Heartworm Preventative: A Must or a Bust?
By Margot K. Vahrenwald, DVM, Park Hill Veterinary Medical Center
Summer’s just around the corner and surely by now, if you are a dog owner, you’ve received a notification from your veterinarian about getting your pet(s) tested and onto heartworm preventative for the mosquito season. Is this a good idea that protects your pet or an unneeded product being pushed by your vet? To answer that question, let’s examine what heartworm is.
In the heartworm lifecycle, a microscopic larva is easily picked up and transmitted by mosquitoes as they feed on blood from animal to animal. Once in a dog, the heartworm continues its lifecycle and ultimately finds its adult home in the heart and pulmonary vessels.
These risks make heartworm preventative a MUST for a caring dog owner:
• Heartworm creates inflammation that can ultimately lead to heart failure and/or thromboembolic disease, and other life-shortening systemic problems in the kidneys and other organ systems.
• Colorado mosquito species do carry and spread heartworm disease. While Colorado has a lower incidence than other states, the numbers go up each year.
• Currently, the drug needed to treat a heartworm positive dog, Immiticide, is unavailable. In the meantime, there are no good alternative treatment drugs and no known date for a return of the medication. Treatment, when available, is very expensive and carries its own very serious risks for complications.
• Colorado dogs are active dogs – hiking, visiting dog parks and often travel out of state. Heartworm preventative offers monthly protection against intestinal parasites that can easily be transmitted in contaminated soils, for example, at the dog park.
• Many of our Colorado canines live in households with small children under the age of 10. Pediatricians, family physicians, the American Medical Association and many other medical associations recommend that pets living with children be de-wormed regularly to protect against zoonotic infections from intestinal parasites such as roundworms and hookworms. Additionally, if you live with someone who has a compromised immune system from illness and/or treatment, it is a good idea to have all cats and dogs in the household on year-round heartworm preventative.
So follow your veterinarian’s recommendations for heartworm testing and preventative. It’s a simple way to keep your dog and your family healthy. And make sure to purchase your heartworm preventative from your veterinarian or their recommended source to avoid any product issues.
For more detailed information on heartworms in dogs and cats, please visit The Companion Animal Parasite Council at capcvet.org, or The American Heartworm Society at heartwormsociety.org.
Dr. Margot is the owner of Park Hill Veterinary Medical Center at 2255 Oneida Street (parkhillvet.com), Park Hill’s own and newest veterinary hospital. The hospital opened July 2011 and earned its voluntary accreditation from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) in November 2011. Dr. Margot currently lives in Stapleton with her husband, two daughters, two cats and two dogs.