Heartworm is a hair-raising word for people having dogs as pet. Dog’s owners may have seen a picture of thread-like worm in dog’s heart. Undoubtedly, the picture can give goosebumps to every dog owner. That’s why “How do dogs get heartworm” has become a significant concern for dog owners.
As a dog owner, it is your responsibility to take care of your dog and to protect your pet from fatal diseases, like heartworms in dogs. Thus, our today article is all about what heartworms are, what causes it, its sign in dogs and how you can prevent it in dogs.
Table of Contents
What are Heartworms?
Dog heartworm or Dirofilaria immitis are a parasitic roundworm, and these worms produce offspring while living inside your per. During offspring time, the worms can affect your dog muscles, heart, blood vessels, and the pulmonary artey. Adult heartworms, which seem like “cooked spaghetti,” lead various health problems in dogs, and they can live inside dogs for maximum 5 to 7 years.
Heartworms can also infect other animals such as cats, foxes, wolves and many more and very rarely, it can infect people. They have a significant impact on your pet health and can damage your dog tissues and lung vessels badly.
How Do Dogs Get Heartworms?
Now, the main point is how a dog can get heartworm. Dogs can get them through an infected mosquito bite. Remember that infected dog can’t pass heartworm disease to other dogs because these parasites require a mosquito to reach to infective stage.
Heartworms go from various larval stages (immature stages) before they become adults. The initial larval stage lives in an already infected dog that has baby worms (microfilaria) in its bloodstream. When mosquito attack on the infected dog, the initial larva stage move to the mosquito where they finish two more stages of larva within 10 to 14 days. At this stage, larvae reach “infective stage.”
When a dog gets a bite from an infected mosquito, the mosquito left a bite wound that further create a way for infective larvae to come in their new host. Once worms passed to dogs, the larvae then continue their development into adulthood that ultimately infects the dog’s lungs and heart. Then, again adult heartworms start producing new initial-stage larvae set and then, the cycle starts again.
What are Symptoms of Heartworms in Dogs?
It is really very hard to tell if your dog has adult heartworms. However, here, we are going to mentioned symptoms of heartworms in dogs:
- Energy levels become low.
- Loss in weight
- Lethargy
- Asthmatic symptoms
- Appetite changes
- Collapsing and fainting
- Difficulty in breathing
- A persistent cough while doing exercise
- Anemia
- Blood pressure goes high
- Fast heartbeat
Here, we have listed common signs of heartworm disease in dogs. However, there are four stages of heartworm disease and the higher stage, the worse is a disease. Thus, below we have mentioned four stages that help you more to identify heartworm disease symptoms in your dog.
Stage 1
In the first stage, there can be no sign or mild sign include an occasional cough during the initial stage.
Stage 2
In the second stage, there can be a mild or moderate sign, which includes an occasional cough and energy loss after exercise.
Stage 3
In the third stage, persistent cough, loss of weight, tiredness after a mild exercise, difficulty in breathing, and symptoms of heart failure indicate your dog has badly infected from heartworm disease.
Stage 4
This stage is also known as caval syndrome. It is a life-threatening stage in which blood flows back to dog heart gets blocked by worms. At this situation, immediate surgical treatment is necessary.
It is vital to understand the signs of heartworm disease in dogs. Otherwise, your dog life is at risk. Therefore, if you ever feel these symptoms in your dog then don’t take lightly and contact with your vet to confirm whether your dog gets infected from deadly heartworm disease.
What are Heartworm Prevention Tips for Dogs?
Heartworm disease can be prevented in dogs and all it needs your care for your dog. Here are some tips that you can follow to keep your dog safe from heartworm disease:
1. Visit Veterinarian Regularly
The first thing you can do is taking your dog to your vet for a checkup on a regular basis. The vet will perform heartworm test to check if your dog is infected or not. Sometimes, we can’t inspect heartworm disease symptoms, and that’s why regular checkup is must to ensure your dog is safe.
2. Preventative Medication
There are many preventative products that dog’s owners can use for their dog to prevent heartworm. You can contact your vet, and he/she can give you a recommendation for preventative products that are appropriate for your pet.
3. Keep your Place Mosquito Free
The best thing you can do is keeping your home free from mosquito as heartworm is caused by mosquitoes only. Therefore, don’t place empty containers outside. Clean your home on a regular basis as mosquitoes move around in dirty areas.
4. Use Bug control Product
Use bug control product to minimize mosquitoes in your yard and today, there are pet-friendly products available in the market on which you can rely on.
Is There a Treatment for Heartworm Disease?
The treatment for heartworm disease is costly and not easy. Treatment can also put your dog life at risk, especially if treatment is done for killing adult heartworms. On the other hand, treatment is necessary, and you need to visit the veterinarian clinic multiple time. There can be many tests and injections for treating the disease.
However, the best treatment you can give to your dog is prevention. We all know that it is not possible to protect your dog from a mosquito bite. But, you can prevent life-cycle of heartworm larvae in your dog’s body. All you need to do is giving pills recommended by your vet to kill heartworms.
Conclusion
In the end, we can say that heartworm disease is preventable. All you need to do is to take care of your dog and giving your pet healthy food and environment.
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