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Heartworms and Your Dog

A serious disease that can affect your dog is the heartworm parasitic disease. The heartworm disease injures the dog’s arteries of lungs and heart. The symptoms that your dog will experience are coughing, tiring, weight loss and heart failure.

The dog can contact a parasitic heart worm disease from a long, thin worm that lives in the heart of infected dogs. It is then spread to another dog by mosquitoes that have bitten the infected dog and bites an uninfected one.

When the worm is inside the dog, it will then grow to a foot long. How the life cycle of the worm inside a dog’s body is pretty complicated to discuss. The important thing to know about is that how one pet owner can prevent the worms to develop by using drugs that are safe.

The protection for heartworm disease is a once a month prescription of tablet or topical such as ivermectin (Heartgard® for Dogs), milbemycin oxime (Interceptor Flavor Tabs® and Sentinel Flavor Tabs®), and topical selamectin (Revolution®).

These preventatives are available at your veterinarian. Some preventatives of heartworms also include control of intestinal and external parasites. The preventatives that the veterinarians prescribe are able to kill the microscopic larvae that are left behind on the dog when bitten by mosquitoes.

The veterinarian must first make sure that the dog is not heartworm positive as giving preventatives to an already infected dog may cause more severe reactions. For dogs that are 7 months old, heartworm test is recommended first and for those that are taking preventatives already, heartworm blood testing is also recommended to be taken every year.

Annual testing helps the veterinarian catch the infection early before it causes further damage. When the pet owner also switches preventive measures testing is also recommended.

Most dogs that are infected with heartworm diseases are located in subtropical climates like the gulf states of America or Hawaii. Dogs that live in areas such as those are required to take a yearly testing. To make sure that your area is a place where heartworm infections are abundant, you may call your veterinarian.

Just like your dog protects you, you should also be able to protect him when he needs you. It should not matter to you whether the harm your dog experiences is from external factors (injuries) or diseases, what should be important is to show him or her the same love he or she shows you. After all, “A dog is supposed to be man’s best friend”.

 

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