Heartworms: What You Need to Know About Them to Keep Your Dog Healthy

April is Heartworm Prevention Month – how much do you know about heartworms?

When your dog has a heartworm (or, more likely, worms!), it can be a long journey to get them back in good health. Knowing how the disease is transmitted, how to prevent it, and what your treatment options are can help you make the best decision to take care of your dog.  Treatments can get expensive, and are a LOOOONG process, so prevention is your best option.  Let’s learn a bit more…

How does your dog get heartworms?

The short answer: mosquito bites. You can search the web for information about the life cycle of the mosquito and how it plays a part if you want more detail. The main takeaway: mosquito bites are the only way the heartworms are transmitted to your dog. Can you tell if mosquitos are infected? No. So prevention is important. Here in The South, you won’t get away from mosquitoes – so USE PREVENTION!

What are your prevention options?

There are many different types of products on the market for heartworm prevention: topical, oral, and even shots.  It depends on your budget, and what your vet recommends.

Here are some ideas to help with prevention:

1. Keep your yard mosquito-free.  There are many companies offering mosquito treatments for yards now.  See about finding one in your area that offers a pet-friendly treatment.  No mosquitoes = no bites, and therefore no heartworms 😉
2. Commercial products. Talk with your vet about what they recommend for your dog’s breed, age, and size.  The options keep changing, so this  might be something to talk about at your annual check-up.
3. Holistic products. There are some holistic options out there.  Google “Natural Heartworm Prevention for dogs” and you will get a list of products out there that are holistic in nature.  Be sure to confirm with your vet before using.
4. Healthy diet and immune system. One thing all of the prevention sites had in common – they talked about having a healthy diet and immune system for prevention as it helps the dogs fight off heartworms in the early stages.
5. Remove standing water around your house. Standing water is a sure-bet mosquitoes will have a breeding area.  Remove the breeding ground, remove the risk of infection 🙂

What are the symptoms of heartworms?

Prevention is great, but nothing is 100%.  Add to that, sometimes symptoms are hard to detect, and often don’t show up until the parasite is already mature.  Another confusing fact about symptoms – they resemble symptoms for other illnesses.  There are more accurate tools vets can use to detect heartworms, so check with them if you believe your dog might have them. Here are the symptoms just in case you need to get your dog checked (found on Petful):

• Coughing or fainting. A soft, dry cough – especially after exercise. This is due to the heartworm traveling to the lungs. Did you know they can do that? If your dog doesn’t normally faint or cough after light exercise, it could be a symptom.
• Inactivity or lethargy. Your dog may suddenly not seem as active, doesn’t want to go outside and play, avoids activity, and may even have difficulty doing small tasks.
• Weight loss. Eating can become difficult for a dog infested with heartworms.
• Rapid or difficulty breathing.  If the worms have infected your dog’s lungs, they can even multiply and infect the surrounding blood vessels. So, breathing becomes more labored, and fluid build-up around these blood vessels makes it difficult for blood to oxygenate the blood.
• Bulging chest. If your dog is loosing weight, your dog’s ribs will seem to protrude and the chest may have a bulging appearance.  A bulging chest can also be due to the fluid build-up from the infection.
• Allergic reactions. While not as common in dogs, some do exhibit symptoms similar to allergic reactions in response to heartworms and their offspring.
• Collapse.  When a large number of heartworms invade the heart and cause a blockage, your dog can collapse.  Death can follow within days if your dog gets to this level.

• Nosebleeds. Part of the effect of infestation in the heart.
• Secondary pneumonia. Goes along with heartworms in the lungs and fluid build-up.
• Increased blood pressure. Makes sense if the blood vessels are blocked by heartworms.
• Excessive Sleeping. This goes along with the lethargy.
• Seizures. Occurs when heartworms travel to other areas than the heart or lungs (like the brain).
• Blindness. Occurs when heartworms travel to other areas than the heart or lungs (like the eyes).
• Lameness. Occurs when heartworms travel to other areas than the heart or lungs (like the brain).

Related: How To Prevent Lyme Disease In Your Dog

What is the treatment for heartworms?

Depending on the level of infection, this can be a long and costly road.  According to vetStreet, there are 3 (and rarely 4) steps to treatment.

• Step 1: Pre-Adult Heartworm Treatment. Your vet may recommend a round of antibiotics, heartworm preventatives, and steroids before actually beginning the adult worm treatment.  Why this combination? The antibiotics are to help treat the inflammation caused by bacteria in the heartworms.  A heartworm preventative helps kill any heartworm larvae that may be present (since heartworm treatment only kills adult worms). Steroids are used to also help with any inflammation, and are tapered off three weeks before treatment starts.  Total time frame – around 4 weeks (1 week with full dose of steroids, then tapering off for 3 weeks)
• Step 2: Treat the Disease.  Your vet will administer a series of drug injections to kill the adult heartworms.  The only drug approved by the FDA is an organic arsenical compound that is injected into your dog’s lower back.  Your dog will receive 3 injections: first injection, one more 30 days later, and one more the next day.  They will probably keep your pooch at the vet for observation on the days of the injections to make sure there are no reactions to the shot.  A tapering dose of steroids is also sometimes prescribed for the months following the injections.  After 6 months, dogs get retested to make sure all the heartworms are gone. The treatment will be repeated if there are still worms present.  Total time frame – around 7 months (unless you have to redo the treatment).
• Step 3: Bed Rest. Dogs need to be as inactive as possible during treatment. Fragments of dead worms can block blood flow.  So by decreasing the exercise, you decrease the heart rate and therefore decrease the risk of a clot.  Clots can cause capillaries to rupture (and therefore more problems).  So, talk to your vet to make sure you know the adequate level of activity your dog can do during treatment.  Be prepared if they tell you they may have to be in a crate/confinement except for potty breaks or minimal activity in the home.  Don’t worry, they’ll tell you when it’s safe to resume normal activity 😉

• Surgery. Not every case requires your dog to have surgery.  It’s only necessary if the heartworms enter the large vein between the heart and liver. Surgery is necessary if the heartworms infest this vein because your dog could collapse or die very suddenly.

I hope this article was helpful and informative for you! Please take heartworm prevention  seriously – it could save your dog’s life!

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