Parasite Control

Internal Parasites

The weather is warming up and with the warm weather comes mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can carry and transmit heartworm disease. Heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) is a blood parasite that affects primarily dogs, but can also affect cats. The adult worms live in the heart and the major blood vessels. Left untreated, heartworm disease can be fatal.

We can test for heartwom disease using a simple blood test. We recommend testing dogs over 6 months of age once a year. We send these tests out to a reference lab, so you will have results in 1 to 2 days. We also offer an optional blood panel with the heartworm test that checks liver values, kidney values, glucose and protein.  The best way to prevent heartworm infection in dogs is to use a monthly preventative such as Heartgard Plus®, Iverhart ™Plus, or Interceptor®. These medications also protect your dog against intestinal parasites including roundworms and hookworms. Since both roundworms and hookworms can be transmitted to people, we recommend keeping your dog on year-round heartworm preventative. For cats, Revolution®is an excellent choice. It is a monthly topical that protects them against heartworm, fleas, ear mites, roundworms and hookworms. This is especially important for cats that go outdoors.

We also recommend checking a stool sample on adult dogs and cats at least once a year, and routine deworming and fecal checks on all puppies and kittens.

For more information on how roundworms and hookworms can affect people and how to protect your pet, please click on the links below:

National Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Companion Animal Parasite Council 

External Parasites:

Ticks are out! With the mild winter, we expect to have a worse than usual tick season. Ticks can carry diseases such as Lyme, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Babesia, and Rocky Mt. Spotted Fever (RMSF). These diseases can cause fever, lameness, joint pain/swelling, lethargy, anemia, bleeding and other signs. Using a tick preventative such as Frontline® Pluscan help prevent tick-borne diseases. Although we have a very effective vaccine available for Lyme disease, there are currently no vaccines for Anaplasma,Ehrlichia, Babesia or RMSF in dogs. Frontline® Plus is a monthly topical that not only kills ticks, but also kills fleas and flea eggs. We recommend Frontline® Plus because it is very safe; it can even be used on pregnant and nursing dogs. Frontline® Plus is also safe to use around cats – most other tick preventatives contain permethrins which are very toxic to cats. The other way you can help prevent tick borne-diseases from affecting your dog is to carefully check him/her over after visiting tick areas. To remove a tick from your dog, use a tweezers and grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible, then pull. You can clean the area with warm soapy water. If your dog experiences any of the symptoms above or is exhibiting swelling/redness in the area of the tick bite, we recommend setting up an appointment.

If you have any questions about anything you have read here, or if you need to set up an appointment for you dog or cat, please call 952-736-8278.

Deworming pregnant bitches: