Heartworm Research Paper

Words: 958
Pages: 4

Heartworm disease is found in animals everywhere around the world. Heartworm disease is most commonly found in North America. Heartworm comes from the microfilariae from a mosquito. The microfilariae then develop into worms and affect the animal’s body (Dunn). The eggs can take a while to mature into worms. Once matured, the animal must undergo many treatments and surgeries, which can end up costing a lot. Overall, heartworm is a disease transmitted by mosquitos; it can be extremely harmful to an animal’s life, difficult to treat, and can possibly cause death. Heartworm disease infects thousands of animals each year. Heartworm is all around the United States, but it first entered through the Gulf of Mexico now spread all around the world (Paul). Heartworm does not only affect dogs and …show more content…
It might now even be noticeable until a year after infection(Heartworm). The only way to detect heartworm when it first affects a animal is through a blood test. Changes aren’t see in the dog until the final stage of the heartworms. Signs start to being shown in the last stage because that’s when the worms start to appear in the right ventricle. While they are in the ventricle the worms start to destroy the artery lining. When the worms do this it’s make inflammation on the animal’s body making it visible to it’s owner. Then after the artery lining the worms partially break blood vessels. This is when the animal starts to show more visible symptoms. The basic symptoms include coughing, nose bleeds, shortness of breath, and possibly pneumonia (Dunn). Some more intense symptoms include loss of energy, heart murmur, and collapsing (Brevitz). The most brutal symptoms include decrease in appetite, extreme wright loss, and heart failure which could lead to death. The severity of the symptoms all depends on the number of worms. These symptoms can all be treated if you get treatment done