Everything you need to know about Heartworm in pets
What is heartworm?
Heartworm is a parasitic worm that can affect dogs, cats, rabbits or ferrets and is transferred through mosquito bites. If a mosquito infected with heartworm bites your pet, it injects the larval stage of the worm under the skin. For around 6 months, the larvae will then travel through your pet’s organs to the heart and blood vessels of the lungs. Once an adult, it will breed and create microfilaria (baby heartworm) in the bloodstream which will be sucked up by another mosquito and the cycle begins again.
What are the symptoms of heartworm?
As heartworms take a long time to mature, it is often a long time from when they are first infected to when you start to see signs of the infection. During this time, the worms often interfere with the valves in the heart, causing them to become blocked and putting significant pressure on the heart.
Common heartworm symptoms in dogs include:
Mild persistent cough
Reluctance to exercise
Fatigue after moderate activity
Decreased appetite
Weight loss.
Swollen belly (severe cases)
Common heartworm symptoms in cats include:
Lethargy
Persistent cough
Sudden death
Unfortunately, it’s more difficult to detect heartworm symptoms in cats. It only takes one to two adult heartworms infecting your furry feline for the disease to potentially become fatal.
How is heartworm diagnosed?
Your vet will likely do a blood test to determine if your pet has been infected with heartworm. It’s more difficult to diagnose in cats than dogs.
Can heartworm be treated?
Yes, however prevention is better than a cure.
How do I prevent heartworm?
Parasite prevention products are the best way to prevent your pet from getting heartworm. Not all products protect against heartworm, so it’s important to check what your parasite prevention covers.
Preventing heartworm in dogs
If your dog has not had heartworm prevention medication for more than six months, a blood test is necessary before you can commence preventative treatment, just to make sure they don’t already have heartworm. There are many tablets, chews and topical products that you can buy to prevent heartworm. These should be given from the time your dog is 6 to 8 weeks of age. Your vet can also give your dog a heartworm injection every year. This can be given when your dog is 12 weeks of age and then another booster at 6 months and yearly from there on.
Preventing heartworm in cats
You can use parasite prevention medication in tablet or topical form to prevent heartworm in your cats. Sometimes, cats can be difficult to medicate, so let us know if you need help and we can administer this parasite prevention at your next appointment.
If you want to learn more about heartworm or need to get more parasite prevention for your vet, get in touch!