Dog heartworm is a common disease among canines in the United

States. Discovered in 1856, the worms mainly live in your dog's

heart and major blood vessels.

The worms, especially on worst cases, seriously impair the

heart's operations. Worse, they could also clog your dog's

blood vessels. These infections result to body weight losses,

chronic cough, dropsy, breath shortness, chronic heart failure,

vision disturbances, and ultimately, death.

Since the symptoms of heartworm disease vary among dogs, it

would be best that a veterinarian check your dog to evaluate a

final analysis. Most dogs show visible symptoms only when the

disease has reached the point where it would be almost

improbable to be cured by treatment. To help you see early

symptoms and to hopefully save your dog, look out for these

signs:

• Dogs that have been quite active usually tend to be tired

easily.

• Dogs that would have been otherwise healthy usually gasp for

breath.

• Coughing of your dog has suddenly become a common occurrence.

• Dogs bred for hunting could no longer keep up with rapid

chases and usually fall from exhaustion.

• In some rare instances, the dog experiences convulsions,

jaundice, and problems in the vision.

• Before it dies, the dog experiences emaciation. often

precedes death.

Who gets infected by the heartworm infection?

Previously, it was thought that only dogs that were long-haired

were more resistant to heartworms because of the high difficulty

of mosquitoes (which bring the worms) to penetrate through the

dogs' hair. Since then, it has been proven that this was not

true. Mosquitoes even have a hard time penetrating through

short-haired dogs. Actually, mosquitoes feed on the abdominal

region of the dog. That is why both long-haired and

short-haired dogs are susceptible to an infection, since both

types have little hair on this region. Some mosquitoes also

feed on the muzzle area or the ears where the dog's hair is

quite matted down.

Can heartworm infection be treated?

Heartworm infection can be treated through chemical therapy if

diagnosed early. Most of the chemical treatments kill the worms

over some period of time. Killing all the worms in one swoop is

no better: If all the heartworms were killed in just one

treatment, the dead bodies would deposit in the lungs and kill

the dog.

Remember also that the chemicals used in treating the worms are

also as dangerous to your dog as the worms. That is why treating

the disease using chemical therapy should be used with utmost

care and should be handled by a veterinarian.

There also cases when surgery is needed. In most cases, this

could be a feasible option. Consult with the veterinarian if

surgical correction or any other method that can cure the

infection.

There are also drugs that cold prevent your dog from getting

heartworms. These drugs attack the parasite in its early stages

and stop the worms from being full-blown adults later. This

doesn't mean that your dog would be free from infection. This

only means that dogs can still get infected during the season

of mosquitoes and yet remain unscathed of heartworms.

Preventative medication using drugs, on the other hand, can

cause serious complications if your dog has already heartworm

infections in a higher level. That is why the use of drugs

should be under the supervision of veterinarians. Taking drugs

are also combined with regular blood texts. This has shown to

be quite effective in saving many dogs with heartworm

infection.

In order for your dog to avoid heartworm infection, protect

your pet from mosquito bites especially if there is a high

mosquito population in your area or if it is mosquito season.

You might want to screen the sleeping quarters of your dogs to

avoid repeated bites. Repellent sprays can also be used, but

these only have limited effects.

You might also want to consult your vet fro preventive

medication. In addition, you might want regular blood tests on

your dog to assess early symptoms of infection. This is quite

tricky, especially that the symptoms of heartworm infection

could not be seen immediately.

In short, your pet dog which looked healthy may be having early

symptoms of heartworm infection. It would be best that you

checked. There's nothing wrong in doing that, especially if

that is for your pet dog.