Heartworms

Colorado is fortunate to have low incidences of heartworm infection; however, some parts of Colorado, especially the lower river valleys, have a reported infection rate as high as 5%.

At City Rover, we can help arm you with the right tools to keep heartworm disease at bay.

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease, caused by a parasite that lives in the hearts of infected dogs and sometimes, but rarely, cats. Heartworm disease is transmitted via mosquitoes. Adult females produce millions of offspring called microfilaria. The mosquito has a blood meal from an infected dog, the young microfilaria enters into the mosquito’s blood system, and over a two-week period develops into infective larvae. The mosquito then deposits the infective larvae into the next dog it bites. The infective larvae take six months to mature into adult heartworms.

Heartworms grow to be 6-14 inches long and live inside your pet’s heart and the arteries in the lungs. The worms damage the blood vessels and reduce the heart’s ability to pump sufficient blood to the other organs. The resulting damage can be irreversible. Symptoms of heartworm disease include shortness of breath, coughing and lethargy. Heartworm disease can cause serious damage to the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys.

It is much easier to prevent heartworm disease than it is to treat it. We recommend a once monthly heartworm preventative for dogs from mid-May through mid-October, year-round if your dog travels outside of Colorado. We also recommend a heartworm test every two years for dogs to ensure early detection. At this time we do not recommend treating cats for heartworms as long as they are not traveling to areas where heartworms are more prevalent.