate in the bloodstream for as long as two years, waiting for the next stage in their life cycle in the gut of a bloodsucking mosquito. When ingested by a mosquito, the microfilariae undergo a series of molts to the infective third larval stage and then migrate to the salivary glands of the mosquito, where they wait to infect another host. The incubation period required to reach the stage where the microfilariae become transmittable to another host can be as little as two weeks or as long as six weeks, depending on the warmth of the climate, and the larval life cycle ceases entirely if the ambient temperature drops below 14° Celsius (57° Fahrenheit).

having said this....there is NO way a 9 month old can have advanced heartworm...you don't even generally start giving preventative until a dog is about 12 weeks anyways.

Ew, that made me want to barf, but thanks for the explicit info. Good to know.