Bandit Natural Herbal Heartworm Treatment Program

[jeffrey]

Okay, I know this probably doesn't exactly belong here, but I am putting it here to record what happens.

We found a stray wandering in the middle of the street about 2 months ago. He was extremely malnourished and we weren't even sure he'd survive. We nursed him back to health to find that he has an advanced stage of heartworm (a nasty mosquito born disease). The vets in Japan (vets out here are not the most animal friendly types and most do not consider a stray a real pet) say he is too old and the case to advanced to treat.

So we were left with a choice. Let the heartworm progress and kill the dog or try a treatment over the Internet. The one that we came across is called Bandit's Program because the owner's dog named bandit recovered through this herbal treatment.

I am very suspect of this treatment, mainly because the herbal remedy being advanced is from a MLM company and the pages repeat over and over that only this particular MLM herbs should be used for this program. When I see things like that, my radar immediately starts flashing warning signs. Then again, the choice of not trying the treatment is certain death for Genki (our dog's name), so I am going to try it and report the results here since I wasn't able to find anything else about the program outside their own pages.

Since I couldn't have the order sent directly to me in Japan, it is being sent to my parents who will resend the herbs to me. I'm hoping that they will arrive here within the next couple of weeks.

I am following the same program as the one the Bandit was on as recommended by the owner of the site. The first email I received came quite promptly with links to bandit's site:

For details about Bandit's Heartworm Treatment and Prevention aka Maintenance Program, click here:
http://www.banditsbuddies.com/treatment.shtml
http://www.banditsbuddies.com/maintenance.shtml

Free membership for discounted prices and ordering information is here:
http://www.banditsbuddies.com/ordering2.shtml

My Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) page is the result of hours and hours of research on this topic and covers, dosage, articles written by vets about natural approaches to treatment, etc.:
http://www.banditsbuddies.com/faqs.shtml

I am glad to help you in any way that I can,

The next email said that we had hope:

...If your dog is still eating and drinking well, then I think there is a
chance you can save him. (Genki is still eating and drinking fine)

The following emails after that were all about purchasing the recommended herbs. To be fair, my questions were about what I needed for the program, but the sales pitch was certainly there (maybe my skepticism coming through a bit too much?). I have now made the order, so I will be quite interested if the emails continue to arrive as promptly as before I had committed to an order.

Again, this is merely to be informative since it happens to be a situation where we don't have any other choice. Feel free to ask questions if you have any and I will continue to update as this last ditch option progresses.

And of course, a photo of the one we are discussing here: Genki

[jeffrey]

The good news is that my questions have still been answered promptly even after the order:

Now that I have ordered the items and they should arrive here in a
week to 10 days, what should I expect when I start giving them
Genki? Is he going to get worse before he gets better? Is there any
way to tell if the herbs are actually working or not? Thank you for
your time

You would want to watch for diarrhea, if that happens, back off the black
walnut a bit. Some dogs show no symptoms, some have good days and bad days. The important thing is to encourage Genki not to run and play
hard, walking on a lead outside to limit activity. Retesting is the only
way to know when the worms and the subsequential protein from the dead ones is cleared from the system.

I guess my main concern is that in reading about the vet
treatment of the heartworms, there seems to be a major concern for the
dog's health as the worms die and get stuck in the lungs and decay. I
assume with the herbal method that this also occurs and what
precautions or signs should I be on the lookout for if this is going
badly. Thank you again fro your time.

With the
herbal approach the worms have a slow die off, so there is much less risk
of thrombosis or anything like that, but of course there is a slight risk
of that which is why I want you to limit activity of your dog and don't
encourage running and hard play. My dog had good days and bad days..on his bad days, he slept alot and sometimes tossed his herbs back up because he didnt' feel well. He was pretty sick when we started, was coughing all the time....but after a couple of months he had mostly good days and after 6 months, you could not tell that he had a severe case of heartworms.

I'm still waitnig to hear from my parents if the herbs have arrived to them, and they should forward them right away from there.

[jeffrey]

I just got word from my parents that the herbs arrived and will be sent out here in tomorrow's mail. Hopefully they will arrive within the week and we can start the program.

[luna-mia]

Oh Jeffrey, best of luck to you!! I'll keep your little dog in my thoughts and prayers til you give us an all clear. How absolutely stoic of you to take this cute dog in and take care of him when others would not. Please let us know how it goes.

[jeffrey]

Thank you for the kind words, but the credit for helping stray animals (three cats, a rabbit and the dog) all go to my wife.

[jeffrey]

The vitamins arrived today from my parents so we are going to start the program as follows:

Upon waking and nightly before bed: 2 capsules of Artemisia Combination on an empty stomach

AM and PM Meals: 1 C0Q10 Plus capsule and 1 HSII capsules mixed with food.

1/4 Black Walnut capsules mixed with food once per day 5 days per week

As needed for coughing: Yucca given one at a time up to four a day as needed for coughing or labored breathing.

I gave him the 2 capsules of Artemisia Combination today - of course he bit into one of the capsules and didn't like that at all. Had to mix them with a little food for him to get both down.

[jeffrey]

So far, so good. Genki has been on the program for a couple of days so far and hasn't had any bad side effects, which I was concerned about. We solved the problem of him chewing (and quickly spitting out once they were broken) the capsules by wrapping them in a small piece of bread when feeding them to him.

[jeffrey]

Things continue to be going well for the most part. Genki threw up a couple of the herb capsules last night and I'm finding it harder to give him the Artemisia Combination capsules...he really doesn't like the smell of them very much.

I did get a nice email from Robin asking me about the progress of Genki. We have a vet appointment this coming week which will be the first time going since we started the program. I will be very interested in what the vet has to say.

In other news about heart worm, the Federal Drug Administration requested a recall of ProHeart 6 Injectable Heartworm Product from the market due to serious health concerns

Link To The Report Here

Fort Dodge Animal Health, of Overland Park, Kansas, at FDA's request, has agreed to immediately cease production and recall its heartworm medication ProHeart®6 from the market until the FDA's concerns about adverse reaction reports associated with the product can be resolved. FDA is requesting that the firm continue to conduct research to determine the cause of related adverse reactions and develop a strategy to help prevent such problems in the future before the product is marketed again. The FDA will convene an independent scientific advisory committee to thoroughly evaluate all available data.

ProHeart®6 is an approved injectable sustained-release heartworm prevention product for dogs. Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal condition of dogs, cats, and other species of mammals. The parasite that causes heartworm disease is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito.

FDA is also advising veterinarians to avoid administering this product to dogs until further notice. Pet owners should consult their veterinarians regarding their pet's health care needs.

Since the product was approved in June 2001, Fort Dodge Animal Health has cooperated with FDA to investigate numerous adverse event reports. As a result, Fort Dodge has voluntarily changed the label to include post approval safety information including rare reports of death and a caution to practitioners that dogs should have a negative test for heartworm before administration.

Despite these label changes, FDA is still receiving unexplained adverse event reports, some of them severe. FDA's concern is based on voluntary self-reporting to FDA by veterinarians and owners whose dogs have suffered adverse drug experiences (ADEs) to ProHeart®6 (which contains the drug moxidectin) as well as the mandatory reporting of adverse events by Fort Dodge Animal Health.

Fort Dodge Animal Health has agreed to recall any product that has already been distributed to veterinarians.

As of August 4, 2004, FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) had received 5,552 adverse event reports for ProHeart®6. The actual number of adverse events is likely even higher because studies show that only a fraction of actual ADEs are reported.

The Agency has observed an increase in the number of cases associated with liver and bleeding abnormalities followed in some cases by death.

[amomof4]

I know this is an old thread, but you never said if you dog survived. Did he?

[jeffrey]

Yes, he is still continuing on the program and will for the next 3 to six months. The herbs seem to be working. At the very least, he has more energy and is not coughing near as much as he was before we started the program meaning that he has a better quality of life at the moment. He still has his bad days, but even thouse aren't quite as bad as his normal days were before.

If I had to make the choice again, I would certainly choose to do it again.

[its-me-laura]

How did your dog do with the natural herb treatment?

[jeffrey]

wow...since this has risen to the top of some of the search engines and is starting to bring in people looking for answers, I guess I should update this. Genki completed the program and to my amazement (especially with the doubts I held when we first started it) the heart worm appears to be gone. He no longer has the deep hacking cough (haven't heard it in months) that he had before we started.

It's difficult to tell the overall improvement in his health because being an older dog, he now has some walking difficulties that keeps him from being active. Still, for being told by the doctors out here that there was no hope and nothing we could do, in this case they were wrong.

I'm happy we took the chance and tried the program even with my skepticism in the beginning. For those looking for an alternative to heart worm or who have been told that the "normal" heartworm treatments are not possible, this program is worth a shot.

[katwoman]

Wonderful, wonderful news!

As for alternative therapy, my Vet does acupuncture and this has helped my dog after just one treatment! The second is for tonight. He has bad hips and wouldn't even get up anymore.

Treatments are $65 a pop. This is of course, after he was doing badly even while taking Rimadyl which had worked very well in the past.

I'll gladly scrimp on most things, but not when it comes to my baby!

Jeffrey, your dog is a doll. :

[kashi]

Just saw this thread - Genki is darling, and I'm glad everything worked out for you with the herbal stuff. I would have been skeptical too!

[jeffrey]

Just a note - received word that Genki died yesterday, but it wasn't due to heartworm...

[katwoman]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

My own dog died last Friday as well. Like yours, his legs gave out and had to be carried in and out of the house for quite a long time. I didn't have the heart to put him down and I don't think he wanted to go, anyway.

They are beautiful souls and I think we are the fortunate ones to have known them.

Bless you for all you did for Genki.