April has been designated as National Heartworm Awareness Month.
Don’t let April pass you by without educating yourself on this
possible killer. Sultry spring and summer days may cause dogs
and cats to suffer from mosquito bites that can lead to
heartworm disease, says Dr. Sonya Gordon, associate professor in
the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at the Texas
A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. Dogs
are usually the preferred host for heartworms, but cats are also
susceptible to the disease, even indoor cats, Gordon notes. To
protect your pet, preventative medicine should be used year
round to avoid heartworm infection. Pets are often infected when
mosquitoes carrying heartworms bite the animal and pass on
heartworm larvae into the tissue. The larvae mature as they
travel through the tissue and eventually end up in blood vessels
within the lungs, causing heartworm disease. "Heartworms should
really be called lungworms because they live in the blood
vessels of the lungs, not the