Greencross Vets Heartworm prevention for your dog
Maintaining your dog’s annual heartworm prevention injection is essential to protect them from contracting heartworms.
This annual heartworm injection contains a continued-release formula to ensure a full 12 months of protection. It can be safely given at the time of your pet’s vaccinations and removes the need to remember to give your dog a monthly heartworm oral tablet or chew.
If they’re not on heartworm prevention, all it takes is just one infected mosquito to bite your pet and potentially cause fatal damage to your dog’s heart. Heartworm infection is difficult to identify, and its progression often goes unnoticed. The infected mosquito bites the pet and injects a larval stage of the worm under the skin. This larval stage matures in the pet’s organs for 5 to 6 months, becoming an adult worm and migrating through the organs to the heart and blood vessels of the lungs. These adult worms then breed to produce microfilaria (baby heartworm) in the bloodstream, which are then drawn up by a mosquito when it feeds on the pet. And so the cycle begins again.
This disease is potentially fatal yet completely preventable by simply maintaining your dog’s annual heartworm injection.
To learn more about heartworm prevention, contact your local Greencross Vets team or book online today!
During your visit, we will have time to discuss any other healthcare matters of concern, such as diet and nutrition, intestinal worming, flea and tick prevention, skin care and dental health.
