Rainbow City Pet Clinic veterinarians are the best reference, with expert knowledge of the parasites your pet and family can be exposed to in our region. Providing continuous protection against harmful parasites is not only essential for protecting the overall health of your dogs and cats but also for humans, especially kids.
Now that dogs and cats are treated like family members, we share our home with them. Therefore, it is even more significant to keep your fur family members on monthly parasite prevention to reduce the risks associated with the transmission of parasitic diseases from pets to people.
Rainbow City Pet Clinic recommends and offers several brands of year-round parasite prevention to protect your fur and human family members. We have our opinions of the BEST products for your pet, so let us help you with a recommendation!
Heartworms are among the most damaging parasites in dogs, but they are almost 100 percent preventable.
Mosquitoes transmit heartworms, and once they mature, they live in the heart and large blood vessels of the lungs. As a result, the worms can affect blood flow throughout the body. Heartworm infection can affect many dog organs—the heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver, for example—so symptoms may vary. Most commonly, though, signs of heart or lung disease are present, like if an active animal tires quickly or shows shortness of breath or coughing. Early in the condition, dogs often have no symptoms. However, untreated heartworms can be fatal to your pet.
Diagnosing heartworms in cats can be more difficult due to the low numbers of worms in their system. Signs of infection are variable but most often are related to the respiratory system, and the cat is coughing, wheezing, having difficulty breathing, vomiting, depression, and losing weight. We recently treated a cat that developed congestive heart failure due to heartworms. Some cats will suffer from sudden death when a heartworm they have been harboring dies.
There have been rare reports of heartworm infestation in people, but it is not generally considered of great concern. The heartworm is transmitted by the mosquito, not by your pet.
For more information on parasites, visit https://www.petsandparasites.org/
