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Archive for the ‘Heartworms’ Category

The students of Cornell University just developed an iPhone application for pet owners that can assist them from tracking their cats and dogs diet to reminding the owners on their pets next vaccination schedule including heartworm vaccination and when to take heartworm prevention pills.

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News just released of the World Federation Of Worms survey. It states and I quote “the overwhelming majority of worm taste testers have voted dogs as the tastiest host.”

This report has sent shock waves around the world. Cats are outraged and calling the survey a hoax. They are united in their bid to claim the title as the top tasting pet. Calls are coming in to Cat Central from all around the world with offers to be tasted.

There is no denying that cats have been the preferred host for fleas for many years. The Global Council Of Fleas has issued a press release saying that they have no intention of making any mass migration to the new pet of choice. Although, they have been feasting on both parties for a number of years.

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This season’s hot and rainy weather may be nice and refreshing and also good for the grass in the backyard, but the humidity and the stagnant puddles in the streets is an excellent breeding ground for mosquitos. At this time of the year, the population of mosquitos in many states is the greatest in the whole year. This also means that dangerous and fatal diseases transmitted by these parasites are lurking through the door, waiting to strike humans and pets.

These blood-sucking parasites transmittes various diseases during this time of the year, including heartworms. Transmission of the worm is usually by a harmless single mosquito. A heartworm infected canine, such as coyote, fox, wolf or dog, is bitten by a mosquito and the baby heartworm is ingested with the blood meal. The microfilaria, which is the baby heartworm, matures in the mosquito and then injected into your pet as the mosquito bites it. It takes about 6 months for the heartworm baby to mature in the dogs and cats and within this period of time, it will also slowly migrate into the right side of the heart. Here, they can live for many years and grow up to six inches long.

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Although there are now various kinds of preventive medicine for heartworms in dogs and cats, it is always a better option to prevent your pet from getting it in a natural way. Most likely April is the time of the year when veterinarians in most areas of North America begin checking dogs and cats for heartworm organism that may have occurred during the last mosquito season.

You may have noticed that your veterinarian will recommend giving pills to prevent heartworms but what the pills are doing is actually administering the cure on a regular basis. No matter how effective these pills can be, this cure for heartworm contains chemical insecticide and therefore it is toxic. The chemicals in the drugs can actually become the source of another disease.

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Dogs and cats that have been diagnosed with heartworm disease should undergo heartworm treatment first before going through the prevention. It is a prerequisite to have your pet’s blood tested negative first before prevention program begins. Also dogs and cats that are at least 6 months old should be tested every six months or yearly.

There are many dog heartworm preventives out there on the market but only a few available for cats. In endemic areas, cats should also be given preventive medicine. Some of the preventives that are most common are as following:

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Heartworm treatment in dogs as well as in cats is very dangerous and quite complex. To begin with the treatment you need to make sure that your pet is actually healthy enough. If it has any slightest organ problems, make sure to treat that first before you start treatment. Be aware that severe heartworm diseases will cause treatment to lead to complications and even death.

If your infected pet is a cat, you have the choice to let the adult worms die without any treatment over a period of years. However you will risk the cat to become very ill and even die. Another option is to get rid of the worm right away. This, however, may cause your cat to end up with serious complications from all the worms dying simultaneously.

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Heartworms are a blood parasite transmitted by mosquitoes. The mosquitoes transfer baby worms when they bite.

More common for Heartworms in dogs but Heartwoms also infect cats.  Called Heartworms because they travel through the body until they reach the heart where they mature and shed microfilaria into the blood stream.

Heartworm is a small worm growing up to 5 or 6 inches long. It is transferred from one host to another by mosquitoes who such up worm larvae from one dog and deposit them in another dog. Once deposited on the new host … Read the rest of this entry »