What We Should Know about Heartworm in Dogs
Keeping a dog healthy takes more than just nutritious dog foods. It’s equally important to be aware of dog diseases. And the number one disease to keep dogs out from is heartworm in dogs.
Heartworm in dogs is a major lethal killer. It involves a parasite that feeds on the innards of a dog. Heartworm in dogs may first lodge in the intestinal walls and then go for the heart. It stays in the right side of the heart, develops, and then weakens the dog. In time, the dog exhibits the symptoms, and by that time, any treatment might prove too late.
Heartworm in dogs needs a prior host before lodging in the system of a dog. Mosquitoes take in the larva of the parasite, called a microfilaria. How did the mosquito get the parasite? When the mosquito bites an infected dog, the larva transfers to the mosquito. When the mosquito bites another dog, that dog gets infected. The larva stays in the dog and hatches to form a heartworm in dog.
When the heartworm in dog matures, it goes and stays in the right side of the heart. It may remain there quietly for years, growing to a length of about 12 inches, showing no sign of its presence. When the parasites have multiplied and matured enough, then the symptoms of a heartworm in dogs begin to show. Just imagine the heart, lungs, liver, intestines, and other parts full of heartworms in dogs—squirming in veins and arteries. Loss of appetite, listlessness, fatigue, and shortness of breath are the usual manifestation of heartworm in dogs. A simple walk around the block may render the dog too exhausted to d anything else. Formerly active dogs slowly become sleepy, gloomy, and barely able to stand up.
Female heartworms in dogs are worse. They can multiply into thousands per day. The microfilariae would then flow with the blood stream for years undetected. They need to grow in numbers and maturity first before they can grossly affect dogs. And secondly, they need to be taken out of dogs and retransferred to a second host. So, while being new larvae, they need to be sucked out by biting mosquitoes from dogs. After staying awhile in the mosquitoes where they develop into another stage, they get transferred again once infected mosquitoes bite dogs. This second re-entry is the fatal form. When they have grown into heartworms in dogs, that’s the lethal stage.
A heartworm in dog is quite a serious dog health concern that needs immediate attention.