It’s that time of year again! The rainy season has ended and the mosquito breeding season is ramping up, which makes this the time of year for two friendly reminders, both geared toward prevention.
Now’s the perfect time for a quick survey of the property around your home to get rid of any standing water and help prevent mosquito breeding. If it’s enough water to fill a bottle cap, it’s got to go.
Also, remember heartworm prevention medication. If you are giving your cat or dog monthly heartworm prevention medication — good for you! That’s the way to do it. Heartworm prevention is crucial, and now is the best time to make sure heartworm prevention medication for your animal is up to date and administered. To reiterate the short version from an earlier blog post:
If you are a new pet owner, it’s useful to understand why all this heartworm discussion is so important. Put simply, heartworm can be a matter of life and death, and prevention is absolutely key. If you have a few minutes, you might want to read our information page on Heartworm, an earlier informative blog post or both.
Cats cannot be treated for heartworm infection, which makes the strongest case possible for prevention. Indoor cats and indoor dogs are still at risk. Dogs can be treated, but by the time the mosquito bite turns into symptoms, adult worms have developed and populated blood vessels near the heart and non-trivial damage has been done. Plus, treatment is expensive, not without risks and difficulties, and by no means guaranteed.
Heartworm prevention medication comes with essentially no risk to your pet. If your pet’s been seen in the last year, reach out to us and we can refill the prescription. If you are unsure that your pet received every dose on schedule, testing may be indicated. If your pet has not been seen by their veterinarian in the last year, contact us so that heartworm prevention medication can begin by this summer.
