Heartworm Disease is in Cherry County!

Dr. Wood has confirmed positive cases of Heartworm Disease in Valentine's surrounding area!

Heartworm Disease is extremely serious and potentially fatal! Heartworm Disease is caused by worms, that can grow to be a foot long, that live in the heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels. Heartworm Disease can cause heart failure, lung disease, and damage to the other organs of the body! In addition to being a disease of both dogs and cats, heartworms can affect coyotes, wolves, ferrets, foxes, and even humans!

Heartworms Disease in dogs is extremely serious! These worms live, breed, and prosper in the body of dogs. Without treatment, the number of these worms increase. Once a mosquito bites an infected animal, the next animal it bites could be also become infected!

Early stage Heartworm Disease often times does not have symptoms, but active dogs, dogs with high parasite levels, and dogs with other health conditions often show pronounced symptoms.

Symptoms Include:

• mild persistent cough

• decreased appetite

• weight loss

• fatigue after moderate activity

• reluctance to exercise

The Final Stages:

• heart failure

• fluid in the abdomen

• sudden onset of labored breathing

• pale gums

• dark bloody or coffee-colored urine

Even if your pet is on Heartworm Preventative Medication, they need to be tested annually to ensure that their prevention is working. A late dose can leave your pet unprotected long enough to contract Heartworm Disease!

What to do if your pet is tested positive!

If your pet is tested positive with our in-house laboratory heartworm screening test, we send a sample to an outside veterinary lab to confirm our laboratory's finding. We then suggest that you restrict your pet's exercise. Physical activity can compound the damage that heartworms can do to your dog's heart and lungs. Sometimes, we must stablilize your pet's disease before treatment, this can take up to several months. Once stabilized, treatment begins. It is important to remember that the severity of your pet's symptoms does not always correlate with the severity of your pet's disease. Six months after treatment, we test your pet to ensure that the heartworms have been eliminated. To avoid contracting heartworm disease again, your pet must be on year-round preventative.

Every year, Dr. Wood has been offering discounted Heartworm Screening during the spring. This special has been offered for the last 25 years due to the prevalence of Heartworm Disease in our area. This is the first case of Heartworm Disease that Dr. Wood has seen in TWO years! This serves as a reminder that we must always have our pets on Heartworm Prevention!!

Come in today to get your pet screened for Heartworm Disease for only $15! And now is the time to refill your pet's Heartworm Prevention - you can save up to $50! Remember, Heartworm Disease is extremely expensive and dangerous to treat! On average, prevention is as low as $0.25 a day!