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 1 in 38 dogs test positive for heartworm! Those are just the dogs we know about. Take a look at the map, Northwest Georgia has the highest incident rates. This means your dogs are at a very high risk of being infected.
In the month of March NSAF tested 150 dogs for the parasite 17 dogs tested positive! 11% of the dogs we tested in just one month are positive for heartworm. Heartworm is transmitted by mosquitos. A mosquito bites your neighbors infected dog and then flies into your home and bites your dog injecting the larvae into your unsuspecting pet. In time if left undiagnosed or untreated your dog can suffer respiratory distress, chronic heart disease/failure or even sudden death. It doesn't matter if your dog lives in doors except to go out to use the bathroom, mosquitos are in your home. We live in Georgia they are every where. We often hear folks say it's to expensive to test and to buy preventative. The average cost of treating the disease can run any where from $500 - $1500. So folks might think; well there's a treatment I will worry about it if he contracts the disease. Well think about this, the treatment option can be painful and can take 4 months or longer to treat and is very stressful on the body. Compare that to a $20 test yearly and between $78 - $98 (1 year supply of preventative) and a $5 brief exam. (These prices are NSAF's). Most heartworm preventions are given orally and monthly. It is very important to give the prevention on time because if you forget and give it every other month then your dog is at risk for contracting heartworms. There are lots of ways to remember to give the prevention such as stickers that come in the medication package and reminders on your cell phone. We all love our dogs, for most of us they are part of our family. Preventing this disease is easy and economical so please get your dog in for testing and let's prevent this disease from spreading further. For more information you can go to https://www.heartwormsociety.org/.
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