Heartworm disease is one of the better-known illnesses that can affect our dogs. It is a potentially life-threatening condition.
Heartworm is infected via mosquito bites. An infected mosquito ingests microfilariae circulating in the blood by biting an already infected animal. The microfilariae develop into an effective larval stage inside the mosquito. Then the mosquito transmits the large they to another animal via mosquito bite. The larvae then migrates to the animal’s heart and pulmonary arteries where they develop into adult heart worms over a six-month period. The adult female heart worms release microfilariae into the dogs bloodstream after mating, starting the cycle all over again.
The mosquito carries the heartworm to your pets. The time lag between the initial infestation and reproduction by adult worms living in the heart is 6-7 months in dogs. Heartworm is entirely preventable and without proper medical treatment, your pet can die from heartworm. Heartworms have now been found in all fifty states. They live as adults in the pulmonary arteries and heart.
This disease can be diagnosed through clinical signs, blood testing and x-rays. Depending on the stage that the disease is found, treatment may be possible. Although treatment can be costly and painful, if not begun soon enough it might not prevent heart and lung complications. But, it is unlikely that you will detect obvious signs before the heartworm has infested your dog thoroughly. The worms grow larger and multiply, infesting the chambers on the right side of the heart and the arteries in the lungs.
The first signs of heartworm may not manifest for a year after heartworm infection. The first sign is usually a soft cough that increases with exertion and exercise. Not a sign that may first alarm you and may seem unimportant at first. But the cough worsens, your dog will tire more easily, and your pet will start to seem weak and listless. The physical signs you see depend on the duration and severity of the infection as well as the individual dog’s reaction to the parasite. With advancement there will be weight loss and your dog may possibly cough up blood. Breathing becomes more difficult as the disease progresses.
It is a painful and awful way for your pet’s life to come to close especially since prevention is so easy. All dogs require heartworm prevention. Heartworm prevention should be utilized year long. Some people believe that applications to the dogs only be implemented during the summer months but changes in our environment have made this a risky practice. Heartworm prevention should be practiced year long. Recently this prevention has been made even more easy. There is currently a prevention step in the form of a six month injection rather than the monthly oral treatments. Read about heartworm prevention.
Annual Testing
Most heartworm infections are due to pet owners forgetting to administer their preventives every month, pet owners administering them in properly, or pets not swallowing their tablets. Annual testing for heartworm can detect these infections before they can cause severe damage to a pet’s heart or lungs. Also, the test your veterinarian uses to detect heart worms are more accurate than they were previously. In many cases, a single heartworm can be detected in infected pets.
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