Heartworm Risks are High, Real, Expensive to Treat and Easy and Inexpensive to Prevent

Heartworm is a serious and sometimes fatal disease that exists in the United States and other parts of the world. The disease is transmitted to your dog through a mosquito bite. It cannot be transmitted from one infected dog to another. To understand the cycle, please refer to the graphic provided with this article.

Adult heartworms are a foot long. They can live for 5-to-7 years in the host animal, and they do lasting damage to your dog’s heart, lungs, and arteries.

In warmer parts of the United States the disease has always been more prevalent because of greater numbers of mosquitos, but due to the mobility of dog populations, heartworm disease is now spreading throughout most of the United States. During recent tragedies, such as Katrina, many animal shelters and rescues moved their resident dogs to other shelters far away from their home region. This was done to make room for dogs lost by area residents during the tragedy, so their owners could more easily find them. If the dogs that were transferred to new regions were infected with heartworm disease, and area mosquitos then bit these dogs, then the disease is spread to healthy dog populations in the new region through mosquito bite transmission. There are few areas now in the USA where heartworm prevention is not really needed to keep your dogs safe.

The cost of heartworm treatment correlates to the infected dog’s weight and overall health picture. We are well aware of that here at CHS, and according to area veterinarians, treatment can be complex and vary greatly with each case. Most often treatment is a 3-shot series administered over a 6-week period. The medicine used can be arsenic-based, which can cause serious upset and discomfort for the dog under treatment. The shots are intramuscular and are often painful for the infected dog. Treatment can include 2 or more overnight stays, antibiotic support, x-rays to determine the level of infection and additional lab work. Costs from area veterinarians in Jackson, MI can range anywhere from $500 to more than $1200 depending on the size of the animal treated and what is needed to optimally treat the infected dog. Conversely, prevention, if purchased as an annual package from your veterinarian, is much less. Prices vary greatly at different veterinarians.

Temperatures in this area are on the rise. An increase in annual temperatures benefits and increases mosquito populations, and contributes to an increased possibility for heartworm disease being passed to your beloved pets.

Heartworm disease can also affect cats, but there is no known treatment for infected animals. Symptoms in cats can range from very slight to very intense. Symptoms can include coughing, weight loss, and vomiting. Unfortunately, some cats suffering with heartworm infection may just suddenly collapse and die with no apparent warning. Your veterinarian can certainly assist in helping an affected cat deal with the difficulties of the disease. Heartworm prevention is available for cats.

As one area veterinarian noted to us here at CHS, in an area like Jackson, where dogs are often not treated for heartworm prevention, there is always an increased risk of your dog being infected. Why? Because of the greater number of infected dogs that can be bitten by a mosquito, then that same mosquito will bite your dog. When more dog owners treat their dogs preventively for this horrible disease it reduces infection rates for everyone’s pets.

Here at CHS we treat, on average, 25 dogs a year for heartworm disease. Every dog that is admitted here is tested for heartworm disease. Some of these dogs have transferred here from other shelters.

The infected dogs are usually placed in foster homes during their treatment period. We do it this way because CHS has to retain ownership of the dog in order to treat it. It is also important for us to find foster homes for these dogs because they need to be kept very quiet during the treatment period. They can only go on short walks during this time. Dogs in treatment for heartworm need a low anxiety, low stress environment. While under treatment CHS pays for everything for the dog—medicine, food, toys, crates, whatever is needed. Once the treatment is completed the foster family can then adopt the dog. The adoption fee can vary, but it is usually $150.