Heartworm in cats

Heyy i was wondering how many of you heartworm gaurd your cats......

I was learning about it in Parasitology today.....

I learned that cats are aberrent hosts to Heartworm (Which means thier immune system kills all but 1% of the larvae........

I also learned here in new england due to our climate, the chances of a cat getting heartworm is very slim...wheras in Florida it is more common.

I learned heart worm comes from Mesquitos....hello???...never knew that...just another reason to hate those little buggers.......

I also learned that if a cat is infested with heartworms, there is no cure.....with dogs the cure is arsnic...with a follow up treatment of asprin....

cats cant handle the arsnic, and asprin it toxic to them........so sad.......

But i was wondering what info i could get out of you guys.....

This is really scary, isn't it, Bridget!

Originally Posted by dawnofsierra

This is really scary, isn't it, Bridget!

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yeah it is....but its good to know that its rare in cats, and also good to know that heartgaurd TM...has a product for the kits just in case......

Originally Posted by Nebula11

Heyy i was wondering how many of you heartworm gaurd your cats......

I was learning about it in Parasitology today.....

I learned that cats are aberrent hosts to Heartworm (Which means thier immune system kills all but 1% of the larvae........

I also learned here in new england due to our climate, the chances of a cat getting heartworm is very slim...wheras in Florida it is more common.

I learned heart worm comes from Mesquitos....hello???...never knew that...just another reason to hate those little buggers.......

I also learned that if a cat is infested with heartworms, there is no cure.....with dogs the cure is arsnic...with a follow up treatment of asprin....

cats cant handle the arsnic, and asprin it toxic to them........so sad.......

But i was wondering what info i could get out of you guys.....

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Really just a "ditto" of what you learned. I was a bit alarmed to learn there is no cure in felines...not good. I did know about the mosquitos but with all indoor cats it doesn't seem to be a huge concern...(wishful thinking).

Not in a mosquito heavy area (the desert is good for something), and the cats are all indoor.
Of course their trips out to the patio are generally in the heat of the day, when no self respecting mosquito would be.

Thats cool...thats you guys are in low mesquito areas....

yeah my cats are indoor too...and around here mesquitos only come out for like 5 months......

Years ago I had a female cat who got sick. A visit to the vet and she was diagnosed with heartworms. HE had never seen heartworms in a cat before. This has been probably twenty - twenty five years ago. Anyway the vet told me he didn't know what to do. So he told me to take her home and bring her back the next day for some bloodwork. In the meantime he said he was going to call the vet school he graduated from and get some tips on what to do for my cat.
That night I was so upset. The only thing I knew to do was pray and ask the Lord to heal my cat. So I did. The next day I took her back for the additional tests. I waited and waited and finally the dr. came out to talk to me. He said he couldn't understand it, that he knew what he had seen on the slides the day before. But he said there was nothing wrong with my cat and for me to take her home.
He wrote in the cats medical record that she was miraculously healed.
Good story, huh.

Two cats at my clinic this summer had heartworm. I always treat mine during the summer months. Indoor only yes, but I wont take the risk. since there is no cure. once we get a hard freeze I stop until spring.

I've done some pretty intensive research on heartworm for a physiology project... dogs are definitely more prone to it - I even asked my vet about treating Ollie with prevent meds but she said it's not really worth the money, especially since he's an indoor cat and I live in the tundra that is State College, PA, haha.... it is a very dangerous disease though and extremely not fun for your animals... ever seen the jar in the vet's office with the worm-infested dog heart? That just can't be comfortable (btw, I borrowed one of my vet's heartworm jars when I had to present my research findings, haha)

My kitties are indoor only, but I still used to treat them monthly for fleas with advantage or frontline. My new vet started me on revolution, which kills fleas, ear mites, and is a heartworm preventative. It only costs $4 more and seemed like a logical step up from advantage since it kills so many other things.

forgot to mention i also have dogs..a concern for me with them going in and out

Originally Posted by Bugaboo1

Years ago I had a female cat who got sick. A visit to the vet and she was diagnosed with heartworms. HE had never seen heartworms in a cat before. This has been probably twenty - twenty five years ago. Anyway the vet told me he didn't know what to do. So he told me to take her home and bring her back the next day for some bloodwork. In the meantime he said he was going to call the vet school he graduated from and get some tips on what to do for my cat.
That night I was so upset. The only thing I knew to do was pray and ask the Lord to heal my cat. So I did. The next day I took her back for the additional tests. I waited and waited and finally the dr. came out to talk to me. He said he couldn't understand it, that he knew what he had seen on the slides the day before. But he said there was nothing wrong with my cat and for me to take her home.
He wrote in the cats medical record that she was miraculously healed.
Good story, huh.

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Thats an amazing story....wow!!!!!

Originally Posted by ScamperFarms

forgot to mention i also have dogs..a concern for me with them going in and out

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My Prof explained that she being a vet for 21 years, has never seen a cat with heartworms, and has not seen a case of dog heart worms in nearly 9 years....so apperently the preventative drugs are working,......

yet again minnisota and massachusetts are not "Mesquito country".......

anyways our misquitos up here are filled up with all that other junk like EEE and west nile.....stupid mesquitos....My prof wanted us to feel sorry for them because they have all kinds of parasites in them....
EEE
West nile
heartworms
malaria...........yeah I feel real bad....ha

I'm covered in Mozzie bites at the moment, they are horrible

Well, this is the South, and I live in a bloody swamp (or at least it feels like that sometimes,) so for most of the year we do have mosquitoes. I've never had the kits on heartworm preventative, but I may discuss it with my vet the next time I see her. The dog is of course, year-round, and has been since she was 6 months old. A Golden Retriever that had belonged to my mom that I re-homed, not surprisingly had heartworms (this was 4 years ago) and had to go through the arsenic treatment. $500. Whoof. She was given a clean bill of health afterwards though and we found her a nice home with a couple on some acreage in Kentucky which pretty much equated to Golden Retriever heaven .

If a dog is on heartworm preventative, it's a pretty fair bet that he'll never fall prey to the parasite, but I sure wouldn't stop it even though it seems much more rare than it used to be. Reason being that there's a large coyote population in the country and it's very probable that that population is carrying the parasites. I'm not sure about foxes. Strictly speaking a fox is not very closely related to canines even though it's a doglike animal.

We have mosquitos during the summer months so I treat my cats with Revolution even though they are indoor only. After learning that there is no cure for heartworms I didn't want to take the chance. Plus Revolution is good for all the other things as well so it seemed worth it.

Originally Posted by Nebula11

My Prof explained that she being a vet for 21 years, has never seen a cat with heartworms, and has not seen a case of dog heart worms in nearly 9 years....so apperently the preventative drugs are working,......

yet again minnisota and massachusetts are not "Mesquito country".......

anyways our misquitos up here are filled up with all that other junk like EEE and west nile.....stupid mesquitos....My prof wanted us to feel sorry for them because they have all kinds of parasites in them....
EEE
West nile
heartworms
malaria...........yeah I feel real bad....ha

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Minnesota is skeeter country. we have tons of the little blood suckers. and have had alot of issues with WNV...i treat dogs and cats alike. cats in summer. dogs year round. and my vet agrees.

I know that it's very deadly to cats, but I did read a couple of stories of cats living through heart worm. It's when the heart worm dies & breaks loose from the heart there is a problem. My Levi was tested for heart worm before he was neutered because he had a heart murmur (which he has now "grown out of" according to my vet.) He tested negative, but while I was waiting for the results I did a lot of research. I guess I don't treat my cats because they are inside all the time and I'm a whimp about heat so my air runs all summer. So I figure statisticly the likely hood of them getting heart worm is rare. Now if they went outside on a regular basis I would treat for heart worm.