Heartworm Treatment

Question
I adopted Trixie(wire hair jack russell terrier) from a friend and we had her tested for worms, heartworm and had her rabies shot given to her. We had to leave her for an hour(the vet was in surgery and we had a dr apt.). When we got back to the vet, she came in and said that Trixie tested positive for whip worms and would get 3 doses of medicine for that and she turned to walk out the door then turned around and said oh yea she tested positive for heartworms. My heart dropped and i started crying. My fiance asked what we could do to help her. She said heartguard given once a month and we asked what else we could do. She then told us about the shots. 2 shots 24 hrs a part then bring her back 3-4 weeks later for the 3rd one. We had to leave Trixie at the vet for 3 days(i hated doing that). Trixie was in the back already, they wouldnt bring her to the front for us to see. It cost us 130$ for the treatment. My questions are (1)how can i be sure she was heartworm positive? Up until we took her to the vet she was very active, playing, running and jumping, just your ordinary happy dog. THe vet said she was high positive for heartworms, but we never saw the test results and also everything that we have read says that if a dog is high positive for heartworms they are like "walkin death". (2) Do they shave the area where they are going to give the shots? A friend of ours has a min pin and said when he had to be treated for heartworms they had to shave the area where he had to have the shots. Trixie isnt shaved. (3) should she be active so soon after getting the treatment? when i brought her home Monday(8-2-10)(she stayed at the vet fri(7-30), sat(7-31) and sun(8-1) and half a day monday) she was ready to play. Our friend with the min pin said that he laid around like he was feeling awful, he didnt want to run, play, eat or anything. Trixie was wanting to play with our rat terrier. (4) also, everything ive read says that usually heartworm treatment cost anywhere from 300$-1200$ depending on the size of the dog. It only cost us 130$. Have you ever heard of the treatment costing not so much? Trixie is worth the money and i would have paid anything to have her treated, but i am worried that she may not have heartworms, and im afraid they are giving her some kind of medicine but not what were told. also, i have read that the dog needs to stay still, calm and quiet after getting the treatment, but when i told them how she goes crazy in her crate they didnt seem concerned, they said that it was okay for her to do that in her crate, she just couldnt run or play. Either way wouldnt it be bad for her to get excited? The vet did give me "ace" to give to her to calm her down, its 10mg, i have given her a total of 2 pills, im going to try to not give her anymore since she has settled down in the crate and seems to understand that she has to be in it. Any help would be greatly appriciated. Im worried and hate to have her crated if she doesnt need to be. It just all seems weird to me, esp with what they told me(stated above). I am thinking about having her tested again saturday at another vet to see what their test say, if it comes back positive then im glad she is getting the treatment(if she is in fact getting the treatment) and if its negitive, im not sure what ill do, prob end up taking action against the vet. But thank you in advance if you can help me. Im not sure why Trixie is in such a good mood after recieving the treatment...and she hates to go back in the doors of that place, like someone may have been mean to her there? Again Thank you!

Answer
Hi Jessica,
First let me apologize for being so late answering this!!! I was away on vacation and did not let AllExperts know. I'm really sorry.
It sounds like you don't trust the veterinarian you went to. I admit she doesn't sound like she has a great bedside manner, she should have taken more time with you to explain things. Whipworm is treated with oral medicine, and heartworm is treated also as she said. Shaving dogs forearms to take blood or give IV's are a personal preference. Some vets do, some don't.  If Trixie is receiving treatment for heartworm you won't get an accurate test result from a different vet, so don't waste your money on that.  ALL dogs act differently to all situations. Just because the min pin was lethargic for days after treatment doesn't mean that Trixie should be. All dogs have different recovery times for different things. It sounds like Trixie is a great, strong dog! A min pin is TINY and it takes alot more strength for them to bounce back than a JRT.  I'm not sure why you weren't charged  a lot of money; maybe the vet gave you a break because she felt bad? Maybe they made an accounting error and will catch up with you later! I think you are a very loving new owner and just worried. No ethical veterinarian would give unnecessary medicine to an animal. Is this the same vet who treats your rat-terrier?  If you still don't feel comfortable, you can always switch Dr.s  
Best of luck with Trixie,she's lucky to have you!!