Heartworm symptoms do not manifest until adult heartworms invade your dogs heart. Annual visits to the veterinarian will detect a heartworm infection in the initial stage of development. This is the stage before the larvae become adult worms and lodge in the heart. If you do not provide annual care for your dog, you may not detect a heartworm infection until heartworms have settled into the chamber of the heart. at this point, you may notice symptoms.
Understanding the lifecycle of heartworms will provide a clear understanding of the difficulty of early detection and treatment. the larvae of the heartworms reside in the saliva of mosquitoes. when a mosquito bites a dog, the mosquito’s saliva is injected into the wound. If the saliva contains one heartworm larvae, your dog will develop one adult worm in the heart. the amount of heartworms your dog may develop depends on the amount of larvae contained in the mosquito’s saliva. Your dog may contract several heartworms from several mosquito bites.
Once the larvae are injected into the dog’s bloodstream it circulates in the bloodstream as it begins to grow and develop. As the larvae become adult worms, the worms will attach to the tissue in the heart chamber. the heartworms can impede blood flow resulting in death of the dog.
Seek medical attention if your pet is experiencing any of the following symptoms:
Excessive Coughing- Dog appears lethargic
- Dog refuses physical activity
These symptoms are common symptoms for a host of illnesses. the only way to determine if your dog is infected is to visit the veterinarian for testing.
The veterinarian will test for the heartworm larvae, if this test is positive an x-ray will be performed to determine the scope of the infection. Testing for adult heartworms will result in a positive test; however, it does not indicate how many heartworms are in the dog’s heart. to determine the appropriate treatment and care, it is important to know how many heartworms are in the dog’s heart.
If the dog does not have any adult heartworms but larvae were detected in the bloodstream, an oral medicine is administered to kill the larvae. Additional testing must be performed to ensure treatment was successful and the veterinarian will recommend a preventative heartworm medicine.
If the dog has adult heartworms, treatment must commence as soon as possible. the dog is injected with an arsenic-based medication to kill the adult heartworms. Two injections are required within two days. the goal is to kill the worms gradually. once the worms are dead, phagocytosis occurs and the heartworms are expelled from the heart in tiny pieces. For six weeks, the dog must be kept calm and physical activity must be limited. If the dead heartworms are expelled to quickly, they worms can travel to the lungs, which may result in death. After six weeks, the dog returns to the veterinarian for an oral dose of medication to kill the heartworm larvae.
While heartworm symptoms are difficult to detect, regular visits to a veterinarian and a preventative heartworm medicine for dogs will keep your pet healthy and safe from infection.
Heartworm Disease in Dogs