Heartworm - it's not all bad news
Vets now advise that cats should also receive preventive treatment
I’ve always been concerned about heartworm in my dog. It's such a horrible disease, but although dogs are extremely susceptible to this disease, other animals can get it too, including humans.
A lot of people think that heartworm comes from the soil or possibly dirty water, but, in fact, the only cause is a mosquito bite.
The disease spreads when a mosquito acquires the parasite while it bites an infected animal. The insect then gives it to another animal through a bite.
It takes only one bite from one mosquito and your dog becomes infected. In the dog’s body, the parasite enters the blood stream and heads for the heart but more often for the lungs, where it can live in your dog for six or seven years.
Symptoms begin gradually. Slowly, so slowly, your dog begins having trouble breathing. He coughs. He loses energy, his appetite and his weight.
There are tests to check whether your dog has heartworm, but they’re effective only after he’s been infected for around six months. Meanwhile, after being bitten again and again by infected mosquitoes, the dog’s own infection worsens.
The infection can be treated, but it takes months, if not years, for the dog to recover. Without treatment, death is certain, a slow, terrible death ending in heart failure.
Although heartworm infection in cats has been rare, vets have just recently begun seeing an increase in the number of infected cats.
Heartworm in an infected cat may not even be detected, since vomiting, diarrhoea, coughing and other symptoms may be mistaken for other feline diseases.
Cats can expel the worms spontaneously from their bodies, but in a terrible twist, the act of expelling the worms might cause them to go into shock and die.
As of right now, no test for cats is available to check for infection. Treating cats is also much more difficult than for dogs because of their body’s reaction to the medicine.
You want more bad news? The number of humans infected by heartworm is growing slowly too. As with cats, there’s no test to detect infection. X-rays simply show a growth, which doctors usually diagnose as cancer. It is only when the lump is removed from a person’s body that the worms are discovered.
It’s not all bad news, though. Heartworm is easily preventable and not that expensive. My dog gets her heartworm pill every month.
After attending a recent seminar on heart problems in animals organised by the Veterinary Practitioners Association of Thailand (VPAT), my vet tells me that I need to treat my cats every month as well.
In Thailand, pills and ointments are available for dogs and cats to keep them safe from heartworm. Please consult your vet to decide which are the best for you and your animals.
As long as your animals are safe, you will be safe too.
