Just like in the early stage of heartworm disease, you will notice your pet's lack of appetite, dry cough, and lethargy.
Signs of heartworm disease may include a mild persistent cough, reluctance to exercise, fatigue after moderate activity, decreased appetite, and weight loss. As heartworm disease progresses, pets may develop heart failure and the appearance of a swollen belly due to excess fluid in the abdomen.
Dogs with heartworm infections will feel weaker, and will find it harder to remain active, even in low-energy activities. Weight loss and loss of appetite. In more advanced stages of heartworm infections, your dog will find it hard to complete normal physical tasks like eating.
Inside a dog, a heartworm's lifespan is 5 to 7 years. Adult heartworms look like strands of cooked spaghetti, with males reaching about 4 to 6 inches in length and females reaching about 10 to 12 inches in length. The number of worms living inside an infected dog is called the worm burden.
But can your dog feel heartworms? In a way, yes. Your dog can feel the discomfort that goes hand-in-hand with the heartworms hatching from larvae stages into adulthood. They can also feel them migrating from one spot to another inside their body, specifically if they're affecting your dog's lungs and breathing.
No one wants to hear that their dog has heartworm, but the good news is that most infected dogs can be successfully treated. The goal is to first stabilize your dog if he is showing signs of disease, then kill all adult and immature worms while keeping the side effects of treatment to a minimum.
Dogs with heartworm disease can live high-quality lives as long as they are given appropriate care. After completing treatment and following your veterinarian's recommenda- tions on heartworm disease testing and prevention, the chances of any long-term effects are very low.
Signs of heartworm disease may include a mild persistent cough, reluctance to exercise, fatigue after moderate activity, decreased appetite, and weight loss. As heartworm disease progresses, pets may develop heart failure and the appearance of a swollen belly due to excess fluid in the abdomen.
Dogs that have a high number of heartworms often develop symptoms such as pronounced and persistent coughing, difficulty breathing, and exercise intolerance. In more severe cases, dogs may also experience fainting or collapse, pale mucous membranes, weakness, elevated heart rate (tachycardia) and severe lethargy.
Dogs with heavy worm burdens, have been infected for a long time, or are very active, often show obvious symptoms. There are four classes, or stages, of heartworm disease.
“Goose Honk” Cough
The first and most obvious symptom of heartworm in dogs is the persistent cough, which is often likened to the sound of a goose hoking. This goose honk cough occurs whether the dog has been active or not, but it is more common after a dog has just exerted himself in some way.
Myth #3: If my pet has heartworms, I will see them in her feces. Although many worm types, such as roundworms and tiny hookworms, are shed in your pet's feces, heartworms do not live in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and are not found in feces.
Short, slow leash walks (5-10 minutes) are appropriate for urinating and defecating, 3-4 times a day. Dogs who are allowed to run or play during this time can develop life-threatening problems similar to a massive stroke.
If owners can't afford treatment at the time of diagnosis, Dr. Herrin recommended delaying melarsomine therapy but still initiating treatment with both a preventive and doxycycline. This will prevent further infection and remove the dog as a heartworm reservoir.
Abaxis Heartworm Test Kit easily detects the heartworm antigen in your pet's serum, plasma or whole blood. This heartworm test for dogs and cats is highly sensitive and provides fast and easy-to-read results in just 10 minutes.
On the Lookout
A pet infected with heartworm may experience coughing, wheezing, loss of appetite, and weight gain. Heartworms can live for 5-7 years in dogs and 2-3 years in cats, and pets who survive are often left with permanent damage to the heart and lungs.
They can be controlled naturally with citrus oils, cedar oils, and diatomaceous earth. Dogs needing conventional treatment may benefit from herbs such as milk thistle and homeopathics such as berberis; these minimize toxicity from the medications and dying heartworms.
Heartworm causes a dry, persistent loud cough in dogs because of the parasite's ability to travel throughout the body. As the parasites travel, they find themselves in dogs' lungs, which creates a blockage and makes it difficult for your dog to breathe.
Your dog will also receive treatment to kill juvenile heartworms (microfilaria) either before or after their Melarsomine treatment. Your dog may need to spend the night in the hospital for observation on the day this treatment is administered.
The heartworms will die over the next 6 weeks. As they die and are broken down, pieces of them could lodge in other parts of the body's blood vessels, causing unnecessary complications–if your pet's activity is too strenuous.
A complication of heartworm infection, known as caval syndrome, leads to shock-like symptoms and sudden death.
Most dogs can be safely leash-walked during the treatment recovery period and providing appropriate chew toys can help relieve some of that stored up physical energy.
Your dog must be kept as quiet as possible.
Walking outside to use the restroom or to sit outside with you to enjoy the weather is ok, but no walks (short or long) for exercise. Be advised that the severity of heartworm disease is directly related to the activity level of the dog.
Finally, frequent vomiting usually goes along with heartworms. Dogs who cough often may cause themselves to vomit as a result of their extensive coughing. Some dogs may feel nauseated from their heartworms as well, and may vomit often just because they feel so sick with the disease.