Heartworms are a serious disease — treat your dogs and cats with a preventative now - NOLA.com

Heartworms are a serious disease — treat your dogs and cats with a preventative now - NOLA.com

Heartworms are a serious disease — treat your dogs and cats with a preventative now - NOLA.com

Posted: 25 Jun 2021 04:45 AM PDT

The heat is on, and mosquitoes are out in full force. While heartworm disease is a constant threat in Louisiana, it's good to remind pet owners of the dangers of this disease at this time of year.

Both dogs and cats are at risk if they are not on preventatives. This disease is easy and inexpensive to prevent, but very difficult, painful and expensive to treat and cure. Please note that heartworms are curable, and once treated, most dogs go on to live full, healthy lives. Cats aren't so lucky. 

It is also important to know that heartworms are not contagious — people and other pets in the home cannot catch them from an infected pet.

How does a pet get heartworms? Dogs and cats can only become infected through the bite of an infected mosquito. Even if your dog or cat is an "inside only" pet, they are still at risk. Mosquitoes can get inside our homes, and pups need to go outside to do their business.

Our climate is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, since we have such warm weather most of the year.

How do I know if my dog has heartworms? In addition to being on preventatives, pets should be tested at least annually for heartworms at the vet, because at the onset of infection, there are no symptoms.

My dogs are tested twice a year — once at their annual appointments and once at their semiannual checkups. It takes about seven months for the larvae contracted from the mosquito to mature into adult heartworms. As more and more worms crowd the heart and lungs, most dogs will develop a cough.

As the disease progresses, the dog will become winded easier and will not have the level of energy he once had. With advanced heartworm disease, dogs can pass out from the loss of blood to the brain, and they can retain fluids. Most dogs will die if not treated.

What is the treatment like? The treatment is not easy on dogs. It consists of a series of injections over a period of time that will kill the adult heartworms in the blood vessels of the heart. During treatment, the worms begin to die. And as they die, they break up into pieces, which can cause a blockage of the pulmonary vessels and can result in death.

Because of this risk, a dog undergoing treatment must be kept calm and quiet during the course of the treatment and for a period of time afterward.

Unfortunately for cats, there isn't really a treatment outside of open-heart surgery, and a heartworm diagnosis is an eventual death sentence.

How can heartworms be prevented? Prevention is easy and inexpensive. There are several options such as monthly pills, monthly topicals administered to the skin and six-month injectables. Talk to the vet to see which preventative is right for your pet.

Do pets need heartworm preventative in the winter? In our region, year-round prevention is crucial. As we well know, it is very common for us to have warm weather even in the winter months, so the threat for mosquitoes is always here.

Many preventatives also include protection for other intestinal parasites such as roundworms, whipworms and tapeworms, so the benefits are numerous.

Can a dog that has been treated for heartworms get them again? Yes, which is why continual prevention is so important. Once a dog has been treated, he will need to be put on preventatives so that he is not infected again.

Should I adopt a heartworm-positive dog? It is very common for some shelter dogs to have heartworms. It's perfectly fine to adopt a dog with heartworms, but the adopter must be committed to having the disease treated properly.

My dog, Ponyboy, went through heartworm treatment when he was about a year old after being rescued off the street. He went on to live a full, happy life for over a decade after treatment.

Some rescues and shelters offer assistance with treatment. For example, at ARNO, if a dog being adopted is heartworm positive at the time of adoption, treatment will be included through ARNO's vets.

The best way to tackle heartworms is through prevention.

Traci D. Howerton is the volunteer coordinator for Animal Rescue New Orleans (ARNO), a nonprofit, volunteer-based, no-kill shelter. For topic suggestions, email animalrescuecolumn@gmail.com or for more info on ARNO, visit www.animalrescueneworleans.org.

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