Dog Life Expectancy After Heartworm Treatment
‘No Trespassing’ signs make it clear to anyone that wandering further into an area isn’t allowed. Usually there’s very good reasons why, although sometimes it’s just because the resident isn’t keen to have anyone on the property. There’s nothing of any sort in the human body, although pet owners might wish there were when it comes to making clear certain miscreants aren’t welcome in the heart. We’re talking about heartworms and when it comes to parasitic worms these nasty critters are the absolute worst. Valuheart can be used to eliminate them, but what is dog life expectancy after heartworm treatment?
That will depend on how quickly the infection is caught and how quickly treatment begins. If the problem is ‘nipped in the bud’ as the expression goes then your pet should have the same length of lifespan they would if they’d never had a heartworm infection to begin with. The problem there is that heartworm infection signs tend to be hard to pick up on right away and in many instances they don’t really show themselves until the heart is significantly damaged. When this happens the reality may be that major damage to the organ means that yes, the dog may have a shorter lifespan.
Much shorter? Not likely. Somewhat shorter? Possible.
How much shorter will depend on the dog and be unique to the animal, but any discussion of dog life expectancy after heartworm treatment can probably stop right there as every dog owner is going to be very upset at the prospect of anything like this happening. They want to get as much time with their beloved pet as possible and that’s the way it will be with every one of them.
Be Smart, Be Proactive
Rather than trying to kill heartworms after they set up residence in your dog’s heart, it is a much smarter and more reliable choice to use Valuheart or another effective dewormer medication for dogs. This is the primary message that needs to get across with regard to dog life expectancy after heartworm treatment – see to it you don’t need to be concerned about that by giving your dog a worm preventative medication every month. That is actually all that is required of you, and like most of the Valuheart appeals to the dogs too because it’s flavored to be a tasty treat. No coercion required!
Granted this medication only kills heartworms, but tapeworms and other types of parasitic worms aren’t nearly the same threat level as heartworms. They will have pet owners moving to DEFCON 1, while the other worms are more like a 2 or 3. There are dog dewormer meds that can prevent many different types of invasive worms, but Valuheart is one that specializes in killing heartworms. Nothing to do with dog life expectancy after heartworm treatment, but if your dog is an outdoor dog then mosquito bites are going to happen. You don’t do well avoiding them in spring and summer, and neither does your dog.
On the slimmest of chances that a heartworm killer tablet doesn’t work in full to get rid of heartworms then there is another option, although surgical removal of heartworms is every bit as invasive as it sounds and some older dogs recover from major surgery much less well than others.
Location May Increase Risk
The American Heartworm Society released a heatmap many years ago that showed there were very few incidences of heartworms in dogs in the Pacific Northwest, and that tends to be true of other Northern States like Idaho, Montana, and Minnesota. Alternately, it showed that in some places in the US Southeast (TX, LA, AR, AL, FL) there were very large numbers of them. What we can take away from this is that living in this part of the country you may be taking more of an interest in dog life expectancy after heartworm treatment and using a heartworm preventative is going to be that much more important.
Are mosquitos different in these parts of the country? That’s not something we are qualified to speak on but it is possible that they are beneficial to the passing of the worm microfilariae and allowing them to mature more reliably. If that sounds overly scientific to you that’s fine but there’s a way to skip fretting about dog life expectancy after heartworm treatment and seeing to it there is no chance your dog gets them – even if they do get bitten by mosquitos!
