Heartworms do permanent damage to the heart, lungs, and the blood vessels that surround them. If left untreated, your dog may not survive heartworm disease. That's why prevention is so critical!
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| Mom wants me to be safe from those pesky mosquito parasites that cause heartworm! |
There are no symptoms of having heartworms until the worms begin to infect the heart and lungs. Your dog may develop a cough that gets progressively worse and may seem to be out of breath much more than usual. Heartworm is present in all 50 states in the U. S., even in dry climates such as Phoenix, AZ, where we live. I give my precious fur-kids one Heartworm prevention tablet a month to keep them safe from this deadly disease.
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| I don't want those disgusting worms to invade my heart and lungs, they could kill me! |
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| Just one tablet a month keeps my dogs safe from Heartworm disease. I coat it in peanut butter and give it to them. They don't know it's medicine, they think it's a delicious peanut butter treat! |
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| Icy and Phoebe know it's time for their "special peanut butter treat" and they wait anxiously in the kitchen for me to give it to them! What could be easier? |
Many Veterinarians now recommend a Heartworm Antigen test annually to ensure your dog remains free of heartworms.
How do you protect your dog from heartworm disease? Leave us a comment, we love hearing from you!
35 comments:
Heartworms should be completely eliminated. It is 100% avoidable with preventatives. Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for this post! Heartworm is so so so scary!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I fully agree, it's so deadly and yet so easy to prevent! Thanks for stopping by MK!
It's extremely scary and most often fatal. It's so easy to prevent vs. how difficult and costly it is to attempt to treat, oftentimes unsuccessfully. Thanks for stopping by Jenna!
My shelter dog Valentino is being treated for heart worms, discovered when he arrived at the shelter in February of 2014. He is healthy as can be otherwise so we hoe, pray, and expect him to live through the ordeal. Indeed, this could have been prevented if his owner had cared for him properly.
Wonderful post about an important topic. Thank you for sharing.!
All I'm saying is I'm glad Arizona doesn't have as many mosquitoes as other states BOL! This is so scary!
A great reminder about the importance of prevention against heartworms!
Very important. Never dared to slack on this or experiment with it.
Heartworms are so terrible! It is great that there is such a simple preventative for dogs available. It looks like your dogs even enjoy taking it. :)
-Purrs from your friends at www.PlayfulKitty.net
Thanks for this article. Heartworm prevention is so important!
We are big on preventive as well, but my husband has had to treat two of his dogs in the past (they where HW+ when he got them) and my neighbor's dog also had it. Thankfully all were successfully treated.
It's really amazing that although this is preventable so many dogs end up with it. It gets so serious and the treatment can be really rough; great information.
It's always heartbreaking to see a dog suffering from something completely avoidable. Great reminder to keep on top of heartworm preventative.
Heartworm is not something we currently treat for. I know it is scary. I also know that cases have been found in all 50 states. However, there are less than 15 cases a year in Western Washington and all of the cases so far can be attributed to dogs traveling out of the area. Almost none of the veterinarians around here recommend the treatment. I would rather not give my dogs medication they don't need. My attitude changed some about that last year though. Because heartworm is so rare around here it wasn't even on my radar. I never though about protecting them when we travel. Some of the places we go do have higher rates of it. Also, part of the reason it is rare here is because the mosquito population doesn't live long enough to incubate the worm larvae. That is going to start to change in the coming years though with climate change. We may see less and less freezing temperatures that keep them in check. For example, this year it has basically felt like spring since December. We never really had a winter. I expect the fleas and mosquitoes to be terrible this year so I might consider giving them preventative.
This is SUCH an important topic - thank you so much for helping spread the message. Our dog JJ had a severe case of heartworms when he was rescued - poor baby almost didn't make it. We take ZERO chances now, no matter what the season. THANK you again for such an informative post!
I will be blogging about heartworm prevention, too - one can never have too much info and warning on this. TY for getting the message out there. We are on year-round protection here in the northeast
Yes! So important! We don't treat against Fleas all year (especially in this weather) but we do treat heartworm. Just not a chance we can take!
Thank you for the important reminder! We had a dog when I was growing up, and we always gave him his heartworm pill on the 10th of each month so we wouldn't forget whether or not we'd given it to him. :)
My apologies for such a late response to your comment. This happens so frequently, cats or dogs come into the shelter and we discover they have Heartworm. It's so sad, many don't survive. I hope Valentino is OK, it's s long process. Thanks so much for sharing your experience & for stopping by the blog Ruth!
Thanks for visiting the blog Jeanne, apologies for my late response to your comment.
That's true, however we do still get a fair number of dogs with Heartworm come in at the shelter in Phoenix. Even one affected pet is too many. Thanks for stopping by the blog, Amanda!
Yes, it's so impawtant. Thanks for stopping by!
Oh definitely, I would never slack on it either. It's too great a risk! Thanks for stopping by Jana!
Ugly little monsters, aren't they!? It really is so simple to protect our pets from heartworms, #noexcuses. Thanks for stopping by Robin!
Very important, thanks for stopping by Carol!
Oh wow, that must have been so difficult for your hubby, it's not easy to treat! I'm so glad they were all successfully treated. Like they say, an ounce of prevention..... Thanks for stopping by & sharing your stories!
I know, it's a terrible disease, costly, difficult, & time consuming to treat. I think a lot of people just won't pay for the preventative treatment! So foolish and risky. Thanks for stopping by Jen!
Oh yeah, it's terrible. There's really no excuse for not protecting them when the risk is so high. Thanks for stopping by, Kelsie!
Oh interesting, I didn't realize that Western WA didn't have any issue with Heartworm, thanks for enlightening me. If you travel your Vet may recommend preventative though. I have the same decision w/ Leptospirosis. Vets here in Phoenix don't recommend the vaccine but we travel to the East coast frequently and for several weeks at a time so our East coast Vet has recommended we get the vaccine which I plan to do next time I'm out there. Thanks for sharing your information with us Jessica, apologies for my late response to recent comments. It's been insanely busy for us here at home.
I'm so glad JJ got through his treatment OK, he is such a sweetie! Thanks for visiting the blog!
Oh definitely, it's such an important topic. The treatment is so costly, difficult, and time consuming. It's so worth the time to prevent it! Thanks for stopping by the blog Carol!
No, it's definitely not a chance anyone should take with their pet. This one's not worth the risk! Thanks for visiting the blog, Kevin & Rachel!
That's great! Having a consistent routine for Heartworm preventative is really smart, missing even one dose can be risky. Thanks for stopping by!
It's strange, but neither of my vets have recommended it for Kilo. I am not sure how common it is here - we sure have a lot of mosquitoes. My previous rescue in South America had it when we got her and was successfully treated. I think I'll start him on monthly pills just in case.
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