Heartworm is deadly serious!

Did you know that Heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) is spread by the good old mozzie!

Heartworm has the potential to cause heart failure and death. As it is spread by mosquitoes your dog does not have to be in contact with other dogs to develop this disease.

It may only take one single bite from a carrier mosquito to infect your dog. The larvae move through the tissue beneath the skin, then move to the heart and blood vessels of the lungs where they grow into adult worms.

In the early stages of a heartworm infection, there may be no symptoms or signs of the disease.

Even though you may not see the symptoms, it does not mean dogs, and cats, can’t be severely affected.

Active dogs may show signs such as coughing, especially upon exercise, or early exhaustion.

In advanced stages of the disease, severe weight loss, fainting, coughing up blood and congestive heart failure may occur. This is because major vessels become blocked with chronic infections, and if no action is taken, death usually results from heart failure.

More then 65% of the dog population in Australia live in high heartworm prevalent areas.

Prior to starting your dog on heartworm prevention it’s important that we determine that your dog does not have heartworm. This is easily done by a quick and fast blood test here at the clinic. Once the blood test has been performed and is negative we can start your dog on prevention.

While it’s very difficult to cure heartworm…. it’s simple to prevent!

There are quite a few different ways of preventing heartworm. A few easy and simple options are: 

• “Spot” treatments like ADVOCATE, by placing a small amount of liquid on the back of your dog’s neck once a month.

An annual “Proheart” injection - often given at the same time as your dogs C5 vaccine (Kennel Cough, Parvovirus, Distemper etc) which will protect your dog for 12 months.

Why take the chance- prevention is better than a cure!