Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Heartworms in Cats: Protect Your Cat Today Posted: 08 May 2009 12:59 PM PDT I was doing a post over at the petblog on Shine (the women's network at Yahoo!) about cats and heartworms and I thought I'd share some of that here. When I was working at an animal hospital as a vet-tech, many years ago, we were just learning about heartworms - in dogs. Nobody ever said anything about heartworms in cats. I wondered about it - back then. But, as a big proponent of keeping your cat indoors, and someone who always has kept her cat indoors, I didn't let the cats and heartworms issue keep me up at night. Not to mention, I figure the docs would know if we should be testing cats for heartworms. Well, it turns out that cats DO get heartworms! They get them the same way dogs do - from mosquitoes. Here's the technical explanation from the PurinaCare Pet Health Library,  "Heartworm Disease is caused by a worm, Dirofilaria immitis, and is spread by mosquitoes. When a mosquito feeds on an infected animal, usually a dog, it ingests microscopic larvae in the blood. These microfilariae mature in the mosquito for about two weeks. When the mosquito bites a susceptible animal the infectious larvae are injected into its tissues. They migrate through the animals body, maturing into adult worms over a period of months. The adult worms live in the heart and major blood vessels where they reproduce to create new microfilariae. The time from infection to appearance of microfilariae is about six months." While the article goes on to say cats getting heartworm disease is less prevalent than dogs getting heartworms, the issue remains: you need to be aware of this and make sure you talk to your vet about it! The symptoms, according to the article, are pretty ordinary (IMHO): they include coughing, difficulty breathing, vomiting, lethary, loss of appetite and seizures. Um...I think if MY cat was doing those things...especially the seizures, I'd have her at the vet's as fast as my car would get me there! I've borrowed the picture off of the Pet Health Library site, because it really gives you a sense of how heartworms invade an animal's heart. The best thing to do is give treatment - especially as this summer promises to be hot and humid. Treatment involves medication given monthly. Even kittens can start with it, and...make sure you have your cat tested, every year! Even if you keep him indoors! Mosquitoes don't discriminate between indoors and outdoors! Note that I'm hoping you'll bring this up at your next vet visit, whether that's for issues, or just a regular check up. Truth is, we sometimes take cats for granted because they seldom complain. Sometimes, they go off and hide, so we don't always notice that they're feeling poorly. It's not good to just assume everything is all right. I'm not a vet or a technician, anymore. I'm just a pet blogger that wants you to be aware of heartworm disease, both for your dog and your cat. Talk to your vet. It's time.

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