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<\/a><\/p>\nAdult female heartworms living within a dog release offspring, called microfilariae, into the animal’s bloodstream. \u00a0When a hungry female mosquito comes along and gets blood meal, she ingests the microfilariae and becomes infected. \u00a0Under the right environmental conditions, the next 10-14 days can cause the microfilariae to become infective larvae. \u00a0At this point, when the infected female mosquito bites another dog (or cat, ferret, etc.) the larvae are transferred to the animal through the bite wound. \u00a0When a dog is newly infected, it takes 6-7 months for the infective larvae to mature to adulthood. \u00a0Once the adult heartworms mate, the cycle can begin anew.<\/p>\n
Heartworms can live within a dog for 5-7 years. \u00a0Males reach 4-6 inches long while females can be 10-12 inches long.\u00a0 The average number of worms in dogs is 15, but can number from 1- 250.\u00a0 Dogs with low worm burdens can be asymptomatic, while those with heavy burdens can have exercise intolerance, hypertension, and possible failure of the right side of the heart.<\/p>\n
*Both indoor and outdoor cats can get heartworm disease. \u00a0Cats are not as susceptible as dogs and heartworms do not thrive within cats.<\/p>\n
The best treatment for heartworms is PREVENTION! \u00a0Check with your veterinarian about the best preventative method for your dogs and cats. \u00a0Remember, we have mosquitoes year round here in Texas, so your heartworm preventative also needs to be all year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know that heartworms are not an insect (they are a parasitic roundworm), but they are transmitted by mosquitoes so I feel I am within my bailiwick. So why write about heartworms now?\u00a0 Today, on my google calendar I have scheduled that my dogs are to get their heartworm preventative.\u00a0 This task was added to my calendar way back in 2015 and was set to repeat monthly without end. \u00a0I also set up my calendar to send me an email reminder on the day, so I don’t forget… Read More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[356,355,354,336],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dirofilaria-immitis","tag-heartworm-disease","tag-heartworms","tag-mosquito-diseases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHeartworms - Urban IPM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/urban-ipm\/2017\/08\/25\/heartworms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heartworms - Urban IPM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I know that heartworms are not an insect (they are a parasitic roundworm), but they are transmitted by mosquitoes so I feel I am within my bailiwick. So why write about heartworms now?\u00a0 Today, on my google calendar I have scheduled that my dogs are to get their heartworm preventative.\u00a0 This task was added to my calendar way back in 2015 and was set to repeat monthly without end. \u00a0I also set up my calendar to send me an email reminder on the day, so I don’t forget... 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<\/a><\/p>\n