Here at Town 'N' Country Animal Hospital, we strongly encourage all pet owners to give heartworm prevention medication to their dogs and cats, year long. We see heartworm disease in both dogs and cats each year at our practice. Incidence maps from the American Heartworm Society show that we are in an area with a moderate number of cases of heartworm disease.
Highs Temps and Lows. We have our share of strange weather here in North Carolina. We might have a high of 65 degrees one day, and a low of 30 degrees two nights later. With weather swings like this, it is very difficult to predict what the mosquito population will do. It doesn’t take many days of warm weather for mosquitoes to be out and about again. Any time there may mosquitoes around, it is important to have pets on year round prevention.
Prevention – Sort Of. We talk about heartworm prevention medication as if it prevents your dog from getting heartworms. That’s sort of true, but not exactly. Your pet can be bitten by a mosquito at any time. If that mosquito is infected with heartworms, it will pass the heartworms to your dog. The heartworm “prevention” that you give your pet will kill the heartworms before they have a chance to develop into adults, causing disease in your dog or cat's heart and lungs. So, preventions don’t exactly prevent your dog or cat from getting heartworms, but it does prevent them from getting heartworm disease.
If you give your pet a dose of heartworm prevention on October 1, and they get bitten by a mosquito on October 10, but you don’t plan to give them another dose of heartworm prevention until April 1, he or she could very easily contract Heartworm Disease over the winter.
Cross Your Heart and You're Entered! We want to spread the word that heartworm prevention IS necessary during the winter, even in the South. That's we we've teamed up with Elanco® (the makers of Trifexis®), to bring you the Cross My Heart Pledge. We will be have the pledge on our Facebook page.
From now until February 13th, share the image on your Facebook page, then come back to our page and leave a comment that you have taken and shared the pledge. Each person who shares will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win one of those amazing RTIC Soft Pak 30 Gray Cooler*, one of those coolers that keep ice cold for up to five days! We will announce the winner on our Facebook page, on February 14, 2017.
So – make the "Cross Your Heart" pledge, share, then cross your fingers that you're the winner of that RTIC cooler! Either way, when you keep your pledge and consistently give your pet heartworm prevention, you and your pet really do win.
*Valued at $139.00.
