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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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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.