We have had a number of heartworm positive dogs come into our rescue in recent months. It seemed like a good time to share some facts about heartworm. Bottom line, it’s not something to be fearful of when considering adding a heartworm positive dog to your pack. We have pulled some information from the PetMD web site, and checked the facts with our rescue vet, so please read a few Q&A’s about heartworms and treatment of them.
Q: How do dogs get heartworms?
A: Only by the bite of an infected mosquito. There’s no other way dogs get heartworms. And there’s no way to tell if a mosquito is infected. That’s why prevention is so important.
Q: How can I prevent my dogs from getting heartworms?
A: For less than the cost of going to Starbucks for a weekly coffee, you can prevent heartworm disease in your dog. There are monthly pills, monthly topicals that you put on the skin, and there’s also a six-month injectable product. The damage that can be done to the dog and the cost of the treatment is way more than the cost to prevent heartworm disease. A year’s supply of heartworm preventative will cost about $35 to $80 on line, depending on a dog’s weight.
Q: Once a dog has heartworms, what’s the treatment? How much will it cost?
A: The drug to treat heartworms is called Immiticide. It’s an injectable, arsenic-based product. The dog is given two or three injections that will kill the adult heartworms in the blood vessels of the heart.
The safest way to treat heartworms can include an extensive pre-treatment workup, including X-rays, blood work, and all the tests needed to establish how serious the infection is. Then the dog is given the injections. With all the prep work and overnight stay at the vet’s, it can run up to $1,000. But just the treatment can be done for about $300 in some areas.
Q: If one of my dogs has heartworms, can he give it to my other dogs?
A: No. Again, the only way heartworms are transmitted is through the bite of an infected mosquito. And even if an uninfected mosquito bit an infected dog, and then bit an uninfected dog the same night, he wouldn’t transmit the parasite from one dog to the other. That’s because when a mosquito bites an infected animal, the heartworm needs to undergo an incubation period in the mosquito before the mosquito can infect other animals. Heartworm preventative care would keep an uninfected dog safe.
Q: Is it OK to adopt a dog with heartworms?
A: It’s a very common problem in animal shelters today, and public shelters rarely have the money to treat heartworm disease. It’s perfectly ok to adopt a dog with heartworms, but you have to be dedicated to having the disease treated appropriately because it’s a horrible disease that can lead to a dog’s death if left untreated. Most rescues treat for heartworms prior to adopting a dog. Vintage Dog Rescue treats any dog that tests positive for heartworms. We commit to retest the dog in 4 to 6 months at our expense. Although one treatment is usually sufficient to cure a dog of heartworms, Vintage also commits to retreating any dog until it tests negative for heartworms.