Heartworms in dogs and cats is not a NEW problem. They have been studied since the mid - 1800's. What is new for us, is an unusual increase in the number of heartworm infected pets we have seen in the last few months.
Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal condition of worms (a roundworm in the nematode family called Dirofilaria immitis) residing in the heart and major blood vessels of dogs and cats. Heartworm babies are called microfilaria. These travel throughout the blood in an infected dog. When a mosquito bites an infected dog, it sucks out blood containing the microfilaria. Then when the mosquito bites another dog or cat, the larvae are transmitted through the mosquito’s stinger into the bite victim. Mosquitoes and Heartworms are a 12-month a year problem in North Texas. Have you ever been bitten by a mosquito inside your house? Chances are your strictly indoor cat or dog has been bitten as well.
The infective larvae migrate through the dog or cat and reach the heart in about two to three months. They arrive as small worms about two inches long. After another three months the heartworms reach full adult worm length of 9-14 inches! They live in the branches of the pulmonary arteries and in the heart and start making lots of babies that then circulate throughout the bloodstream. The actual heartworm disease is caused by the body's immune system reacting to the presence of the worms and their babies.
This reaction causes the small arteries of the lungs to thicken, which makes the heart work harder to pump blood into the lungs. The reactions in the lungs also make it more difficult for normal exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide to occur. These changes lead to clinical signs that include coughing, exercise intolerance and indications of right heart failure including fluid accumulations in the chest and abdomen.
We take a small amount of blood from your dog each year during the annual exam to test for the presence of the body’s immune system fighting the adult heartworms (older than 6 months). If we get a positive result we then will check the blood again for the presence of baby heartworms.
If not detected and controlled with the proper treatment, heartworm can lead to congestive heart failure and death. In dogs difficulty breathing, coughing, tiring easily, listlessness, weight loss, and a rough hair coat are a few of the symptoms of heartworm disease. Mostly these are advanced symptoms. Some dogs do not appear to have symptoms in the early stages. There is not yet a reliable test for cats. The first sign of heartworm disease in cats is often sudden death.
It is much easier and much less expensive to treat your pet with a monthly heartworm preventative than to treat heartworm disease. If your pet does have heartworms in its system, other tests (such as chest x-rays) should be run to see how badly the body has been damaged. If your dog is determined to be well enough to withstand it, treatment can be given. There is no treatment for heartworm in cats yet!
Unfortunately, the death of the worms during the treatment can cause problems even worse than the presence of live worms. The dying and dead adult worms can cause blood vessels to clog causing death of the pet. After treatment there is still a great chance of lung disease developing. The chances of this occurring can be greatly reduced by enforcing strict rest for a minimum of six weeks after treatment.
We have seen too many broken hearts in the last few months, when people's pets have suddenly died, or become dangerously ill. These owners feel terribly guilty about forgetting that once a month treatment. We don't want this to happen to you!
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