Almost daily, I receive a request from a distressed owner looking for funding to treat his or her dog’s heartworm disease. Many times the story is the same: a big-hearted person adopts a needy dog from a shelter or from another family, falls in love with the dog, and then finds out that the dog had a raging case of heartworms that was undisclosed upon adoption (nice, right?).

Here is a recent example from a loving and responsible owner in Tennessee.

My response to her heartworm treatment request:

“Dear Owner,

Thank you for contacting the Big Hearts Fund. I am so sorry to hear about your dog’s condition. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming need we are facing for care for pets with other congenital and non-preventable heart conditions, The Big Hearts Fund is unable to fund care for Heartworm cases at this time. I suggest asking your veterinarian about Care Credit or other payment plan options.

Sincerely, Christy"

 

Usually, this is where the communication stops. However, this owner wrote back.

“I thank you for your consideration about this and wanted to inquire about other places that I may try. I keep running into this road block about it having been a preventable disease and I agree. The issue is [my dog] was given to me and the previous owner did not tell me that he had heart worm infection. I was even given over a year supply of heart worm medication from the previous owner who had a very surprised look when he found it in [dog]‘s documents. His wife is deaf and I just assumed that he was expecting the medication in the dog bedroom, but now I realize that the expression was surprise to finding the medication at all. When it was time to resupply his medication I found that he had heart worm and the vet indicated that this was not a recent infection. So, yes the disease is preventable, but he had it before he ever joined my family and I feel like all of the no’s I am getting are due to the fact that I am being judged as negligent and that is not the case. I myself am disabled and the life saving treatment he needs is creating a financial hardship for me because my insurance no longer will pay for many of the medications that I need to sustain my life. Last month a necessary steroid was deemed prescribed without merit even though it is the only medication that replicates the hormone my organs no longer make. This medicine went from a 5.00 medication to a 230.00 medication monthly. My income is so minimal that I am faced with the challenge of saying good-bye. He doesn’t deserve this. Days I felt like giving up he kept strong and I don’t want to fail him, I don’t want to see him suffer. Any leads or other suggestions you may have would be appreciated.

4 paws down,
[owner]"

 

Wow, right? I honestly feel her pain. I want to help. Here is a person who loves her companion doing the best she can, and that’s not good enough. This question keeps weighing on me.

In the meantime, I wrote to the American Heartworm Society:

 

“Hello!
My name is Christy Drackett – I am program director and founder of The Big Hearts Fund, a non-profit which helps pet owners afford care for pets with heart disease. We give grants for medical treatment, as well as work to educate owners about heart disease in pets (prevention and care).

I am writing because we recently had to stop funding care for cases of heartworms. We were getting so many heartworm treatment requests that we had very few funds left to help pets with congenital heart defects, so we had to make this difficult choice.

The Big Hearts Fund currently gets about 20 requests-per-month from pet owners and/or shelters desperate to help animals who have contracted heartworms. In most cases, it is not due to any negligence on the owner’s part – they usually rescue the dog, and are then told later that it needs heartworm treatment. And I am faced with telling them I can’t help them. I usually recommend applying for Care Credit.

My question for you is: do you know of any organization who helps owners/shelters afford the cost of treatment and/or preventative meds for heartworms? It would be great to find a way to work together to help people find resources!

Hope to hear from you! 
Best, Christy"

 

And here is the response I got:

Dear Christy,
Congratulations on the work you do on behalf of our pets! You certainly are to be commended on your efforts.
Unfortunately, we don’t know of any organization that assists with heartworm treatment costs. We get this question almost every day. What we recommend is to call around to shelters and clinics and explain the situation. Very often, pet owners are able to find reduced-cost treatment or affordable payment plans to assist.
Thank you for contacting the American Heartworm Society. Best of luck to you and your organization.

Kind regards,
Lisa Scott
Association Management Team
American Heartworm Society

So I wrote this message to the owner:

Hello [owner],

Thanks for explaining your situation. Actually, most of the requests we get to fund heartworm treatment are from people in situations very similar to yours. I feel your pain, and I am so sorry there’s not more we can do at this time. There is absolutely no judgement being passed from us to owners of pets with heartworms – we know that in many cases, this is not due to negligence but to serious and crippling financial distress +/or situations like yours. But about a year ago, our organization had to make the very difficult decision to stop funding heartworm cases because, as it turns out, that was all we were funding. There were no funds left over for those dogs with serious congenital heart defects who would die before they were a year old without treatment costing thousands of dollars. 
I recently spoke with someone from the American Heartworm Society about your inquiry, and others like yours. Here is her response:

And then I pasted the AHS’s response, same as above.

I hope that this owner does not give up on her dog. I hope that there are some shelters in her area that run reduced-cost heartworm treatment programs. Or, that a local vet with a heart is able to work out a payment plan with her and provide reduced-cost treatment.

And now I put out a call to you all: Does anyone know of anyone out there – vets, shelters, clinics, organizations – offering help for heartworm cases?