All of the damage that the heartworms do while they're inside the body is permanent.
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.
Heartworm disease causes lasting damage to the heart, lungs and arteries, and can affect the dog's health and quality of life long after the parasites are gone.
And while treatment can eliminate an infection, it cannot necessarily reverse the resultant damage. Routine, persistent prevention represents the only approach to avoiding the disease caused by heartworms.
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.
Your vet will guide you on the best course of action for treating your dog depending on the severity of their infection. Dogs can live for at least six to seven months after becoming infected with heartworms. This is because it takes that long for adult heartworms to grow.
Prognosis: heartworm treatment success rates
With the three-dose adulticide protocol described above, in conjunction with doxycycline and macrocyclic lactones as recommended by the American Heartworm Society, 98% of dogs will be cleared of heartworm infection.
Enforced Rest is ESSENTIAL! Positively NO Strenuous Exercise for 8 weeks! 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.
The adult worms die in a few days and start to decompose. As they break up, they are carried to the lungs where they lodge in the small blood vessels and are eventually reabsorbed by the body.
Stage 4 – Heartworms have caused severe damage to the animals heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. In this stage, Caval syndrome is likely. Caval syndrome is when there is such a large amount of worms blocking blood flow to the heart that it creates a sudden life-threatening problem in need of quick surgical intervention.
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.
Though the dog's system has not displayed the ability to damage or dislodge adult worms, an otherwise very healthy dog may be able to outlive the worms, which can survive in the heart for five to seven years. The tests that can detect canine heartworm have increased in sophistication.
What if my pet has missed a month of heartworm prevention? The simplest answer to those who miss a month of heartworm prevention is to give the dose immediately and restart the monthly preventative schedule.
Discussion. Hemoptysis (expectoration or coughing up of blood) has been reported as a consequence of severe heartworm infection in dogs,2-6 although it remains a relatively uncommon finding. Even fewer reports exist of dogs coughing up or vomiting up adult heartworms.
Recovery Symptoms
Increased energy - Even though your dog may begin to feel better after a few days, it is still important that he rest and refrain from exercise, so you'll need to continue to confine him for the first month. This means no walks and no playtime.
DURING TREATMENT
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.
The medicine in the treatment (Immiticide) can cause a lot of inflammation at the injection site. This can occur no matter how smoothly things go and how little it seems to bother the dog at the time. This can range from being absolutely undetectable to a dog that is crying constantly with pain.
With heartworm disease treatment can be extremely difficult even for the young otherwise healthy dogs but our senior dogs can see more severe side effects and death if progressed disease is present. Know that 1 in 10 dogs will develop some form of heart disease as they age.
If the blood test comes back positive, then the following tests will also be performed to determine the stage and severity of the disease in order to determine the most appropriate treatment plan: A urinalysis, or the testing of a dog's urine. An antigen test determines the presence of adult female heartworms.
Heartworms can also cause nosebleeds, pneumonia, high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, and excessive sleeping.
“No running, jumping, playing or high-impact exercise as these activities may cause the worms to break loose and cause significant harm to the pet being treated.”
If your dog was treated with Immiticide in October, for instance, and started on Heartgard at that time, baby heartworms acquired in June, July, August and September will go ahead and mature, and be showing up in the next spring's blood test.
Although there are fewer mosquitoes in the winter, there is still a risk that your pet could get heartworms if you stop giving heartworm prevention medication during this season. That's one reason veterinarians strongly recommend pets receive heartworm prevention medication year-round.
For those who are not on heartworm prevention, it's never too late to visit your veterinarian, get tested, and start on heartworm prevention at any time.
A persistent, dry cough is a common sign seen in dogs with advanced heartworm disease. The cough caused by heartworm disease can be one of the first signs you notice in an otherwise healthy-appearing dog. Lethargy and reluctance to exercise are common signs described in dogs with advanced heartworm disease.