Heartworm disease is a condition that mostly affect canines who have been infected with a parasite. These long, almost hair like parasitic worms make their home in ventricle of the heart as well as the pulmonary artery. The pulmonary artery is the biggest blood vessel in the heart and carries blood from the heart and into the lungs. When a dog is bitten by a mosquito, they can get infected with the worms which then starts to grow in the heart vessel form a larvae stage. The larvae are transmitted into the dog from the mosquito and passes through the dog’s tissues where it will enter the bloodstream to migrate into the heart and make it it?s home.
Heartworm disease is considered to be a silent killer of dogs and is often very hard to detect unless your pet gets a heartworm test. It?s also important to know that the symptoms for heartworms until the larvae have matured into full grown worms. At that point a heartworm test is needed to confirm whether your pet has been infected. Here are the symptoms of heartworm to look for if you?re curious whether your dog is infected by the worms.
Since the wormy parasites can also be found in the lungs of the dog, a soft, dry cough is a key sign that your dog may be suffering from heartworms. Keep an open ear on the sound of the coughs your dog makes. If it starts to get worst, it?s in your pet?s best interest to head over to the vet for a heartworm test. In some cases dogs have even started to cough up blood or have nosebleeds due to severe heartworm infections.
Still in relations with the lungs, breathing difficulties are also a major tell tale sign that your dog has heartworms. This also mean that the lungs are infected. If your dog?s breathing starts to become rapid, making it difficult for them to catch their breath either take out the heartworm test kit or get a veterinary clinical diagnostics for heartworms form a professional vet.
Fatigue is another not no noticeable warning sign that your dog may have been infected with heartworms. If your dog seems more tired than usual after their daily walk and has been sleeping way too much or refuses to move around at all, this might be a symptom of heartworms. At this point a canine heartworm test will determine whether or not the symptoms are accurate.
A building chest is possibly the most obvious sign of heartworm infection in your dog. The bulging effect might be caused by the amount of fluid that has built up in the chest of the dog due to the parasites. This is also a very severe symptom that might be painful for the animal. In this case do not rely on a dog heartworm test at home. It?s imperative that you seek the help of a vet so they can perform a heartworm test to see the use of the bulging and provide a solution.