Heartworm is not necessarily painful for dogs, but it is uncomfortable. This discomfort is primarily due to the inflammation it causes in the heart and the lungs.

The possible signs that your dog has heartworm disease include coughing, exercise intolerance, lethargy, and weight loss.

It takes up to six months for the heartworms to fully develop into adults. Therefore, you're not likely to notice any signs until then. The symptoms also depend on the worm burden that the dog carries.

Yes, it's crucial to continue with the yearly heartworm test even if your dog is on prevention. This is because some heartworms are resistant to certain medications, and we need to ensure any potential infestation is dealt with promptly.

Yes, additional testing may be recommended in case of positive results, as there can be some false positives. To confirm the diagnosis, we usually send an extra sample to the lab.

We advise testing your dog for heartworm disease once a year to ensure everything is working correctly.

We recommend testing your dog for heartworms as soon as you foster or adopt them. However, if they're puppies, we usually don't test them until they're at least a year of age.

Yes, definitely. Even in places like Florida where we have mosquitoes indoors, dogs can still be affected by heartworms even if they stay inside all the time.

Heartworms have multiple life stages. They start as larvae, known as microfilaria, which live in the bloodstream and then move to the heart. These larvae are usually picked up by mosquitoes and then transmitted to another dog. This larva that circulates through the bloodstream goes into the heart and takes about six months to develop into a fully mature adult heartworm.