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Beware of Heartworms!

Summer season is heartworm season and pet owners must be extra careful so their loved pets won’t contract this dreadful disease. A parasitic worm transmitted by mosquitoes when they bite on a dog or cat, heartworm is a fatal disease but quite easy to avoid. And with all available resources to combat the parasite, every pet should be spared from it.

Heartworm resides in the heart’s pulmonary vessels—the vessels that transport blood to the lungs to gather oxygen. A full-grown heartworm can reach 12 inches long and if the infestation worsens, it can crawl to the heart where it will do more damage.

When the worms multiply, they can take up a lot of space inside the cardiac walls and pulmonary vessels. This causes high blood pressure, breathing difficulty and finally cardiac failure which we all know is death.

But mosquitoes are only transmitters of the worm. Heartworms are spread when a mosquito bites on an infected animal and then later bites into a clean animal. The immature Heartworm or microfilaria is present in the blood of a host animal and is transmitted to the mosquito where it will incubate for several weeks.

Heartworms are then transferred to an uninfected animal when the mosquito feeds again. Upon entering a new victim, the microfilaria will spend time that can last up to 5 months inside the animal’s bloodstream before moving to the pulmonary arteries. The worms cannot be detected at this developmental stage so your vet will recommend heartworm testing every spring if transmission happened during the previous summer.

Then the heartworms reach maturity and can now reproduce more microfilaria, releasing them into the bloodstream. The vicious cycle continues when a mosquito bites the infected animal, carrying anew microfilaria to the next unsuspecting victims.

Pet owners should guard for symptoms of heartworm which are: coughing, fatigue, fainting and breathing difficulty. Your pet may show no signs of heartworm infestation but in reality the poor animal may have been carrying the parasite for years. When signs surface, the infestation may already be so severe that treatment is already risky.

Heartworm treatment is just as difficult as suffering from the disease itself so it is best to prevent infestation before it’s too late. Treating heartworm involves the use of arsenic—a poison administered in specific dosages formulated to kill the parasite, not your pet. Though a safer treatment now than it was in the past, complications can still happen especially for pets infested with many heartworms.

Cats are not as susceptible to heartworms as dogs are but they can contract the disease too especially when they are in constant contact with infected canines. Feline lovers should also be concerned so their furry pets will remain healthy.

Prevention of heartworm consists of giving monthly tablets, chewables and applying topicals.