You should know that  heartworms can be fatal and treatment for the disease involves risk, the condition is usually curable. Treatment requires careful medical care and complete rest at home afterwards.

The first thing we will do is evaluate your dog’s health, performing a physical examination, laboratory tests and chest x-rays to evaluate the condition of the heart and lungs. We might find other problems that need attention first, or if the heartworm infestation is very severe, we might want to adjust our treatment plan.

Adult heartworms are about six inches long and live mostly inside the heart. Baby heartworms are microscopic and live within blood vessels throughout the body. Each stage must be treated separately. First we eliminate the adult worms by giving a series of injections spaced out over a two day period.

When treatment is finished your dog’s heartworms will be dead or dying. That’s good, but the heart is still full of worms. The worms gradually break into smaller and smaller pieces until the fragments are tiny enough for the body to eliminate them. The critical period is when worm fragments are small enough to disperse into the body but still large enough to plug small arteries in the lungs. Vigorous activity makes the heart pump faster, pushing bits of dead heartworm out into small blood vessels where they can cause trouble, so vigorous activity must be avoided

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