Easy to prevent but expensive to cure. In the United States, all 50 states have reported cases of dogs with heartworm disease.
What are heartworms?
Heartworms or parasitic roundworms called “Dirofilaria immitis” come from infected mosquitos that affect dogs, cats, and occasionally even ferrets.
Mosquitos are intermediate hosts that carry the infected worms for a short period before transferring to a better host. Your dog’s body has the perfect conditions necessary for heartworms to thrive during every life stage.
Once the larvae have entered your canine’s system, it can mature into an adult, mate, and reproduce. Usually, it takes six to seven months for this cycle and releases more heartworms into your dog’s body.
Adult heartworms often live in the heart, lungs, and blood vessels of untreated dogs. On average, infected dogs will have 15 worms. However, the number of worms inside a dog’s body can reach up to 250 worms if left untreated. Growing up to 12 inches long and living for up to seven years, they can cause a lot of damage to your pet’s quality of life.
Are heartworms contagious?
Only mosquito bites can transfer heartworms. Since they are not contagious, there’s no risk of infecting your other pets if you decide to adopt a dog with heartworms.
However, dogs exposed to the outside world with mosquitoes are at higher risk of having it transmitted to them. With this, heartworms are common for dogs that take frequent outdoor walks, were abandoned on the street, or have lived in the shelter.
Should you test your dog for heartworms?
Knowing if your dog has heartworm is crucial to giving them the right treatment and making sure that they don’t suffer unnecessarily. If you are not sure if your dog has adult heartworms or not, it’s safer to get them tested before proceeding to preventive treatment.
Before any heartworm prevention methods, you must first check if your dog has existing adult heartworms in their body. Unfortunately, heartworm preventives cannot kill adult heartworms and can be lethal if the heartworms are already present in the dog’s bloodstream.
Annual heartworm tests should be routine for dogs. Also, you should test your dogs for heartworms if you have moved to an area where it is more common, if you don’t remember the last time they have had heartworm medication, or if you are meeting your dog for the first time.
How to Know if Your Dog Has Heartworms
There are two ways that you can know if your dog has heartworms – signs & symptoms and veterinarian testing. Here’s what do expect from both of them:
Signs & Symptoms
Dogs will typically exhibit no symptoms in the first few months. However, this quickly changes as adult heartworms mature. After a few months, infected dogs will begin to have occasional coughs and easily tire from physical activity.
Once the heartworm is fully grown, it can attach itself, multiply very quickly, and cause several issues with your dog’s internal organs. Dogs can begin to look sickly, have trouble breathing, and begin to exhibit both heart and lung failure.
When untreated for too long, a large enough number of worms in your dog’s body can cause physical blockages of blood flow. At this stage, the infection can be life-threatening and will require immediate and risky surgery.
Should you want to avoid this unnecessarily expensive procedure, it’s best to get your dog tested by veterinarians, even if your dog looks healthy.
Veterinarian Testing
There are two types of tests that veterinarians use to check if your dog has heartworms or not – antigen and microfilariae detection. Here’s what each of them does:
Veterinarians can give a test to detect the presence of microfilariae indicates the presence of adult heartworms. The earliest that this form of detection can work is six months after the initial infection.
Alternatively, an antigen test detects proteins released by adult female heartworms in your dog’s bloodstream. Antigen tests work up to five months after infection from a mosquito or when the heartworms in your dog are already adults.
What do you do if your pet has heartworms?
Depending on the severity, your veterinarian will need to conduct tests to assure your dog’s safety during the treatment procedure. Adult heartworm treatment is both expensive and potentially dangerous. After the necessary observation, blood work, and X-rays, the veterinarian will recommend the appropriate number of injections to kill the worms in your dog’s system.
An arsenic-containing drug called Melarsomine dihydrochloride is injected deeply into the back muscles of your infected dog to kill adult heartworms. Additionally, imidacloprid and moxidectin given through a topical solution are used to treat microfilariae. Adult heartworm treatments can be potentially toxic and run the risk of blood clots, which can be lethal.
Once your dog no longer has adult heartworms, you can proceed to preventive treatment. Here are a few ways that you can protect your canine friend from the worst that heartworms have to offer:
Prevent heartworms from hurting your pet.
To successfully prevent infection and re-infection of heartworms, you need to look at a holistic approach to taking care of your pet’s health.
Test New Pets
Before bringing home any new pets, make sure to ask previous owners or the shelter about their medical history. If they have not received their core vaccinations, including heart prevention, you should immediately schedule tests for possible adult heartworms and other transmittable diseases.
Commit to Anti-Heartworm Routine Medications
Many veterinarians will have multiple heartworm prevention methods that can fit your needs from pills, topicals, and injections. Consult your veterinarian for the appropriate prevention method that fits your budget and availability to adhere to the schedule.
Routine medications may appear expensive, but they are a lot cheaper than emergency vet bills. Should the heartworms thrive long enough to endanger your pet’s life, keeping to a medication schedule is more cost-effective in the long term.
Mosquito-proof your home
Unfortunately, there is no way to detect whether a mosquito is carrying the heartworm disease. With this, it is necessary to reduce the possible exposure of any kinds of mosquitos from having access to your dog. You can do this by sealing entrances to your home with mosquito nets, investing in mosquito traps, removing any standing water, and using pet-friendly mosquito repellants.
Bottomline
While protecting your dogs from heartworm can seem like a lot of work, it’s definitely worth it to make sure that your dog gets to live a long, happy, and healthy life. As long as you be mindful of having mosquitos nearby and adhere to regular treatment, you’ll never have to worry about losing your dog to heartworm.