Heartworm disease is a real threat to dogs and cats. It is a parasite that is spread by mosquitoes. An infected mosquito bites your dog or cat and then deposits the larvae (or babies) into your pet’s bloodstream. The larvae mature and grow into adults that live in the heart. As you can imagine, that can cause numerous health problems!
Signs or symptoms of heartworm disease include shortness of breath, exercise intolerance, and/or lethargy. There are sometimes not any signs at all! Your pet can just collapse one day and they may not have seemed ill. Heartworm disease is fatal if it is left untreated.
The best way to help stop your pet from suffering that horrible fate is to have a heartworm test done once per year at your veterinarian. Then you put your pet on any one of the numerous heartworm preventatives out there. You give your pet the prevention once per month and then if a mosquito carrying heartworms bites your pet, the larvae are killed and your pet does not develop heartworm disease!
Treatment for heartworms, if your pet becomes infected, is costly and can be stressful for your pet. It is two injections of an adulticide on either side of your pet’s spine about 24 hours apart. Then your pet has to remain very quiet and calm for about a week. The treatment can be around $500 to $1,000 dollars. To prevent it costs about $40 per year for the test and about $8 per month for the pill. Not too hard of a decision in my book! Keep reading my blogs for more veterinary information!
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