April is heartworm awareness month

National Heartworm Awareness Month, observed in April, aims to bring awareness to all pet owners about the deadly heartworm disease and how they can prevent and cure it.

Heartworm disease, which can occur in cats and dogs, is caused by a parasitic worm living in the heart, lungs and associated blood vessels, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body of cats and dogs.

Dogs are a host of heartworms, meaning they can grow and reproduce in the animal, while cats are a dead-end host, meaning the worms cannot reproduce in the animal.

worms when feeding and then transfer them to other animals.

The larvae then grow and mature into adult worms.

Several types of prevention are available for dogs and cats, including monthly oral prevention, which kills immature worms.

Princess

Most cats are infected with only a few worms and may not be fully mature, though the disease can be just as deadly for cats as it is for dogs.

Mosquitoes spread heartworm disease – heartworm larvae are found in the bloodstream of infected dogs. Mosquitoes pick up the larvae of the heart-

Heartworm preventives must be administered strictly on schedule as, unfortunately, in as little as 51 days, heartworm larvae can mature to the point where prevention is no longer effective. Those worms then grow into adults, which causes heartworm disease.

Early detection is critical to treating heartworm disease successfully. However, because many dogs show no signs during early infection, a blood test is required to indicate whether an animal is infected. Therefore, all dogs should be tested annually for heartworm infection, and this can usually be done during a routine visit. Because most cats are infected with only a few worms and may not be fully mature, heartworm infection in cats is more complicated to detect than in dogs. The preferred method for testing is an antigen and an antibody test; your veterinarian may also use x-rays or ultrasounds to look for heartworm infection.