It’s Mosquito Season! Protect your pets!

With all of the rain recently, we are seeing the mosquito population escalate drastically!

It is important to make sure your pets are protected! Mosquitoes carry many different diseases that can be transmitted to pets and humans. The most notable disease that mosquitoes can give dogs and cats in our area is heartworms. When a mosquito bites your pet, tiny larva are injected into your pet. These larva continue to grow and migrate to the heart to become adult heartworms and begin to reproduce. Heartworms cause damage to the heart and lungs and ultimately death if not treated.

What can you do to prevent this? There are some products that may help repel mosquitoes, but nothing is more important that a heartworm preventative. The heartworm preventative works by killing the larva that have been injected into your pet, which prevents adult heartworms from developing.

There are many different kinds and types of heartworm prevention. There are products just for heartworm prevention and there are various combination products that offer flea and/or tick prevention as well. Some are monthly pills, chewables or topicals. There is also ProHeart which is an injection given every six months to prevent disease. It is important to discuss with your veterinarian which products are best for your pet. Each pet has unique needs and we tailor their medical care accordingly. It may also depend on what other pests are common in your area, ie. fleas ticks, etc.

Cats can also get heartworms. It is not as common, but harder to diagnose and not treatable in cats. It is important to protect your cats as well!

If your pet isn’t protected, call us today and we will help you protect your pet from this deadly, yet preventable disease.