Case Spotlight:

Jake

Jake is a 5 year old male lab that was examined at Angel Animal Hospital Jan. 9th. He received his annual vaccinations and had a heartworm test sent to the laboratory. Unfortunately, his heartworm check was positive. This means he has adult heartworms living in the right chamber of his heart (right ventricle). This causes obstruction of the outflow of his heart and can cause a chronic dry cough, and exercise intolerance. Also, Jake had lost 12 pounds since May 16th. This is a large amount of weight loss for a dog of his size.

The treatment plan was discussed with the client. It is very involved to treat adult heartworms and is very expensive compared to the cost of monthly pills that will prevent this debilitating disease. It also makes permanent changes in the size of the dog’s heart and treatment is not without risk. If not caught early, the disease can be fatal in about 2 years. It also is a risk for all other dogs in the neighborhood since every mosquito that bites the infected dog may transfer the heartworm larvae to another dog or cat if they are not on heartworm prevention medications. Jake would need to schedule two hospital stays one month apart to treat the adult worms. On the initial visit chest X-rays were taken to evaluate heart and lung changes and a complete blood count and profile was sent to the lab to confirm that his general health was good except for the heartworm infestation. After these treatments he had to be quiet with no exercise for 4 wks. Also the treatment does cause some discomfort, which is severe in some cases, and will not go away for a few days. Next, Jake had to come in for one day for treatment to kill the heartworm larvae (microfilariae) that are microscopic and circulating in Jakes blood. This is the part that gets transferred to other dogs by way of a mosquito bite. After the initial treatments Jake needed to come in for a blood test to check for the larvae and then another blood test 4 months after treatment to check to make sure the adults are killed. Heartworm treatment only kills approx 90-98% of the adult worms but most dogs do very well after treatment. When all the worms and larvae are cleared, then Jake can start taking heartworm prevention medications.

Jake did very well during his initial treatments and will be starting heartworm prevention medications as soon as his first heartworm test after treatment is negative.

All dogs need to be on heartworm preventive medications of some kind. Angel Animal Hospital currently recommends medication year round and a heartworm test annually. It is best to catch the problem early in case the preventive medications have not been consistent. Although rare, we are now realizing that cats may also be infested with heartworms however it is very different from dogs. It is hard to diagnose in cats and may cause sudden death without any previous symptoms. There is currently a monthly pill available for both dogs and cats and a 6 month injection available for dogs for heartworm prevention.

In our first year, Angel Animal Hospital diagnosed heartworm disease in 5 dogs and only one dog was treated for this. This means there are dogs in your neighborhood that could have the disease and infecting all mosquitoes in your area. Also, there are many dogs that have not been tested that have the disease that no one is aware of yet. Unfortunately for these dogs, if their owners do not have them tested and they start showing symptoms they may not be able to recover.