Heartworm Disease is just what it sounds like - a worm-like parasite that lives and breeds in the heart of dogs. On autopsy, it looks like spaghetti has somehow gotten into the victim’s heart. If untreated, it is fatal 100% of the time. It’s spread by mosquitoes, which are present year round in Georgia. One in four dogs in our state, if not on monthly preventative, will get heartworms at some point during their lives.

Heartworm disease is a very slow disease, and treatment is more successful when it’s caught early, before the symptoms begin. That’s why all dogs should be tested yearly. The first symptoms will begin about six months after infection, and include coughing, shortness of breath, and exercise i ntolerance. It eventually progresses to heart failure, the lungs fill with fluid, and the dog literally drowns in its own fluids.

Most dogs can be successfully treated for heartworms if the disease is detected early. Two commonly accepted treatment regimens are available to treat the disease. An older treatment involves the use of an organic arsenical drug. This drug is carefully administered intravenously through a series of injections. This treatment does potentially have many side effects. A newer medication used in the treatment of adult heartworm is Melarsomine dihydrochloried, "Immiticide", which is given intramuscularly into the lumbar muscles. This appears to be a much safer approach to treatment of the disease and has fewer side effects.

A few days after treatment, the worms die and are carried by the bloodstream to the lungs where they lodge in small blood vessels. There they decompose and are absorbed by the body over a period of several months. Fatalities resulting from treatment are rare among dogs that are otherwise in good health. The patient should be given a thorough physical and laboratory exam prior to treatment. Any other problems that might cause complications should be corrected before heartworm treatment begins.

Puppies should be started on monthly heartworm preventative at six weeks of age, and should be given the preventative year round, as long as they live in Georgia. People up north can skip the winter months, since they have snow 6 months out of the year. That is not the case here - we cannot skip the winter months. Dogs should be tested annually.

Heartworms are far more likely to kill an adult dog here than rabies, distemper, and parvo combined. If you keep your dog from running loose, have it spayed or neutered, and keep it on heartworm prevention, you will have eliminated the three most common causes of death.