A Look At How Heartworms Affect Cats And How To Treat And Prevent Heartworms In Your Pet
You probably know how important it is to get medication from your veterinarian to keep fleas off of your cat. However, you may not realize how important it is to treat your cat to prevent heartworms. There is no medication to treat heartworms in cats like there is for dogs, so prevention is essential.
Your veterinarian can prescribe heartworm prevention medication along with flea and tick prevention medication. Here's how heartworms can affect cats, the symptoms your cat may show, and how a veterinarian might treat your cat if it gets heartworms.
How Heartworms Affect Cats
Heartworms affect cats in a different way than they affect dogs because cats aren't natural carriers for the worms. Heartworms multiply in dogs, but in cats, the worms struggle to survive and may not live to adulthood. This means cats have fewer worms, but the few they have can still be deadly.
The worms circulate through the bloodstream until they reach your cat's cardiopulmonary system. The worms then lodge in the heart, lungs, or vessels that supply blood to the organs. Cats tend to have respiratory symptoms when they have the worms since the worms affect their lungs the most.
What Symptoms Your Cat May Show
Your cat may cough and have trouble breathing. You might think your cat has bronchitis or a respiratory infection. That's why it's important to take your cat to the vet when they're sick. If your cat has heartworms, you want to find out right away.
Other symptoms your cat might develop include lack of appetite, vomiting, weight loss, or seizures. Sometimes your cat may not have any symptoms at all, but they can experience sudden death due to the effect of the worms on their heart and lungs.
How A Veterinarian Can Treat Your Cat
There is no drug that targets heartworms in cats. Instead, the veterinarian has to treat your cat's symptoms to support your cat's heart and lungs while your cat fights the worms naturally. Cats can recover from heartworm infection, but they might need medications for their breathing. Your cat might need to be hospitalized to receive IVs for hydration and nutrition. In some cases, surgery might be recommended.
It could take several weeks or months for your cat to recover from heartworm infection, and they'll need to be monitored by your veterinarian during this time.
How To Prevent Heartworms In Cats
Get heartworm prevention medication from your cat's vet and give it to your cat as prescribed. Heartworms are spread through mosquito bites, so if you live in an area where mosquitoes are rampant, try to keep your cat indoors when mosquitoes are bad. Also, have your cat tested for heartworms during your cat's annual vet visit so the condition can be caught early, monitored, and treated as necessary.