Dogs of North America are often found suffering from an infection known as heartworm, especially during the spring and the summer seasons. For securing your pets health, the basic steps are to keep a close watch on your pet for the symptoms, get heartworm test done by the vet, and administer preventive heartworm medicines. |
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Search for the symptoms like weight loss, reduced appetite and jaundice if it has affected the liver and cough, fatigue, difficult breathing if it has affected the lungs. You must consult a vet to carry out a heartworm antigen investigation on your dog. This investigation tries to spot a protein which is given out by the mature female worm. This investigation is aimed at spotting of microfilaria in the blood samples of the dog for the purpose of analyzing. This is called Knotts Test, which requires putting a chemical into the bloodstream. The chemical then breaks down the blood cells and helps in spotting heartworm.
A final common test is being performed by the vet to identify the presence of antibodies that may be available in the larval stage of the heartworm. This particular test, however, only confirms the dog’s exposure to heartworm at a time in the past, but not the recent infection.
Once the tests are performed you must give your pet a heartworm preventive medicine from the vet who has performed the investigations on your pet. This preventive method will reduce the chances of having heartworm infection further. Most of these medications are being given each month. You must consult your vet to procure a prescription and other preventive measures to treat heartworm.
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