The cause of Heartworm disease is Dirofilaria immitis, a blood parasitic disease transmitted through mosquito bites. It can infect dogs of any age and is also found in cats. Foreign research reports show that stray cats The rate of heartworm disease is 4 to 15%. Since cats have smaller hearts, once they contract this disease, the mortality rate is much higher than that of dogs.

Adult heartworms parasitize in the right heart and pulmonary arteries of dogs and cats. The adult worms will produce larvae that circulate in the blood. Mosquitoes bite dogs and cats infected with heartworm disease and carry heartworm larvae. The larvae live in the salivary glands of mosquitoes. The larvae metamorphose into infective filarial worms, which are then transmitted to other dogs and cats through mosquito bites. Dogs and cats can be infected with the disease repeatedly.

Symptoms

Because adult worms parasitize in the heart, causing heart damage and gradually affecting the health of dogs and cats, dogs and cats have no obvious discomfort at the beginning of the disease. After a period of infection, they gradually develop exercise intolerance, coughing, and shortness of breath. In the past, they were often misdiagnosed as Bronchitis or common heart disease. In the later stage, cardiopulmonary failure, anemia, pulmonary hydrops, ascites, jaundice, liver and kidney failure and death occur.

Diagnosis and Prevention

The disease needs to be diagnosed by detecting heartworm larvae in a blood smear or using the heartworm rapid test kit 4DX for dogs or Triple for cats. If dogs and cats do not suffer from this disease, they can be prevented in the following three ways:

Oral method: Take heartworm preventive drugs regularly every month. In addition to the preventive effect of heartworm, Canine Heart Protection also has a preventive effect on some parasites in the gastrointestinal tract.

Skin drops: Drop preventive medicine (Pfizer Revolution) or Aiwalker on the skin of the nape of the neck every month. In addition to preventing heartworms, these drops can also prevent fleas, ear scabies, some gastrointestinal parasites and some wall worms. louse.

Injection method: Dogs should be injected after they are 6 to 9 months old (recommended after one year old), and then given a dose regularly every year.

How to avoid heartworm disease

Heartworm prevention can be started when dogs and cats are four months old. Literature points out that heartworm larvae will not appear in the blood of dogs and cats before six months of age, so heartworm prevention should be performed before six months of age. Prevention does not require a test first. If you are over six months old and then take prevention, it is recommended to test whether there is infection first. Regularly giving dogs and cats heartworm preventive drugs can reduce the chance of being bitten by mosquitoes, which is the way to prevent this disease.

Attention

Dogs with severe heartworm infection should be careful when using anthelmintic drugs. Death and shedding of parasitic heartworms in the heart may block the heart.Blocking arteries may cause more serious consequences and should be used with caution. So for the health of your pet, please deworm it on time!