Heartworm
Treatment - Prevention is Key For Dog Health
People often confuse heartworm
treatment with the monthly medication to prevent heartworms. For
ultimate dog health, prevention is the key. But if you do not prevent the
infestation and subsequent disease, there is a heartworm treatment to kill the heartworms in an
infected pet. As someone who has been through at least twenty cases of
this preventable disease, I can tell you that prevention is definitely
preferred. Depending on dog health, age, and severity of the
infestation, some cases are not treatable.
Heartworm
treatment is the actual killing of the adult heartworms that live in the
heart, lungs, and arteries. The worms can grow quite long, and even
just a few can cause death. Once a dog is diagnosed through a blood
test, a vet will determine whether or not the animal can be treated.
Through x-rays, he can discover how bad the heart has become. He will
then do general blood tests to determine overall dog health. If the dog
is healthy enough, he can then begin the treatments.
The Heartworm
Treatment Itself Can Be Detrimental to Dog Health.
When a vet
performs heartworm treatment, he is injecting a very strong and toxic
chemical into your pet. The injection site is usually very painful and
general dog health can be negatively affected. Pets will feel sore, tired, and generally ill.
There is a second dose given either the next day in very young and
healthy pets, or after a month, which is considered safer.
If a highly
worm-infested pet receives heartworm treatment, it could be fatal.
Certain breeds do better than others; age is important, and dog health
MUST be checked prior to beginning a regimen.
Heartworm
treatment is very expensive. In a large breed canine, the cost could be
anywhere from $300 to $800. The next time you're tempted risk it with the
excuse that prevention of heartworms is too expensive, consider those
prices.
The overall
message I hope to get across is to avoid the expensive, painful,
potentially fatal heartworm treatment. It is simple to maintain this
aspect of dog health - get and use the preventives (Heartgard, for
example) consistently. You can
buy the preventive drugs very affordably online, so there's no excuse
for your animals to develop adult heartworms.
If you live in
an area with any mosquitoes at all, your pet is at risk for heartworm
infestation, so don't overlook this critical responsibility of dog
ownership.
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