With spring on its way the time has once again come to bring our dogs in for their annual heartworm testing and prevention. Last year there was an increase of approximately 25% more heartworm positive cases from the previous year. Since prevention is the safest and simplest way to approach this disease it is important to get your dog in for testing and prevention. Testing is important for all dogs, even those who took prevention. Since no medication is ever 100% effective, there can always be the odd breakthrough where the medication failed it is important to do an annual heartworm test to confirm they did not contract heartworm disease last year. All of the heartworm medications our office provides come with a guarantee from the companies providing the product that if a breakthrough ever occurs they will cover the cost of treating the heartworm infection, so long as the dog was tested annually and they took prevention all through the heartworm season (June to November). Below you can find a couple links, one is the to the American Heartworm Society a leading authority on heartworm prevalence, prevention, detection, and treatment; you can also look at the canine vector borne disease map (which includes heartworm and tick borne disease prevalence in North America).
https://www.heartwormsociety.org/pet-owner-resources/heartworm-basics
