What are heartworms?
An infected mosquito bites your pet and transfers heartworm larvae (baby heartworms) into their bloodstream. The larvae grow into adult worms (can be up to 1 foot long) and live within your pet's heart and lung vessels. These adults can live 5 to 7 years in a dog and 2 to 4 years in a cat. When another mosquito bites, it will pick up the larvae in your pet's bloodstream and infect other pets. There are a lot of mosquitos in Michigan and we do see heartworm cases in the Jackson area. With Michigan's weather, we can see mosquitos year round. Your indoor only pets just need one infected mosquito to sneak inside your home to be exposed!
Signs of Heartworm Disease
- Dogs: Coughing, decreased ability to exercise, weight loss, and decreased appetite and all signs of possible heartworm disease. It can take several years for signs of heartworm disease to develop. As the damage progressives, your pet can develop heart failure and lung disease. In a severe infection, the worms can block blood flow through the heart and cause a sudden and deadly form of heart failure.
- Cats: Coughing, wheezing, respiratory distress, intermittent vomiting, loss of appetite, exercise intolerance, collapse, and even sudden death. One adult worm or even just the larvae alone can be fatal in your cat.
Heartworm Testing
- Dogs:
- It takes 6 to 7 months from the mosquito bite to get a detectable adult heartworm. For this reason, we recommend yearly heartworm testing for all dogs. Puppies that have been on monthly prevention consistently are first tested at 1 year of age. Puppies under 7 months of age can be started on prevention without a heartworm test.
- If 3 or more months of prevention have been missed, we will need to retest for heartworm to verify there is no current adult heartworms before restarting prevention. Putting your pet on heartworm prevention without knowing if there is an infection can potentially send them into anaphylactic shock or it will kill only the larvae and not any adult worms.
- We use a 4DX Heartworm Antigen test that tests for heartworms as well as 3 tick born diseases which are lymes disease, ehrlichia, and anaplasma. It only takes a few drops of blood and takes 10 minutes to get results. If your pet is positive for any of these diseases, the doctor or a technician will talk to you about treatment plans and the next step.
- Cats:
- Unfortunately, testing in cats can be very difficult as they may have no or very few adult worms and positive tests may not indicate a current infection. We do not routinely test cats unless there is suspicion of an infection.
- Unfortunately, testing in cats can be very difficult as they may have no or very few adult worms and positive tests may not indicate a current infection. We do not routinely test cats unless there is suspicion of an infection.
Heartworm Prevention
We recommend year round prevention for all pets. We carry products for both dogs and cats here. Please call the front office with any questions you have regarding prevention.
- Dogs:
- Trifexis: A monthly tablet that prevents heartworm, treats hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms, and kills adut fleas.
- Sentinel: A monthly tablet that prevents heartworm, treats hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms, and prevents flea eggs from hatching.
- Interceptor Plus: A monthly flavored chew that prevents heartworm and treats hookworms, roundworms, whipworms, and tapeworms.
- ProHeart 12: A twelve month injectable medication that prevents heartworm.
- Trifexis: A monthly tablet that prevents heartworm, treats hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms, and kills adut fleas.
- Cats:
- Revolution Plus: A monthly topical that prevents heartworm, treats hookworms and roundworms, treats ear mites, kills adult fleas, and prevents flea eggs from hatching.
- Revolution Plus: A monthly topical that prevents heartworm, treats hookworms and roundworms, treats ear mites, kills adult fleas, and prevents flea eggs from hatching.