Worms … they are everywhere. Some of them I love, like the ones that are turning my veggie scraps into fertilizer for the garden. Others I hate, like the ones that infest the insides of our pets.

The worms I really loathe are Heartworms. These awful Heartworms are quite extraordinary, as they enjoy residing in the high velocity flows of your pet’s heart. That’s right – they live inside your pets heart!!! These resident evils can cause severe heart disease in your pet, reducing their quality of life.

So how do they get there I hear you ask?

Somewhere in someone else’s pet or a wild fox, dog or dingo lives some big mumma Heartworms (and by big, I am talking up to 35cm long!!). These mammoth worms then give birth to microscopic larvae, which then head off for an adventure through the blood vessels. It is here that they get sucked up by mosquitoes having a tasty feed.

This pesky mozzie (it could be that one you hear late at night buzzing around your head) then shares these little baby heartworms with your pet when the mozzie chows down for its next bloody meal.

 Well how do we stop them I hear you ask?

Prevention is by far the best treatment. So let me ask you a few questions. (From here this part of the blog is kind of like a “choose your own adventure” novel.)

Does your vet give your dog an injection that provides yearly protection?

“YES!”  Then the story of heartworm ends here. This yearly injection gives you the peace of mind that these little suckers are killed off ALL YEAR ROUND before they become adults in your pets heart. Yay for you!!

 Do you give your dog a monthly heartworm preventative?

“Ummm, yes …. Sometimes when I remember” …. Or “no my dog is not currently on heartworm prevention”.   Then, please continue reading below…

After your pet has been bitten by that pesky mozzie harboring one of these little baby heartworms, they then migrate into the blood vessels. The adventure is completed when the larvae end up in YOUR PETS HEART and mature into adult heartworms. Here, they chill out in the turbulent flows of the beating heart continuing their lifecycle that may lead to life-threatening heart disease in your beloved pet.

So please come and have a chat with us at Newtown Vet Clinic about the best way to prevent this horrendous infection.

And with that, it is time to break into another song. Can you guess the tune? (Think awesome mullets back in the 80’s!!)

You can tell your dogs, about a great injection

That we only need to give, once a year

Or you can just pretend, that you re-call every month

To give your pet a dose of heartworm treatment

 

You can tell your pooch, that it’s really best we test

The vets only need a little blood

It really only takes, 15 minutes while you wait

To be sure that your pet is heartworm free!

 

But don’t tell that Heartworm, that icky yucky Heartworm,

I just don’t think she’d understand

That if you give ProHeart, its only once a year

It’ll never have a chance to get that near