Heartworm is a serious potentially fatal disease, contracted by mosquitoes. It is common across Australia due to our warm climate. As the name suggests, they live in the heart and large blood vessels, causing heart failure and breathing problems. Symptoms are often not seen for about 6 to 12 months after infection. Preventative medication is essential for dogs and cats. The best way to prevent your pet from contracting this, is to use all year-round heartworm protection.
If monthly treatments suits your lifestyle better, heartworm prevention comes in the form of spot on treatments, tablets & chewables. All of which you can buy over the counter. Feel free to ask out vets or nurses what products they recommend.
If your pet becomes infected and isn’t treated, they will experience serious side effects causing issues with their heart and even death. Thankfully treating heartworm is quite simple, and vets have a variety of available treatments.
What are the treatment options for heartworms?
Prevention is the best treatment. Our vets can provide a variety of different options to suit you and your pets lifestyle. If left unchecked, heartworms reside in blood vessels within your dog’s heart & lungs and as they grow can make treatment increasingly difficult. For this we absolutely recommend a regular preventative heartworm treatment for your pet.
