Worms Cats Dogs

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.

If you have your dogs and cats regularly tested for heartworm infections, this disease can be caught early enough to have the parasite eradicated from your pet’s body before it causes your pet to experience heart failure, collapse and even death. As soon as the blood test of your pet turns out to be positive, the veterinarian will slowly kill the worms over time by injecting a controlled dose of arsenic poison into your pet’s body.

Heartworm cases usually surge during this season when mosquito population spikes. In Marion County alone, heartworm cases this year has reached twice more than during the same time this year. Several dogs have been tested positive for adult heartworms, while the owners were still trying to obtain the funds for necessary procedures for their pet’s health.

A heartworm preventive requires an annual test which costs only under $25. Depending on the weight of the dog and the severity of the case, hearworm treatment is about $700-$1,500. If your dog already has heartworms, it is usually much more expensive. However, preventative treatment usually will be as little as $50 – $150 a year. But preventative treatment will do your dogs and cats no good if they are already infected.

The current economy has definately taken a toll on people’s abilitiy to take care of their pets. The most heartworm cases in dogs are usually found in Florida, although cases have been reported in all 50 states. This is because the climate of Florida is just perfect for the mosquito population. There are more than 30,000 cases annually in Florida alone. These are only the ones that have been reported. However, many dogs just die withouto anybody understanding that the cause is heartworm.

The most frustrating aspect is that this fatal disease is actually quite easy and cheap to prevent but very expensive and difficult to treat. The economy is affecting the people’s ability to take care of the pet. There are so much more important things to pay for than to treat a dog dying of heartworm disease, such as food on the table for the owners, their mortgages and other obligations.

In this economy, it is smarter to prevent your dog from getting heartworm infection than to treat it. A heartworm preventive requires an annual test which is about under $25 a year. A six-month’s course of treatment will cost between $20 to $50 depending on the weight of the dog and the dosage of the medicine given. If you compare this to the typical cost of treatment of dogs with heartworm infection, which is between $700-$1500, the cost of prevention looks much more reasonable. For the sake of your budget and your pet’s health, it is always much better to prevent than to treat.

Pic Source: Veterinary Associates of Cape Cod