Are there any risks associated with heartworm treatment?

Blood clots are the most significant risk of treatment, and some of them can be fatal, which is why we assess our candidates while we're treating them. We do what's called staging to see how severe we feel the infestation is and the worm burden, as the disease is impacted by the number of worms that the dog may have. And it's an educated guess, frankly. We're looking at X-rays to look at changes in the lungs and at blood work to make sure the liver and kidneys aren't having any problems because this is a disease that affects the lungs’ vessels, and hence, perfusion to the organs and things like that. We need to assess all of that stuff, and once we get to that staging, we can make an educated guess as to how severe and advanced this heartworm disease might be and how well or not well a dog might do through treatments.