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HEART WORMS & HEART WORM
PREVENTION
Heart Worm Disease is preventable and is expensive to treat. A Great Dane being Treated could run you well over $1000. Heart Worms are contracted through Mosquito bites. When the mosquito bites your dog it also injects it at the same time, an infected mosquito will then give your pet the micro fillaria that is the beginning of this disease.
If your pet is not on preventive these little worms will float in your dogs blood and mature until they finally rest in your dogs heart. These worms then grow to be several feet long and then begin to breed. They then send out little worms in to the blood stream for the mosquito to pick up when it bites them and then the mosquito goes to infect another dog. With time the worm burden will become too much and start to block arteries and spill in to the lungs. At this point it is almost always terminal and will lead to sudden death or a long drawn out heart failure.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Put your puppy on HeartWorm prevention. This should be started at 8 weeks of age. If your pet is not on Heart Worm prevention and is over 6 months of age you need to take him/her to your Veterinarian and have their blood drawn to be tested. There are two tests that may be ran. The first one is just putting a drop of blood on a slide and looking at it under the microscope. You can easily see the micro fillaria if it is present. The other was is through an occult heart worm test (blood will be used for this test also) this is a test that looks for the actual "hormones" that the heart worm excretes and it can give you earlier detection.
IF YOUR PET TESTS POSITIVE: If you want him/her to live you need to have them treated as soon as possible. The treatments can very, but they all use an arsenic derivative to kill the worms and the dog must remain kenneled and in doors through the entire experience. Heat, stress and excitement can cause large amounts of the worms to dislodge, causing an aneurysm and killing your dog. IMMITTACIDE © is the safest treatment on the market at present time. The protocol calls for two injections 24 hours apart in the lumbar region of the dog. After this they must return in 6 weeks for an micro fillaria treatment and then they are started on prevention again. For up to six months they need to be kept calm and cool. As stated before, the worms die slowly and any stress can cause a major dislodging and kill the pet.
YOUR PET TESTS NEGATIVE: You need to realize that they need to be tested again in 6 months. If you keep them on prevention, test again in six months and they are negative then keeping your pet on heart worm prevention for the rest of it's life will prevent infection. There are many heart worm prevention's on the market, some are daily, most are monthly and there is even a 6 month shot out. I recommend the monthly ORAL preventative and believe the Interceptor or Sentinel to be the best. Interceptor also treats for most of the major intestinal parasites, Sentinel protects against heart worms, intestinal parasites and also helps control fleas and is believed to control ring worm***.
Who is at risk? All dogs in the Untied States. Some states can get away with only keeping there pets on heart worm prevention during the spring to first freeze months. Where we live ( Texas) you can not do this. We have mosquito's all the time year round. Most of the Southern states are the same. Contact your Veterinarian to see if your pet is at risk for Heart Worms.
BUT MY PET IS IN SIDE ALL THE TIME: So am I and I am bit often by Mosquitos. Though indoor dogs pose a lower risk then out door dogs, the risk is still high and every year I see at least 100 in door dogs treated for heart worms.
OK I AM GOING TO GET MY PET TREATED WHAT DO I NEED TO ASK?: First of all it is important to have a complete blood panel performed in order to tailor the treatment to the individual dog. I also recommend that radiographs of the chest are taken to rule out any extenuating circumstances. Then ask your vet about any other concerns you may have. Most will want to keep your pet over night for several days during the treatment. This is so they can monitor the dog and stop the protocol if there appears to be any problems. This also keeps your pet un-stimulated during the most critical time.
WERE SHOULD I GET MY HEART WORM PREVENTION?
There are adds all the time on TV and Radio about discount warehouse's that will sell you heart worm prevention for less then your vet.
WHAT YOU NEED TO REALIZE:
- It is not that much less and most of the time it is actually a few dollars more.
- The manufactures of the heart worm prevention will not Guaranty the product if it is not purchased from your veterinarian.
- most vets ( I know mine will) can send you your pets preventive through the mail.
- The manufactures claim that these warehouses are getting there preventive through false means, they continually claim that they are not selling the prevention to the whole sale warehouses.
- MERIAL ( Makers of Heart Guard) claims that the product sold to you through these warehouse's is actually counterfeit product and not regulated or tested.
WHAT THIS SHOULD SAY TO
YOU:
GO TO YOUR VET, GET YOUR
PREVENTIVE THERE, IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE IT IS REAL AND
WORKING !
***Studies are still being performed on
this and there is no label or guaranty information to prove this claim.