Even though the old axiom by Benjamin Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” was originally meant as fire-fighting advice, it is very applicable for the health of your pets. If the topic is heartworms in dogs, this advice is very important. Curing heartworms can be quite expensive so learning the signs and details of this disease within your animals can help to save the life of your pet and save a lot of dough.

Many people don’t understand that this parasite is only transmitted to your dog via the bite of an infected mosquito. While that is true, even areas that don’t have lots of mosquitoes, such as dry areas, still have reported cases of heartworms. All fifty states and quite a few countries globally have reported this infection in pets. Your veterinarian might tell you that while you reside in a dry area that your pet isn’t at risk for catching this disease but the simple fact is that when you have even seen one mosquito close to you, your pet could catch heartworms.

Once a pet is infected it’s going to take about seven months for the larvae to grow into mature adults. The worm will take up residence within the heart, lungs and surrounding blood vessels of the dog. The actual danger at this point from the infestation would be the parasites will reproduce in very large numbers. Some reported cases have had up to two hundred and fifty worms living on the inside of just one animal.

Thankfully that there has been a small number of cases of heartworms in people. Heartworms can’t reach the mature stage in their lifecycle inside of people. Because of this, they just do not reproduce. What could happen is the development of a small lesion within the lungs of the person infected. This tends to appear like a tumor but it isn’t.

Finding information about heartworms on the web

Your first question is likely to be; can one dog within my household infect my other pets? The simple fact is no, this will not occur. Only via the bite of an infected mosquito can a dog itself be infected. Even though an infected dog is bitten by an uninfected mosquito and after that consequently that mosquito bit another pet the disease won’t be transmitted. Your second pet isn’t at risk since the newly infected mosquito is not a carrier of the disease until after an incubation period of the parasite.

Heartworms in dogs is a terrible disease and should be treated or it can cause the death of your beloved pet. Don’t wait. You will simply spend around fifty dollars, approximately based on the size of your pet, in order to avoid heartworms in dogs. Should you wait till the pet is infected it’s going to be costly.

Curing heartworms in dogs is not easy

While the expense of curing heartworms in dogs is expensive, just a tiny bit of care and prevention is able to keep your dog healthy for many years into the future. Tapeworms, whipworms and roundworms is usually prevented as current medicines include the treatment for these infestations also. In general you can be more satisfied and also have the companionship of your dog for many years in the future.

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