What are heartworms?
When an animal gets heartworm disease, it can be serious and life threatening. Heartworms are just that - worms, or parasites, that can found in the right side of the heart and arteries within the lungs of dogs, cats, ferrets, sea lions horses, wolves, foxes, and in rare cases humans. These worms can stop the heart from pumping effectively causing serious damage. In most cases, dogs are the most common host for this disease. These worms can grow to be 6 - 10 inches in length.
How can my pet get heartworms?
Mosquitoes are nasty little bugs for more reasons than just their bites. Mosquitoes give heartworms a free ride- they transmit the heartworms with just a single bite. The mosquito bites an infected animal and sucks up some baby worms called microfilaria from the blood. The microfilaria live about two weeks in the salivary glands of the mosquito and when the mosquito “bites” another dog or cat, it spreads some saliva (and therefore baby worms) into the “bite” area that begin finding their way to the animals’ heart, growing in size. It takes about six months for the worms to reach adult size in the animal’s heart.
How will heartworms affect my pet?
Heartworms are very serious- they make the heart work harder to pump blood and restrict blood flow to the lungs, kidneys, and liver. Most animals show no clue of having been infected during the initial 6 months and tests done at that time are useless since the worms are babies and undetectable during this time. As the worms grow, the animal may seem as if he/she is aging faster, become less active and cough as they begin to have lung damage. Arteries with worms are damaged within days of the worm's arrival. The immune system clicks on and releases cells to combat the worms but, by this time, the worm has gotten way too big for these tiny cells to destroy. This causes arterial damage. Worms start to clog the arteries, causing the heart to work harder pumping and in time, the heart is literally strangled by the worms.
How can I find out if my pet has heartworms?
Timing is very important in diagnosing and treating heartworms. When the animal begins showing the signs and symptoms of heartworms, such as labored breathing and coughing, the vet may think, initially, that there is a problem with the animals’ heart or lungs. An x-ray or sonogram may be done to assess for any cardiac or lung causes. If these come back positive, blood testing for heartworms is the next step.
How do I treat/prevent heartworms?
Adult worms are killed with an organic arsenical drug that is given by injection. These cause the heartworm to die. After the adult heartworms die, another medication is given to eliminate the baby worms (larvae), which are not affected by the first medication used to kill the adult worms. Your veterinarian will know the best choice for your pet and the one that will have the least amount of side effects.