Preventing Heartworm Disease in Pets

Heartworm disease in pets is a serious condition that if left untreated, can result in organ failure and death. Today, our Queens vets discuss heartworm disease in pets including the signs, treatment options, and prevention methods of the disease.

What Is Heartworm Disease?

Heartworm disease is spread through mosquito bites and is primarily caused by a parasitic worm called Dirofilaria immitis. 

Pets including dogs, cats, and ferrets may become hosts for heartworms, meaning the parasitic worms live, mate, and produce offspring in the animal's body. The illness is called heartworm disease because the worms live in the heart, lungs, and blood vessels of an infected pet.  

Symptoms of Heartworm Disease

Symptoms of heartworm disease typically don't appear until the disease is advanced. The most common symptoms of heartworm disease include swollen abdomen, coughing, fatigue, weight loss, and difficulty breathing. 

Diagnosing Heartworm

Your vet can complete blood tests to detect heartworm proteins (antigens), which are released into the animal's bloodstream. Heartworm proteins can't be detected until about five months (at the earliest) after an animal is bitten by an infected mosquito.

Heartworm Treatment

Heartworm treatment varies between cats and dogs. Heartworm treatment is often lengthy, uncomfortable, and potentially dangerous for your pet—and expensive for you. This is why we say prevention is the absolute best treatment for heartworm disease. 

If your pet is diagnosed with heartworm, your vet will discuss potential treatment options with you. For dogs, an FDA-approved medication (melarsomine dihydrochloride), which contains arsenic, will be given via a series of injections into your dog's back muscles. This treatment option is toxic to cats so your vet will discuss alternative therapies with you. 

Heartworms can live in dogs for 5-7 years while in cats typically only live for 2-3. 

Preventing Heartworm Disease

It's important to keep your pet on preventive medication to prevent heartworm disease. Even if they are already on preventive heartworm medication, we recommend that dogs be tested for heartworms annually. 

Heartworm prevention is safer, easier, and much more affordable than treating the progressed disease. Several heartworm preventive medications can also help protect against other parasites such as hookworms, whipworms, and roundworms.

Is your pet not yet protected against heartworm? Contact our Queens vets to discuss parasite preventives.