Heartworm Disease

Heartworm disease is on the upswing throughout the United States, and the SLO area is no exception. Luckily, it is not highly prevalent in our county. The latest studies show that about 0.5% of domestic dogs in the Central Coast are infected, and that is sad because if left untreated it is a very difficult and expensive disease to treat.

Heartworm disease is transmitted via the bite of a mosquito. The reservoir for heartworm disease is the heartworm-positive dog down the street, or the infected coyote who wanders through your neighborhood. Simplistically, a mosquito bites an infected pet and sucks up not only blood but also a baby heartworm. This mosquito then flies over to our pet and injects the baby heartworm as they are beginning to feed on our pet. As heartworms multiply within our pet’s blood vessels, they grow to be about the size and shape of a piece of spaghetti. They eventually just clog up the chambers of the heart and big blood vessels, most often creating heart failure but also occasionally causing liver or kidney problems, or vomiting in cats.

Luckily, this disease can be prevented by using monthly medications for our pet – oral chewables for our dogs, and a topical medication called Revolution in our cats.

Heartworm preventatives we carry at Cambria Veterinary Clinic include:

• Revolution for cats
• Heartgard and Simparica Trio for dogs