Vetting protocols for fosters

Dogs in rescue often need to go to the vet for a variety of reasons. Please read our below guide to vet visits—both planned and emergency—for protocols on arranging visits and treatment.

Vet visits 

If you think your foster dog needs to go to the vet: 

Please email vetteam@badassbk.com and describe the issue/symptoms you are seeing. The Vet Team will get back to you to determine next steps.

If you are prompted by the Vet Team to go to the vet: 

Badass partners with specific vets in Brooklyn who are rescue friendly and offer rescue discounts. The Vet Team will provide you with a list of vets that you can visit along with other instructions.

You are responsible for making the appointment (unless otherwise indicated) and getting your foster dog to and from that appointment. While at the vet, the vet will call Badass to discuss any treatment/procedures/medications/vaccinations/tests etc. This is because the dog is ultimately under our care and we are the financially responsible party.

We have accounts with all of our partner vets and they will bill us directly. You will not be responsible for any kind of payment while at a vet appointment. 


Monthly preventatives

All dogs must get monthly doses of heartworm preventative and flea/tick preventative. The vet team will reach out every month to prompt this activity. 

Heartworm preventative: this is an oral medication (unless otherwise noted)

Flea/Tick preventative: this is a topical medication (unless otherwise noted), applied between the dog’s shoulder blades and gently rubbed into the skin. (Wash your hands after!)

Heartworm treatment

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease in pets in the United States and many other parts of the world. It is caused by foot-long worms (heartworms) that live in the heart, lungs and associated blood vessels of affected pets, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body.

The dog is a natural host for heartworms, which means that heartworms that live inside the dog mature into adults, mate and produce offspring. If untreated, their numbers can increase, and dogs have been known to harbor several hundred worms in their bodies. Heartworm disease can cause lasting damage to the heart, lungs and arteries, and can affect the dog’s health and quality of life long after the parasites are gone. 

Unfortunately, heartworm disease is very common in dogs in the southern states. The American Heartworm Society establishes guidelines for heartworm treatment, but they are just guidelines and are not mandates or law. Many vets have their own protocols for heartworm treatment. The below is the process that Badass follows once a dog tests positive for heartworm:

  • 30 days of doxycycline. The baseline dose is 10mg/kg twice daily - some dogs might get more. This is an oral tablet. Sometimes the dogs start this while still down south, sometimes they don’t and will need to start once they arrive at Eva’s Play Pups or in Brooklyn.

If the dog is being treated for heartworm in Brooklyn:

  • The dog will visit one of our partner vets for a new patient exam. At this exam, the vet will determine whether or not the dog will need the three-shot protocol

    • Three-shot protocol: hw injection #1, then thirty days crate rest, then hw injections #2 & #3 on two consecutive days, then four weeks crate rest

  • Vets in Brooklyn require a thirty day waiting period between the end of doxycycline and the first heartworm injection. A sample treatment plan for three-shot protocol might look like this:

    • 30 days doxycycline

    • 30 days waiting period

    • Hw injection #1

    • 30 days crate rest

    • Hw injections #2 & #3

    • Four weeks crate rest

  • Three-shot protocol is normally done on older dogs, dogs with heart issues, and dogs that have additional known medical conditions. Usually x rays will need to be done to see the condition of the heart and how heavy the heartworm load is. 

Exercise & activity restriction

Heartworm treatment is an adulticide that kills the adult heartworms in the dog’s bloodstream. It is absolutely essential to keep the dog quiet on crate rest during and for the four weeks after the last injection. That means strictly restricting all exercise and activity that would elevate the dog’s heart rate or increase its blood pressure.

Why? Killing the heartworms that live in the dog’s bloodstream is essential to restoring the dog’s health, but at the same time, the death of the worms—which can grow to be a foot long or longer—poses risks. When heartworms die, pieces of the decomposing worm bodies can block blood vessels in the lungs, causing a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism (blood clot). If the dog’s heart rate is increased by exercise or excitement, the worm pieces can be forced into the tiny blood vessels of the lungs, increasing the chances of complications.

Some tips:

  • Short walks for elimination only

  • Try feeding toys like Kongs or puzzle feeders that require the dog to quietly play for hours in order to extract food or treats

  • Use the time to work on training like “place”, “sit” or “down”.  Dogs get tired out using their brains almost as much as physical exercise.