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4 Ways To Protect Your Dog From Heartworms
from: Kyle BesserThere are only two ways in which you can effectively prevent heartworms from attacking your dog and becoming a problem. The first one is to never let any mosquito that carries heartworm get inside your house and near your dog. The second is to never let your dog go outside of your house, even in your own yard, during mosquito season.
These ideas might make sense if you lived in a house with no doors and windows and you have a dog that does not enjoy playing and being outdoors and has no need to go outside. For most of us, these ideas are not practical. In reality, there is no sure way to keep your dog from being bitten by a mosquito that carries heartworm, and because most dogs love playing outside and sticking their noses everywhere they can, our best bet is proper care and sensible preventative measures to avoid heartworm infestation.
There are some sensible ways you can help reduce your dog's risk of getting infested with heartworms:
1. Consult your vet about preventive medication for heartworms. This way, even if your dog is bitten by a mosquito that is infected with heartworm, the medication in his body will automatically destroy the heartworms before they start to mature and cause problems. Even if your dog does not like the outdoors, it is always possible that a mosquito could slip in when a door or window is opened and bite the dog. So even if your dog is an indoor pet, it is wise to give him heartworm medication.
2. Before you administer heartworm medication to your dog, make sure that he is not already infected. It can be dangerous to give heartworm preventive drugs to a dog that is already infected with heartworm. Your vet will perform a blood test before prescribing the medication. Once you are sure that your dog is not already infected, he can start taking the medication.
3. It is impossible to entirely keep mosquitoes away from you and your dog. Tight fitting door and window screens will help minimize the chance of them getting in your house. You should also replace or fix damaged screens as soon as possible.
4. If you have thought about putting up a birdhouse in your yard, you should consider getting a purple martin birdhouse. The birdhouse will attract these birds to your property where they can eat thousands of mosquitoes per day and thus minimize the number of mosquitoes.
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