What Is The Heartworm Treatment For Dogs

Older dogs with long term heartworm infections may have damage to their lungs hearts livers and kidneys that can complicate heartworm treatment.

What is the heartworm treatment for dogs.

How do dogs get heartworms. Heartworm disease or dirofilariasis is a serious and potentially fatal disease. It is caused by a blood borne parasite known as dirofilaria immitis. Only by the bite of an infected mosquito.

Your dog must be on heartworm prevention for a minimum of 60 days before the first treatment. Additionally a vet may prescribe antibiotics or steroids depending on the stage and severity of infection. Protocols for treating heartworms often call for the use of multiple medications including several injections to kill the adult heartworms doxycycline and prednisone taken orally to reduce the chances of unwanted side effects and heartworm preventative to kill the juvenile heartworms and. Discuss heartworm disease and treatment with the client.

There is only one drug approved by the food and drug. When making a diagnosis and administering treatment veterinarians consider the dog s overall health and the severity of his symptoms as well as the results of x rays and laboratory test results. More severe disease can also be successfully treated but the possibility of complications is greater. Treatment usually consists of several parts including an injectable drug to kill adult heartworms antibiotics and treatment to kill microfilaria.

Heartworm prevention takes the form of monthly pills and is given beforehand to make sure that all the worms in your dog s body can be killed by the melarsomine treatments. Overview of heartworm treatment for dogs. The treatment timeline recommended by the american heartworm society is as follows. Treatment for heartworm involves the administration of two medications.

Once your dog has completed the course of steroids heartworm preventive and antibiotics he should be ready to start the actual adult heartworm treatment. Begin exercise restriction to reduce risk of pulmonary thromboembolism. Heartworms in dogs are easy to prevent but difficult and costly to cure. The treatment for heartworm disease takes at least 60 days to complete and consists of a series of drug injections that kills the worms.

Administer prednisone if the dog is symptomatic for heartworm disease. Heartworm treatment for dogs is not pleasant for the pup the people or the veterinarian so prevention is the name of the game when it comes to heartworms. Dogs with no signs or mild signs of heartworm disease such as cough or exercise intolerance have a high success rate with treatment. There is some risk involved in treating dogs with heartworms although fatalities are rare.

We asked sheldon rubin 2007 2010 president of the american heartworm society to separate facts from the myths about heartworm infestations in dogs.