Heartworm Prevention For Dogs

There are various FDA-approved heartworm prevention medications, and some even provide protection from intestinal parasites as well. Most require a valid veterinarian prescription and should be given monthly.

Some preventives contain doxycycline, which kills Wolbachia parasites that help heartworms mature; by killing this symbiont, adult heartworms die more quickly and reduce inflammation more effectively.

Prevention

If a dog is on heartworm preventive medication, they’re unlikely to test positive for heartworms; if not on prevention and they test positive anyway, however, there could be many worms present. Treating severe cases of heartworms is both expensive and time-consuming; medications must be given long term and possible surgery may need to be performed; additionally scarring and inflammation caused by heartworms can hinder circulation within their heart and lungs as well as right-sided heart failure can develop over time – thus it makes more sense investing in year-long prevention plans that make for easy management by both pet owners and themselves alike.

There are various heartworm prevention medicines available, from chewable tablets and topical treatments applied topically, to monthly injections administered by veterinarians. Most require a valid heartworm test on file and must be given as directed; in many cases these products also kill fleas and ticks as well as other parasites like intestinal worms; Simparica Trio is one all-round preventative that contains three main ingredients such as sarolaner, moxidectin, and pyrrantel for optimal protection against heartworm disease prevention.

All medications must be prescribed by a veterinarian, and taken on a monthly basis. Some come in dosages tailored specifically for specific weight categories of pets; it’s essential that you give the correct dosage or the medication won’t work effectively. Also keep in mind that certain preventatives have short shelf lives that must remain at room temperature; make sure there are enough available each month.

As part of its treatment regimen, your vet may advise limiting the physical activities of your dog; exercise can dislodge heartworm worms from their hosts’ lungs and heart and increase damage. Antibiotics may also be given to help eliminate Wolbachia–an organism which lives inside heartworms to aid their growth–with a follow up test performed nine months post treatment to make sure all have been effectively eliminated by their medications.

Diagnosis

Your veterinarian can diagnose heartworms by drawing a blood sample from your dog and viewing it under a microscope, running an antigen test (to look for specific proteins released by adult female heartworms into his/her blood) or employing echocardiography – two methods to confirm their presence – as well as performing echocardiography to show any presence in their lungs. Your vet must make sure his diagnosis is correct before prescribing expensive, complex treatment regimes.

If your veterinarian diagnoses a heartworm infection in your dog, they will explain what steps need to be taken next. Most commonly, medications will be recommended to stabilize and kill off heartworms; additionally they may advise restricting his exercise regime in order to keep worms from migrating out of his heart and into his bloodstream, where they could cause life-threatening clots.

Treating heartworm infections in dogs can be an inconvenient, time-consuming, and expensive process that often necessitates hospitalization and medication regimens lasting several months or years. While treatment options exist, prevention is far simpler, cheaper, and more efficient.

Year-round preventative medication comes in the form of chewable tablets or soft chews that your dog ingests, available both from veterinarians and pet stores in different doses for different weights. It’s essential that you give the appropriate dosage, since overdose could be harmful and too low will leave him vulnerable. Annual testing should also be performed in order to make sure that preventative hasn’t failed, leaving him vulnerable against heartworm infection; testing early stages ensures more effective medication treatment.

Treatment

Your veterinarian will first administer monthly preventative medication such as Heartgard to combat microfilariae and adult heartworms, called Melarsomine. Melarsomine injections typically cause only minimal side effects such as mild pain at injection sites.

Mosquito-borne microfilariae take approximately five to seven months to develop into heartworm adults and produce larvae capable of causing disease; most heartworm-positive dogs will not show signs of illness for several years after infection; it is therefore essential that all dogs take preventive medication as directed.

As heartworms mature, they migrate through tissues into the bloodstream and settle in the lungs and heart, causing inflammation that results in symptoms like soft, dry coughing that gets worse with exercise; weight loss; weakness; listlessness and lack of stamina are other indicators. Over time, as the disease worsens it may lead to build-ups of fluid (known as pulmonary edema) making breathing more difficult, ultimately leading to heart failure with kidney and liver damage leading to dark/bloody urine production and ultimately leading to failure resulting in death.

Heartworms break apart into pieces that can clog blood vessels in the lungs and can become known as pulmonary embolisms if left unchecked, potentially leading to fatal consequences. Furthermore, dead worms increase resistance to blood flow through them further compounding this condition.

Melarsomine dihydrochloride, an arsenical compound that kills both mature heartworms as well as some immature ones, is the only available medication for treating existing heartworm infestations in dogs. After treatment is administered by an injection into the muscle of their back on alternate days. Once complete, veterinarians retest for heartworm antigen to confirm that all adult worms have passed.