Question – How do dogs get heartworms?
Answer – Dogs get infected through mosquitos, more precisely through female mosquito bites. During the summer or the humid season, mosquitoes are an annoying problem and it is fairly difficult to prevent them from entering the house.

Question – Are some dogs more likely to get heartworms than other?
Answer – No. All types of dogs can get infected, however depending on where you live, the chances of getting heartworms can be increase or reduced. But in every region, mosquitoes can be infected and infect your dog.

Question – What are the signs of heartworms in dogs
Answer – Symptoms can take as long as 7 months do show. However, you dog might start coughing at 4 months. Other signs your dog is infected are lack of energy, weight loss and breathing problems. If you have any suspicions, talk to your vet who can perform a blood test on your pet.

Question – When shoud I have heartworm tests done on my dog?
Answer – Whenever you think your dog may have heartworms, usually during mosquito season or shortly after.

Question – How about prevention?
Answer -  Talk to your vet about prevention methods. There are several prevention methods available. For example, some prevention meds are taken like little treats, which an easy way to administer the medication since the dog simply love them.

First off, heartworms live just about all over North America, so if you and your pet live, or visit North America, there is a chance your pet could contract heartworm disease. In the past, the disease was confined only to the southern most parts of the United States of America. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case as the disease as rapidly spread across the entire continent and even into the southern parts of Canada. Heartworm is transmitted via mosquitoes, so this parasite can travel rapidly and easily across large stretches of land. It’s even gaining a foothold in South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. So even if there isn’t a high incidence of heartworm disease in your country yet, because of the nature of technology and travel today you could be seeing the disease in your area very soon. So you might want to speak to a vet soon about getting your dog heartworm medicine, because the disease is so prevalent across the globe.

Let’s say you haven’t given your dog heartworm medicine, is he in danger of contracting the disease? Anywhere there are mosquitoes, there is the potential for this parasite to spread. If your dog gets bitten by a mosquito carrying heartworm disease, the larvae are transferred into your pet’s bloodstream where they begin to incubate. At this point, it’s difficult to tell if a dog has been infected with heartworm disease, as symptoms don’t become visible for at least 6-7 months (this is known as the “prepatent period”). Once the disease has firmly gained a foothold into your pet’s body, your doggy’s health is now in danger. That’s why it’s important to prevent the disease, rather than treat it, and giving your dog heartworm medicine is the best way to prevent this deadly disease.

If your dog is diagnosed with the disease, your vet will most likely indicate that treatment is needed. If the disease has been allowed to progress to this point, there may be heart, liver, or kidney damage and your vet will have to evaluate their health to see if there are any risks to treating the disease at this point. After your dog has been treated, the worms will be dead but still present in your pet’s heart. Your dog will need to rest for several weeks, because the worms could potentially break loose if your dog is physically active. This can be extremely dangerous, especially if the worm travels to a critical part of their body (such as the lungs).

This disease is so difficult to detect because of the 6 month long prepatent period while the worms mature. Speak to your vet about giving your dog heartworm medicine, because the risks are so great. A little bit of preventative medicine could save you thousands of dollars in vet bills treating the disease, or even worse, your pet could die.

Linda is an experienced veterinarian who recommends that every owner give their dog Heartworm Medicine.

Pets are often considered as a member of the family. A dog or a cat can bring a lot of joy in anyone’s life. And as for any member of our family, we wish to keep out pets healthy and away from fleas, ticks, hookworms and roundworms and of course, heartworms.

Heartworms are worms that mostly infect dogs and, at a lesser extent, cats. Heartworm larvae is spread through mosquito bites, from dogs to dogs. The symptoms of heartworms on your dog can vary a lot between dogs. While some dogs will show no symptoms, other dogs will show significant health deterioration, that can lead to heart failure due to to a large number heartworms in the heart and arteries of the dog. Number of veterinary drugs can prevent heartworm infection.

How can heartworm medicine help

Heartworm medicine such as ivermectin are extremely effective and when regularly administered, they will protect more than 99 percent of dogs and cats from heartworm. You can talk to your veterinarian to learn more about heartworms.

Keep your dog healthy, prevent fleas, roundworms, hookworms, dog ticks and heartworms in dogs using heartworm medicine.

Heartworm medicine, are successful at 99%. The medication will kill adult worms with the help of an adulticide and larvae (microfilariae) with the help of a microfilaricide.  At your dog next visit to the vetenerian, don’t forget to ask about heartworms.

Heartworm medicationhave to be effective in killing heatworms (adults and larvae) with minimal side effects to the dog.  Treatments against the parasite tend to be more successful in dogs showing low to moderate symptoms. This is why the use of heartworm medicine such as ivermectin or selamectin is usually recommended.

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Show you dog love, treat your dog with heartworm medicine.

]]> http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/1-heartworms/heartworm-medicine-and-medication/feed/ 0 http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/1-heartworms/heartworm-symptoms/ http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/1-heartworms/heartworm-symptoms/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:35:09 +0000 healthy-dog http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/?p=16 What happens when your dog has heartworm disease

Being the owner of a dog or a cat, it is important that you learn about all of the different health elements that you need to be aware of.  Although your dog will be vaccinated for a lot of harmful health problems, be aware of other symptoms, such as those related to heartworm disease. If you have any questions about heartworms, do not hesitate to talk to the veterinarian at your next dog appointment.

Some dogs infected with heartworms might not develop a heartworm disease. Those dogs will carry the larvae on their skin or in their body, but not in the heart. However, if the disease develop around the lungs or in the heart, the dog can become very sick.

Damages to pulmonary arteries. A worm can damage the pulmonary arteries only within days after establishing itself in those arteries. Because they are too big, the immune system of the infected animal is unable to destroy the worm. This will cause inflammation at first. If the damages to the arteries become more severe, aneurysms and blood clotting are formed, causing arteries to plug up. These will result in a lack in oxygenation of the dog’s lungs. Some of the symptoms can be quick exhaustion following exercise, lots of coughing, nose bleeds and even a form of non contagious pneumonia (pulmonary eosinophilic granulomatosis).

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Heart failure. If the heartworms locate themselves in the arteries of the dog’s heart, arteries will plug up, therefore the heart has to work harder and faster to get the blood flowing throughout the body (hypertension).

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Sometimes, the right side of the heart weakens and fluid accumulate in the chest and in the abdomen of the dog, creating a belly-like appearance and difficulty to breath.

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In severe cases, the heart thickens from overworking and starts acting differently. This can lead to a disruption of the heart contractions and can create an arrhythmia and sudden death of the dog.

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Chronic stimulation of the immune system. The presence of heartworms in the dogs will trigger its immune system to respond and send antibodies on a regular basis, leading to a chronic inflammation. This chronic inflammation can cause damage of the surrounding cells, triggering damage of the tissues and a lot of pain for the dog.

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Caval syndrome. Caval syndrome is an aggravated version of heartworm disease. Sometimes, the worms can proliferate (as much as 100) and fill up the entire heart of the infected dog. This happens when the unfortunate animal shows no signs of heart problems prior to the caval syndrome. Because it is so severe, the dog will collapse and death will usually occurs within 1 or 2 days unless surgery is performed.

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Other possible syndroms. Rarely, the larvae can migrate to unusual sites, such as the eye, the brain or a leg, leading to some unusual symptoms like blindness, seizures and difficulty to move.

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This is why treatment with heartworm medicine of your dog after infection or prevention are very important.

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Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

]]> http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/1-heartworms/heartworm-symptoms/feed/ 0 http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/1-heartworms/heartworm-diagnosis/ http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/1-heartworms/heartworm-diagnosis/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:45:57 +0000 healthy-dog http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/?p=52 Determine if you dog has heartworms

To determine the presence of heartworms, your veterinary will perform a blood test on your dog.  The blood test will allow the doctor to determine the presence of an a product released by the female worm. This particular diagnosis is very specific to heartworms and tests are accurate more than 90% of the time. Sometimes, negative results can happen, due to a too low number of worms, early stage infections or no presence of female worms in the dog.

After your dog has been tested positive to this first blood test, you can also get your vet to test for the presence of microfilariae (larvae), using concentring filter test.

X-Rays

Finally X-ray can be done to evaluate how much lung damage has been caused by the heartworms. It is important to treat your dog with heartworm medicine every year to prevent the infestation by worms.

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X ray are performed to determine the amount of damages done to the lungs

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Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

Although treating your dog with heartworm medicine after the dog became infected is mostly successful, it is usually cheaper and safer to prevent infection of your dog. A wide variety of options is available to your dog and preventative heartworm medicine come in many forms : monthly tablets, chewables, monthly topicals (on the skin) and also a six-month injectable vaccine. All of those products are highly effective and, when properly used, will prevent  infection with the parasite.

In areas-regions known to have a high number of heartworm infections, year-round use of  preventative medicine is recommended, even if it mostly seasonal (i.e. during summer). This way, you will be assured of compliance and will avoid forgetting giving your dog a preventative medicine when the mosquito season starts. Also, most monthly heartworm preventives products are good against other intestinal parasites that can also infect people.

However, before you start a preventative program, have your dog checked for heartworm disease if you think your dog is possibly infected.

"Prevention is much easier than treatment," says Martine Hartogensis, D.V.M., a veterinarian in FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), because most heartworm preventive products are given to pets only once a month. Source:http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/heartworm061908.html

Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

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The cycle starts when a mosquito bites an infected dog. Heartworm larvae are then picked up by the mosquito. As the mosquito bites other dogs, it infects those dogs with the heartworm.

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Heartworms are more common in certain areas than others. This is because:

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1.Heartworms need specific types of mosquitoes to carry to their larvae

2.Heartworms larvae need weather warm enough to develop in the mosquito that carries them

3.Dogs (or other animals such as coyotes) have to be infected in the region

4.Potential host dogs have to be present in the area.

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Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

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