Summer in Michigan! Heat, sun, and fun and.....MOSQUITOES! Besides being an annoyance, these little pests can carry a lot of illnesses that can be harmful to us as well as our pets. One very important disease in our pets is Heartworm Disease. This disease process starts with the mosquito bite. Once an infected mosquito bites a pet that pet could potentially become infected with heartworm disease. As long as there is a possibility of mosquito exposure, (even in your home), it is extremely important to protect your patient. We strongly recommend monthly protection all year round. The heartworm prevention products that we recommend at Southpointe are Heartgard, Sentinel, or Revolution.

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If a patient has missed a dose or is not on heartworm prevention, the pet could potentially have an exposure to heartworm disease. It takes approximately 5-6 months after a bite to show up on a Heartworm test. We test our patients once yearly for heartworm disease with a simple blood test that requires a few drops of blood. The test only takes about 10 minutes. If the test is positive, we will send out another confirmatory test to an outside laboratory for confirmation. If this test comes back positive as well, then heartworm disease is confirmed.

Heartworm disease can affect all our patients. It is an easily preventable disease. If a pet becomes heartworm positive, the best recommendation is to further evaluate our patients by taking chest xrays, performing labwork, and potential further testing. The doctor will then review all of this information database and decide on the best course of action with the owner for the pet. The main course of action for treatment of heartworm disease involves a treatment with Immiticide- an injectable medication that kills the adult heartworms thru a series of injections. This treatment can be costly and involve a hospital stay and aftercare, but it is much safer than previous treatments.

Rocky, is a patient that recently was diagnosed with heartworm disease. He currently is being treated for another illness first before we will start the heartworm treatment. We will want to take chest x-rays to evaluate his heart and lungs to make sure that there is not a lot of negative effects of the heartworm disease present, as well as perform lab work to evaluate his organ function to make sure that there is not problems with his organs for metabolizing the adulticidal medication. At this time, Rocky does not show any outward visible signs or symptoms of this illness. Certain symptoms that would be visible with progressed disease would be coughing, wheezing, vomiting, diarrhea, and other serious symptoms. Once his other illness is well-regulated, his heartworm evaluation will begin and then his potential treatment will be scheduled.

At Southpointe Veterinary Hospital, we firmly believe in all year round heartworm prevention for the health and safety of our patients. Heartworm disease is an easily and economically preventable disease.

Rocky