Pet Health Care Gazette

This week, the topic we'll be covering is heartworm disease. Before we start, let me ask you a question? When was the last time you gave your pet his/her heartworm preventive medication? If your answer is within the last month, then congratulations. You get a gold star and a pat on the back!

If you answered "my pet is a few days overdue", then stop reading and go and take of it right now, before you forget again! Then come back and finish reading the article (grin).

If you answered "I've never given my pet heartworm preventive medication", or "What is heartworm medication?", or "That's something vets invented to make money!", then keep reading to learn more. (Don't laugh. I've been told that we veterinarians invented (insert your choice of disease here) to make money more than once. Bizarre but true.)

Okay, let's talk about heartworms now. Heartworms are carried by mosquitoes. When your pet gets bitten by a mosquito, your pet can become infected with heartworms. Now, do you really believe that your pet is not at risk? Haven't you ever been bitten by a mosquito? Okay, so we can all agree that heartworms are a threat if your pet lives in a climate where mosquitoes can live. (For those of you fortunate enough to live in climates where mosquitoes don't exist, my hat is off to you. When can I come visit? You can stop reading now if you want. Oh, unless you travel with your pet to areas of the country where mosquitoes do exist? If so, then keep reading.)

What can heartworms do to your pet? They can cause damage to your pet's heart. Sometimes, this damage can become quite severe, even irreversible,  before the disease is suspected or diagnosed.

Can heartworms be treated once your pet is infected? Yes, they can, if your pet is a dog. But the treatment is dangerous as well as uncomfortable for your dog, and it is costly for you.

If your pet is a cat, treatment is more difficult, and the fact is, there may not even be time to pursue treatment for your cat. Too many times, the first symptom of heartworm disease in a cat is a sudden, unexpected death.

Now that I've got your attention. You're probably asking yourself, "What can I do to keep my pet safe from heartworms?" And fortunately, there's a simple answer to that question. There are a great many products currently available to prevent heartworm disease.

Preventing heartworm disease means that you don't have to worry about whether heartworms are causing unseen damage to your pet's heart. You know that's not happening, because your pet is free of heartworms.

Heartworm preventive medications come in a variety of forms, including chewable tablets that are flavored to be pleasant tasting to your pet and topical medications which can be applied to your pet's skin rather than given by mouth. With these medications, preventing heartworms for your pet is simple and easy. And most of the medications used today only need to be given once a month. So, simply mark your calendar with the day your pet is due or give the medication on the first day of every month (or the last day of every month, if you prefer). What could be more simple than that?

How do you get heartworm preventive medication for your pet? That's easy too. You simply contact your pet's veterinarian. The veterinarian may recommend that your pet have a blood test done to test for heartworms before starting on the medication. This is done to make sure that your pet doesn't already have heartworms. The blood test is simple and easy and requires only a very small amount of blood.

Okay, now that I've (hopefully) convinced you that your pet needs to be receiving heartworm preventive medication regularly, stay tuned to The Pet Health Care Gazette. Over the next few weeks, I will be offering product reviews for some of the heartworm medications that I have dealt with and regularly dispensed to my patients, including Heartguard Plus and Revolution.

(Thanks joining us. If you have found this article useful and feel it would benefit your readers, please feel free to link to it directly at www.pet-health-care-gazette.com/2006/08/20/how-to-protect-your-dog-from-severe-heart-problems-almost-immediately/. Thank you.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Dog Health-General Information, Cat Health-General Information, Cat Health-Routine Health Care, Dog Health-Routine Health Care, Cat Diseases, Dog Diseases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.