pet care topics

Heartworm
Mosquitoes spread heartworm disease to dogs when they bite. To protect your pets, you can limit exposure by keeping them indoors at dawn and dusk, applying children’s mosquito repellant, and using heartworm preventive medication.

In our region, it is common practice to give dogs six monthly treatments from June 1st to November 1st with a veterinary approved product such as Interceptor®, Heartgard®, Sentinel®, or Revolution®. All four of these products provide heartworm prevention and intestinal parasite treatment; so you are effectively deworming your dog every month while preventing heartworm disease. Sentinel® and Revolution® have the added benefit of flea prevention which may be appropriate for your dog. Since fleas are a concern before June 1st, we recommend starting flea products by May 1st.

Although heartworm infection is not a significant concern in cats in Canada, gastrointestinal parasites and fleas are. Cats, especially those that go outside, would benefit from six monthly treatments of Revolution® from May 1st to October 1st.

Heartworm Testing
There was a time when heartworm testing was used as a “gateway” to getting preventive medications for your dog. We have evolved. Heartworm testing should now be considered part of an overall health assessment of your dog much like internal parasite screens (fecal floats) and wellness testing. We have adopted a policy that recommends annual heartworm testing but does not require this to be done to begin or continue heartworm preventive medication. Dogs that have not used heartworm preventive medications previously, missed doses in the previous treatment season, have travelled to endemic areas (e.g. southern USA) are considered higher risk and should be heartworm tested before starting medication.