JUNE/JULY 2010
areas can transmit it to our mosquitoes. Those mosquitoes can then transmit it to our dogs, including coyotes or wolves, which could then hold it as a reservoir for continual transmission. With the onset of summer, mosquitoes become a nuisance. But even worse to your pets, mosquitoes can carry this lethal blood parasite in its stomach. When the mosquito bites a dog the mosquito regurgitates the parasite and transmits it into your dog. It will grow in the blood and change form and shape until it becomes millions of times bigger. In 6 months it can be up to 14” long and will take up residence in your dog’s heart or pulmonary arteries (lungs). Canine heartworm resembles strands of angel hair. In the heart, the worms reproduce and send more microfilaria (the baby form) into the bloodstream to be sucked up by another mosquito, which will transmit the infective stage to another dog - and the cycle continues. Meanwhile, back in the heart, heartworm can cause serious illness, difficulty breathing, cardiac heart failure, and even death. They can cause permanent damage on the inside long before you see evidence on the outside. Obvious symptoms may not show up for up to 2 years or more. Prevention is the best method for combating heartworm disease. Heartworm has been reported on all 50 states. Our cases have commonly been dogs “travelling through” with their vacationing owners. If was long thought that our intermittent cold weather kept the heartworm from completing it’s needed cycles in the stomach of the mosquito. We now know that mosquitoes often burrow under tree bark, which can keep their core temperature high enough for the heartworm to survive. There is strong evidence that the need for prevention is at hand. For this area we personally recommend testing every other year and using preventative medication for the 7 months of our warmer weather (April- October). Heartworm is different from any of our other worms in Montana, which reside in the digestive tract and are easily removed with a good wormer. To kill heartworm means that when it dies it will dislodge from the heart chambers, then go through the blood, and end up plugging a vessel and causing a serious embolism. In addition the better drugs it takes to kill heartworm are very expensive and can still have serious side effects - some long term. Prevention is by far is the best medicine for this nasty disease. Testing to see if your dog has an infection at the end of every summer season is one option. Although this is not prevention, it will tell you generally when your pet contracted the disease. Much better is testing in the spring, and then going directly onto a preventative as recommended by the American Heartworm Society. With a negative test, you then apply preventative monthly usually between April and October. Later in the fall we get good freezes that will seriously reduce insects for the remainder of the year. I personally prescribe testing and then Revolution as a once a month preventative, which also takes care of ticks and fleas. Ticks are a significant issue in our area and they carry with them their own set of possible diseases. Tick season has begun, and heartworm season is now upon us. MSN
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MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 29
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