A couple of coughs may not seem like such a big deal to some owners, but the coughing could be a sign that the dog has heartworms in its system. Heartworms can infect dogs of any age and can cause pulmonary artery disease, heart disease, and physical damage to all of your pet’s organs. Understanding Canine Heartworm Disease Heartworm disease, a filariasis caused by heartworm parasites in the right ventricle of the dog’s heart and in the pulmonary arteries (rarely in the chest and bronchial cavity) causing symptoms such as impaired circulation, respiratory distress and anemia. Heartworm uses mosquitoes as intermediate hosts and dogs are likely to be infected if they are bitten by mosquitoes. The incidence is higher in dogs living in hot tropical and subtropical areas. Symptoms of heartworm infection in dogs will show the following symptoms: 1. poor exercise ability: the dog will become easily tired, its exercise endurance will be reduced, easy to pant. 2. the dog’s respiratory system will be impaired, it will have a cough and shortness of breath, difficult phenomenon. 3. the dog will appear anemia, it will be because of depression, appetite decline, do not receive adequate nutrition, resulting in malnutrition, immune system decline. The dog will have ascites, its abdomen will become significantly larger and swollen, and when touched by hand, you will feel the water shaking in the abdomen. 5. The dog will also have nodular skin disease, itchy skin and signs of ulceration. There are four stages of heartworm disease: In the first stage, the dog may have no symptoms, only a slight cough, and even if brought to a veterinarian for examination, the test will be negative. In the second stage, the dog will cough continuously and feel very tired, often after exercise. In the third stage, the dog’s body has been severely damaged, the dog may even be coughing up blood, and he may refuse to exercise. X-rays will be needed at this stage. In the fourth stage, if the dog’s heartworm is not treated, it can lead to death. How do you diagnose heartworm in dogs? The best way is to take your dog for regular physical examinations, which can be done every six months to a year. Based on clinical experience, your veterinarian will take your dog’s blood for adult worm antigen testing and blood smears, as well as x-rays and ultrasounds based on your dog’s past medical history to determine if your dog has heartworm parasites. Because heartworms are not fully developed until at least 6 months of age, it is not useful to test your dog when he is too young and it is recommended that you start testing when he is 7 months old. If your dog is unfortunately infected with heartworms, the first thing you should do is to take him to your vet for treatment, which is usually done with deworming medication to kill the heartworms in your dog’s body if the condition is not severe. If the condition is very serious, then surgery is required to remove the heartworms from the heart. Although the heartworms are removed, the dog’s internal organs have been damaged. The recovery depends on the dog itself. Prevention 1. the owner can take the dog to prevent heartworm vaccination, and can also eat related drugs for prevention. 2. the owner usually should do a good job of deworming, now on the market many deworming drugs, such as Floraine, big pet love deworming drugs can effectively prevent the growth of worms. In the fall and winter, you can carry out internal deworming once every three months and external deworming once every one to two months. If it is a hot summer, you have to do internal and external deworming once a month, because this is the outbreak period of mosquitoes and various parasites. 3. Owners can usually take their dogs to play outdoors, but try to reduce the chances of contact between dogs and mosquitoes, and do not go to play in the humid and hot jungle. Daily also keep the dog’s living environment clean and dry, so that it can be protected from a variety of mosquitoes and insects that bring many infections. Note that for all conditions, prevention is always more important than treatment, if you usually do a good job of care, you can greatly reduce the chances of dog disease, so the owner should pay more attention, as well as regular health checks with dogs.
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