Heartworm Prevention Myths That Could Cost Your Pet’s Life

Heartworm Truths Every Pet Owner Needs to Hear with Dr. Zoo

💔 Heartworm disease is slow, painful, and entirely preventable. So why are pets still dying from it?

In this essential episode of Muddy Paws and Hairballs, Dr. Zoo shares two real-life cases that hit hard: a young German Shepherd in kidney failure at just two years old after his owners stopped prevention, and a rescue terrier whose heart was invaded by worms—leaving euthanasia as the only humane option.

🐾 Here’s what every pet parent needs to understand: Just one mosquito bite can inject microscopic heartworm larvae into your pet. These larvae quietly develop over six months before they’re even detectable—and by the time that lingering cough appears, the damage is often already done.

Adult heartworms don’t just affect the heart. They send offspring into the bloodstream, damaging lungs, liver, and kidneys. And many early signs—like coughing after drinking water—are easy to overlook.

Dr. Zoo also busts the most common heartworm myths:

• “My pet lives indoors.”
• “We don’t have mosquitoes here.”
• “It’s winter—they’re safe now.”
• “I use natural remedies.”

Spoiler: None of these provide real protection. If a mosquito can get inside your house, it can reach your pet—and no natural product has been proven to prevent heartworm infection.

💸 Prevention is simple and affordable: around $5–$7 a month.
💔 Treatment is complex and expensive: $1,000–$6,000+, multiple medications, painful injections, and strict cage rest for weeks. Even after treatment, many pets live with permanent heart damage.

👉 Whether it’s a monthly chewable, a topical, or an injection, heartworm prevention isn’t optional—it’s critical. Dr. Zoo walks us through what heartworms really do, why prevention matters no matter where you live, and how to protect your pet from suffering or worse.

🎧 Tune in to get the facts, clear the confusion, and make the choice that could save your pet’s life.

Shoutouts in this episode:

https://www.heartwormsociety.org/

Quick Update: We’re taking a short break and will be back with a batch of fresh episodes starting August 10! 
In the meantime, binge your way through 100+ past episodes packed with pet-saving sanity—and maybe even solve that one issue that's driving you (and your pet) nuts. 
Catch up, take notes, and we’ll see you soon! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Heartbreaking Stories of Preventable Deaths
• 6:05 Understanding Heartworm Disease Progression
• 12:05 How Heartworms Are Transmitted
• 17:38 Detecting and Testing for Heartworms
• 22:43 Debunking Common Heartworm Prevention Myths
• 28:54 Prevention Costs vs. Treatment Reality
• 33:29 The Treatment Process and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Amy Castro: 0:31

I've heard all the excuses he never missed a dose, we never see mosquitoes, I thought my dog was safe because he's an indoor dog. And then comes the heartbreak A pet who didn't have to die but did. In this episode of Muddy Paws and Hairballs, my friend Dr Zhu is back with the truth about heartworm disease. If you think heartworm prevention can wait, you need to listen to this episode, because when it comes to heartworm, the biggest mistake you can make is thinking it's not going to happen to your pet. Hey there and welcome to Muddy Paws and Hairballs, the podcast that tells the truth about life with pets.

Amy Castro: 1:10

I'm your host, Amy Castro, and joining me today once again is my good friend, Dr Zhu, the owner and head veterinarian at the Family Animal Hospital of Friendswood and the one who takes care of my pets and all the animals at Starlight Outreach and Rescue. We've worked together for years on lots of things trying to save pets, but the most frustrating has been trying to help pets with heartworm disease, and while we have lots of wins, we've also had losses, some that really still hit hard. So today we're going to break down what heartworm disease really is, how it spreads and, most importantly, how you can stop it before it's too late. Let's get into it. So, Dr Zhu, you and I have seen the tragic outcomes and also good outcomes, but what are some of the ones that really stand out to you, where you say, gosh, this was just so preventable, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Zoo: 2:01

Well, I can tell you I have a personal pet story or an owned pet story and then a rescue pet story. Okay and so, and because you do expect these things with rescue dogs, you know that no one's cared for them, they've been on the street. But a client of mine that had brought in the cutest little German Shepherd puppy and we got through all the puppy shots and we went through some teenager things. You know that pet had done so good and then they moved and life got busy or whatever happens that they decided after some time or maybe forgot after some time, to continue that pet that we started on heartworm prevention very young they had stopped their heartworm prevention. So here we are. The pet is only two and a half, still a very young dog. But they come back into our clinic lives and they're like oh hi, we haven't seen you a long time. Oh yes, we haven't been on prevention for a while.

Dr. Zoo: 2:49

We do heartworm testing, uh, which is, in this case it was included on our blood work that we also send out and we found that he had heartworms at a young age, at two years old, and it only takes six months for that to show up, and we'll talk about that later on for sure. But along with that blood work it came back that his kidneys were failing as well, and at a two-year-old. That's not a common thing we see for kidneys to be failing at two years. We see that a lot in senior pets. So doing some research into what was going on, we found out the heartworms were connected to this. So heartworms when you have both male and female they can create baby worms we call microphallaria, and they're literally just floating around the bloodstream, these little stringy foreign items, and the kidneys are a little net, and so they get stuck in the kidneys. And this is why, at such a young age, he ended up with kidney failure and unfortunately we ended up having to let him go at a very young age as well, and so that was one story that really hurt my heart.

Dr. Zoo: 3:51

I'm a German Shepherd's lover as far as dogs go. I have three of my own, and to see his little young life cut off so early definitely was a sad one. And then, more recent, on one of my rescue cases, a little terrier guy named Cole. He and his little friend have been running the streets for a while and they were both young dogs, probably each less than three we say probably because we're guessing at their rescue and their age and at the first, at the rescue, he did so well and they fed him and they got him nice and strong and we were getting ready to do heartworm treatment on him. But one particular day she, the rescue or the foster lady, knows he was not doing well and brought him in. His gums were super pale and we found that the heartworms that usually live in the vessels around the heart had actually gotten sucked right into the heart and he had a stage of the disease called Cable syndrome.

Dr. Zoo: 4:40

And Cable syndrome. There's only really one very good cure for it, and it's an emergency cardiac surgery where they, just like in people, will put in a catheter all the way down through the veins and into the heart and pull those worms out During that procedure. If any one single of those worms breaks, the dog can have an anaphylactic reaction and die right in the middle of that procedure. So it's not one that a lot of people want to even take a risk of putting their pet through. And then in this case, with the rescue, of course my finances are an issue, and so it was just something we couldn't do, and so we had a euthanized call for that reason as well. So cable syndrome, kidney disease there's a lot of sequelae that can happen, that can cause animals to die from heartworms, not always just a heart issue, for example, yeah.

Dr. Zoo: 5:23

Yeah, so those are some sad cases. You know, of course, with cull they rescued as quick as they could. But if the education had been there, maybe for the previous owners, maybe they would have even kept their pet and maybe had them on prevention. That wouldn't have been a deal. Or maybe, you know, with our German Shepherd's friend Thor, you know, I just thought we had educated but maybe, you know, we didn't impress it enough. So now it does stimulate me and my team to make sure. You know, hey, you know, this monthly prevention you can get it as low as you know, $5 or $6 a month is worth it. You know, because you don't want your dog that you're expecting to have. You know, 10 years or more to die at two.

Amy Castro: 6:01

Yeah Well, and like you mentioned the, you know the issue that people they start off maybe on track and then they get off track or they forget, or they forget to renew it or whatever, and then everybody has a reason for it. But can you you that I don't know if you said this in the episode or if you said it before, but that they don't really live in the heart, that they live in the vessels outside the heart? How do they get?

Dr. Zoo: 6:23

there? That's a good question. So they have this very elaborate life cycle with seven stages. I mean quite a few stages of life. But we'll start with where they first get in contact with it, and that's a mosquito bite. Okay, so only mosquitoes are transmitting, only mosquitoes can transmit them. And one thing, and we'll get to it later.

Dr. Zoo: 6:44

As we describe this, you know, sometimes people will say I rescued a heartworm positive dog. Is a mosquito going to bite him and then give it to the other dog? That's not how that works. Actually, the worm has to live in the mosquito from a positive dog and then it multiplies over or changes its larval stages, that is, over several weeks before it actually will become infectious. And most of the time, if a mosquito is, let's say, in your home or whatever, it's going to die before then. Or let's say, a mosquito bites someone, a dog from the, the outside world, it's going to go somewhere else, it's not going to usually come back and bite this other pet. That being said, it's not like an instantaneous bites one and then injects yeah, like a vampire, like a vampire.

Dr. Zoo: 7:25

Suddenly you're a vampire, so yeah. So once that mosquito gives a certain larval stage and actually that little baby worm gets injected into the animal's muscle or skin tissue, it takes six months of it migrating throughout the body before it actually becomes an adult worm that lives in the heart or around the heart. The pulmonary vessels, arteries and veins around the heart is a perfect place for these worms to get their food, which is your pet's blood for one. And then of course, what's in the serum in that blood can be things like oxygen and carrying that sort of thing, as well as proteins, and it absorbs all those things. And if it meets its boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife in there, then, if you have one male and one female, they'll actually start making another kind of larval stage called the microphallaria. Those become a certain stage. That's when a mosquito can potentially bite a dog and pick it up from a dog, and then later on it'll go through several stages inside the mosquito weeks later.

Amy Castro: 8:22

But the whole time that's happening you're oblivious, so you're kind of at risk all the time.

Dr. Zoo: 8:26

Yeah, you see no signs of it. And I think we do hear lots of people say he doesn't go out much or he will get to that we're going to get to the BS reasons people have. Of course, we just always want to put ourselves in a most positive situation or positive light and we make an excuse essentially. But if we're really logical about it, we'll figure out that it's not the way to bury your head in the sand. It's better to be aware and go okay, look, I can skip Starbucks this month and I can definitely have my heartworm permission instead. Yeah, exactly, so, yeah, so they live. Adult worms live mostly in the vessels near and around the heart. The microflaria or the other larval stages are migrating through the muscle tissues and again, they can migrate through the kidneys. They can migrate into the liver.

Dr. Zoo: 9:11

Anywhere your blood flows, the microflaria will flow through too, so we will see sometimes changes in those other organs as well. So it can cause multi-organ failures.

Amy Castro: 9:23

So what are usually the first? I mean other than a positive test. Let's say, somebody didn't test their pet. What's the progression of the disease in the animal? That's a good question.

Dr. Zoo: 9:32

It starts off with just like this little hacking cough Sounds like they're clearing their throat, you know, and we might just say, oh, he drank his water too fast or he was pulling on the leash, or his allergy season, or, you know, maybe he got a little kennel cough or something like that. But then it's just persistent, maybe months or years. It might just be this little annoyed little cough going on.

Dr. Zoo: 9:54

Really it can go on. It can go on that long and then you know, depending on how many worms they get, like, for example, a cat can get homes too.

Amy Castro: 10:02

Yeah, I want to.

Dr. Zoo: 10:03

I want to definitely get on that they might only get, you know, two, three, four heartworms, but that their little tiny body, that's a huge load for them. A big dog might get two, three or four heartworms and and then, let's say, they move somewhere where there's not many mosquitoes. They stop getting new worms, let's say, but they'll still have almost like an allergic reaction to it. That's what causes that cough. The lung tissue itself gets swollen and inflamed and angry and that's where we get this little irritated cough. But dogs can easily have 50, 100 heartworms and clog up those vessels and then pieces of lung can be dying. We've seen it all, that's for sure.

Dr. Zoo: 10:42

So, yeah, so at first it's a little insidious cough and then the most common thing after that is true heart failure, because the blood circulation really depends on how much pressure is in that circulatory system. Your heart is a pump and of course all the pipes going in and out of that need to be clean and clear, just like our sewage system. If it gets clogged it's going to back up. That can happen. If it backs up in the wrong place, you can get fluid in your lungs. If your blood backs up in the wrong place, you can get fluid in your abdomen or really because your liver starts to leak fluid out of it. Again. We talked about how the worms can get in there.

Dr. Zoo: 11:14

And so sometimes people will come in with their dogs at the later stages in true heart failure congestive heart failure we call that. Or then sometimes we see these other weird sequelae not weird, but you know unfortunately side effects of the micro filaria, like the kidney disease or the heart cable syndrome, where it's very sudden instead of slow and city it's changed, but it can be dormant looking or you may not pick up on it for years. A dog has heartworms and the earliest that a test can show up is six months. And again we talked about how when the mosquito first bites it takes six months for that worm to go through. Let's say it bites and somehow and this has happened it only has male worms. The test tests for a certain female hormone. So I've had dogs test negative and we're still suspicious of heartworms. They have maybe signs of this cough or heartworm disease. Or maybe we take an x-ray and we see the heart is misshapen. That can indicate heartworm disease. I put the test is coming up negative. Sometimes the reason is because it's just male worms.

Amy Castro: 12:15

And will it come up? Because one of the things that I hear people you know make excuses or they don't do the annual test. Oh, do I really need to do this every year? Like, to me, that is a good reason to do it every year, Because would it catch?

Dr. Zoo: 12:27

it the next year, eventually, especially if we don't for some reason put them on heart prevention, they might catch it the next year. Or maybe one of the babies that was still developing and hadn't fully developed yet was female. Then it would show up. There are other ways that we can find it, like an echo or a heart ultrasound in certain cases.

Dr. Zoo: 12:46

And then there's another interesting phenomenon where a dog can be negative because their own body has created antibodies to try to combat the worms, although unfortunately it doesn't do much for getting rid of the worms. But what it ends up doing is it gets in the way of the test and it can block the test, and so you can get a negative from that. And there's another special test you can send out to the laboratory to confirm whether or not you know man, it quacks like a duck. It sounds like a duck, it's probably heartworms, but for some reason my in-house test isn't working. Let send it off to the laboratory. Another reason why it's important about testing every year is we do have resistant heartworms coming up, that they're resistant to heartworm prevention. It seems to be the way with all kinds of diseases, all the fungal. Everything is getting tougher to combat and the world is trying to kill us.

Amy Castro: 13:32

Yeah apparently it's a dangerous world out there people, it's a dangerous world.

Dr. Zoo: 13:35

And so, yeah, especially from the Mississippi Valley, in that area we've been seeing this population of heartworms that is resistant to some of our good, old-fashioned heart preventions. Heartguard, a very popular brand, has been around a long time. We're seeing some resistance to that particular ingredient from those areas. And with the way our world, we travel, we travel with our pets, yeah, we're spreading it around eventually and rescue. You know, we do send animals all over the place nowadays. You yourself have traveled to the East Coast with one before.

Amy Castro: 14:05

Well, I remember growing up on the East Coast and when I worked at a vet, all through high school and college, it was like heartworm prevention was given seasonally yeah, like you started in the spring and you stopped in the fall and winter. And it's like I remember I don't know if it was you that said this I think it was you that told me it's not a matter of if your dog is going to get infected with it, it's just a matter of when, because, especially here in Texas and depending upon where you are listening in the world, you know there's probably a gazillion mosquitoes floating around with it, and so your dog is going to get injected with it basically, absolutely.

Dr. Zoo: 14:42

It's spreading around the world and it's a very safe and easy preventative, so I do think it's worth covering them for that risk Plus. You're going to cover other things which we'll probably get to later on too with a prevention. An interesting thing we learned about in vet school was a population of seals out of California were bringing heartworms back and forth from Alaska to California Because being in California, they're kind of iffy about heartworm prevention.

Amy Castro: 15:07

Because it's so dry.

Dr. Zoo: 15:08

It's so dry, but there are certain pockets where they could get exposed, yeah, and I didn't realize.

Amy Castro: 15:14

I mean, obviously the whole thing about cats getting it is relatively recent.

Dr. Zoo: 15:19

I mean that wasn't a thing back in my day, we didn't push prevention, honestly, because I think we had a hard time proving it to owners or anybody else whether their cat had gotten it. And still, testing cats for harm is very hard. Yeah so it's not the same testing process. It's a similar kind of test but because they might only have one, two or three, they're more likely to have a single sex infection, like just an all-male infection. So false negative we get a lot of false negatives.

Dr. Zoo: 15:46

Yeah, so, honestly, most of the time when we actually find out a cat has heartworms, they've already started to have heart disease and that's awful. And so then we're doing it, working backwards, like okay, now we have heart disease, could it be because of a heartworm, and let's find out. And then maybe we're doing echoes or ultrasounds. If the heartworm test is up, then come up with a special heartworm test that we send to the lab. They do this Basically they alter the temperature and gene nature of the proteins and so the test is a little more sensitive when we send it to the lab.

Dr. Zoo: 16:27

Yeah, so for cats, honestly, without a on heartworm prevention 24-7 or basically every month of the rest of their lives, just as a precautionary thing. And, as you know, things like revolution that's a very popular brand have flea prevention, tick prevention, ear mite prevention and um and heartworm prevention and intestinal worm prevention. You know which cats? You know I'm gonna eat your dirt out of your plant pot. No, I don't go outside, but I'm gonna eat that so they can pick up parasites through there. So you're kind of covering everything with revolution.

Amy Castro: 16:59

And that's good to know. So I want to talk about the expense, because that's one of the myths. But all of these things that you're talking about, once an animal has it, that's a lot, that you're putting your animal through A lot of procedures, a lot of testing Don't always work out. Yeah, a lot of testing Don't always work out. Yeah, a lot of money, and it could be prevented with a monthly pill or a every six months shot or a topical or something.

Dr. Zoo: 17:21

Oh yeah, dogs, too won't take pills sometimes, so they have topicals for dogs, yeah. And so, yeah, you can do, and we even have a shot that lasts six months or a year, depending on what life is conducive to you know, or because, let's say, you're a mom with three kids, are you going to remember to give that monthly pill, or chew every month, maybe?

Amy Castro: 17:39

not Barely remember to pick up your kids from school, for God's sake.

Dr. Zoo: 17:42

Oh yeah, I have children and offspring, yeah, so maybe consider the shot or ask your doctor for that sort of thing. So there's a lot of ways to work around what we call compliance. You know the study of whether or not people are actually able to give medicines that are recommended or are required for keeping their pet healthy. So the good thing is, if you want to be competitive or relevant in business, you have to come up with a new method that's better to get people to be able to do that in a confusing way. So the shot, the topicals, the chews, the pills yeah, there's lots of ways to do it.

Amy Castro: 18:15

It's kind of like me with flossing my teeth. I'm terrible about flossing my teeth, but I'll use those little flossy sticks.

Dr. Zoo: 18:21

They're so much easier, they're so much easier, I agree, and you can keep them in your purse and you can do it right after you eat. Yeah, exactly.

Amy Castro: 18:29

So I'm on the same boat as you. Convenience is definitely good through, but let's I mean you talked about those two animals that died and obviously you were able to humanely euthanize but let's you know if somebody needs any more motivation and we're going to do some myth busting, but tell us what the death is like. It's because I know it's bad and it's really bad suffering.

Dr. Zoo: 18:47

Yes, congestive heart failure. I hate to use this analogy but it's probably the truest thing and I do use it when I need to explain to owners. You're drowning in your own fluids. Essentially, if your blood can't flow because the worms are blocking your blood flow, that blood, or the little sort of the filtrate of it, called plasma, will build up in your lungs in particular, and your lungs are like a sponge and they just want to hold on to fluid. So if you just if anyone has experienced like pneumonias or COVID, of course, and that sort of thing if you just have 10%, 15%, 20% bad lung, that feels awful. But when all your lung is affected with fluid I mean, if it was a person, they would probably think I would rather die. If it's an animal, they don't know how to deal with that. So sometimes we have to step in to help them.

Dr. Zoo: 19:33

Basically, we're allowing our pet to slowly drown in suffering, so we don't want an excuse for that it's terrible, yeah, and we don't want to hide our head in the sand for that, because then let's say they do pass or we put them down. Then there's years of regrets after that and that's a whole.

Amy Castro: 19:50

You need to start the psychological therapy session type of I just did an episode on grief, psychological therapy session type of just did an episode on grief, but you know, but most of this episode on grief that we did was you did everything you could and you still felt like shit. Yes, well, how about if you realize it is really your fault? Yeah, I mean, I hate to say that I have to be the ugly person but we all make mistakes and we learn from them.

Dr. Zoo: 20:10

But this is your chance to learn before your pet ever has to even experience anything like this. Yeah, we don't want that for your pet for sure. So let's talk about the myth. Was that for your pet?

Amy Castro: 20:19

yeah, for sure. So I went out to the and I stole some of these from the american heartworm society, which I am wonderful website yeah, and I'm gonna put that link to that website because you want to know anything about heartworms, there's I mean, they've got infographics and all kinds of information I was gonna tell you there's a really in-depth like if you want to nerd out on it video, but they make it very entertaining.

Dr. Zoo: 20:39

It's, of course, it's a cartoon on YouTube that kind of goes off of AHA's thing as well, so I'll send that to you if you want to look at it.

Amy Castro: 20:47

Yeah, okay, put that in there. So some of the myths that people believe, which you know. So it's not just I'm intentionally neglecting my pet, but I didn't think it could happen, because and I want you to kind of bust some of these myths. So one of them is, you know, like the example that you gave it was on prevention I skipped a month and suddenly my animals got heartburn. He's never missed a dose.

Dr. Zoo: 21:09

Yeah, that's a tough one, yeah for sure. The way these work is that they reach back for usually 30 days if you're doing like a pill or a chew. So if you miss a month you don't get that reach back of killing whatever was in the system that got infected in the last 30 days. Also, once the mosquito bites this particular larva stage the heartworm prevention is only killed one or two of those, but then it'll start to change again to the next Marvel stage and even though it's not in the heart, yet again the heart reprimand won't be able to kill it because it's past the stage of which we're.

Dr. Zoo: 21:42

So you've got to kind of continually give. You have to give it continuously at the 30-day mark if it's that kind of product. Again, that's why the injections can be super helpful, because people do get busy, forget, miss a month or whatever it might be, and then again the test takes six months for it to show up. So let's say in that one month that you missed, the mosquito did bite and inject a heartworm and it got past where you couldn't treat it with the next dose. You won't know for six months, if you even know at the six-month mark because maybe his annual vaccine visit to the vet doesn't fall where that is, or maybe you don't go that year or whatever which you should, but things like that happen, and so then those worms have a chance to become multiple and large and start to block blood flow around the heart.

Amy Castro: 22:22

Yeah, I know we would never have this excuse in Texas, but we didn't see any mosquitoes so we didn't think we needed to.

Dr. Zoo: 22:31

Yeah, I know you have out-of-state listeners Out of the country. I've got people all over the world. I love that, which, yeah, that is an excuse. And the thing is, are you really on guard, watching for every mosquito to come through your house or your window? No, of course not. Watching for every mosquito to come through your house or your window? No, of course not.

Dr. Zoo: 22:48

My most dreaded of all, and it's probably one of your myth buster things the indoor only one. Oh yeah, that was my next one, that's the best next one, because in an exam room often I have to tell the story to people. I'm like, oh, he's indoor only all the time. Okay, well, have you ever laid in bed and heard that buzzing noise? That mosquito comes and you're slapping your face and you're slapping everything trying to kill the mosquito in the middle of the night. It happens to your dog and cat too, and it happens more to your dog and cat because they have a little heat-seeking device and they're going to find them before they're going to find you. Good target. So, yeah, they're the perfect target. And usually when the pet is sleeping they're very, very still, so a mosquito can bite right through that unhaired area around the nose and on the ear. It's the easiest target, although they can find their way through skin, because that's how they survived millennia?

Amy Castro: 23:32

Yeah, exactly, since dinosaur ages. They lasted longer than the diners, of course, right, yes, yeah, so that's again bad excuse. We live in the city, we don't live in the country. There's mosquitoes in my city, anywhere.

Dr. Zoo: 23:43

City, I mean anywhere standing water can be, obviously, is where mosquitoes can multiply. You know this, I'm sure, in the and there's luckily. You know the cities know this too, so that a lot of times the the cities will offer different kind of mosquito control programs but no one's coming to your house to do mosquito control programs. So you leave that one plant pot out, because you potted your other plants and you left it out, the rain collected. You're gonna have a nice little batch of mosquitoes come up yeah very shortly, within a within a couple of weeks.

Amy Castro: 24:07

Yeah, and it only takes one.

Dr. Zoo: 24:08

Yes, it does.

Amy Castro: 24:09

What about the skipping in the winter? I mean, that's a lot. A lot of people think they can still do that.

Dr. Zoo: 24:14

Definitely not in our area and again, because of the way that animals have traveled as much as we have traveled around the world, there's quite a risk. So if it's my pet, I would definitely keep them all year round. You may find that certain veterinarians in certain pockets may advise that, but definitely talk to your vet about that, because they know what the prevalence is in their area. But even Alaska, for example, they get tons of mosquitoes in the summertime and so they I mean they're the coldest ones that I could think of out there they're going to need heart permission.

Amy Castro: 24:44

Yeah, Okay, what about natural? There's some people that believe they've got you know, someone told them on Facebook or they read it. You saw a TikTok video where somebody said spray your dog with you know, whatever. Yeah.

Dr. Zoo: 24:56

Citronella, I've seen it all, you know. Yeah, I've seen it all. Unfortunately, what happens with natural things in particular is that they're very low cost or expense, and I think there's an attraction, kind of subconscious, to that, and then also because they're not making huge profits with some natural things. I don't think they. They don't do studies on those things really very well, and so a lot of it's anecdotal. Or you know my grandma in Italy, you know.

Amy Castro: 25:21

Or just because your dog didn't get heart, because I've had people tell us that too in rescue. They're like we will deny you for adoption if your animal's not on prevention, and it's like, well, I'll go get it tested. Oh, it was negative, so it's like no, you just. It's kind of like a russian roulette. Exactly, you're playing russian roulette. It's just like saying I've never worn my seat belt and I'm not dead yet correct. But yet all the people that we know exactly.

Dr. Zoo: 25:42

Yes, unfortunately, that's not logic. It's not. It's just really an excuse to say, oh, this is okay and I don't want to change. But the reality is that, yes, those natural ones don't work or they're not proven to work. And why take that risk when there's very safe prescription type?

Amy Castro: 25:59

options for that sort of thing. You mentioned that people will use those because it's cheaper. I mean, it's cheaper for me to buy a little thing of cinnamon than a heartworm thing. Well, you know. Or people that will say heartworm prevention is too expensive. Let's talk about the cost of prevention versus treatment and we already talked about the suffering cost for your pain.

Dr. Zoo: 26:20

But let's you can't put a dollar on that.

Amy Castro: 26:22

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Dr. Zoo: 26:23

But yeah, prevention has gotten, just like all other products that are out in the world. Medication-wise, there's a lot of generics out there. The studies were done on the ingredients in those generics, so we know that they're going to work. Before coming on, I just went on to all the popular medical websites where you can order your prescriptions and for a small dog like less than 25 pounds, you can easily order something in the $28 to $30 range for six months of protection. So that's $5 or $6 a pill. Yeah, that's no excuse right there.

Dr. Zoo: 26:54

And I spent more at Starbucks on my white chocolate, mocha 20, whatever. You can't get anything out and about. Do I need those empty calories versus saving my pet's life? Probably not. Do I need those empty calories versus saving my pet's life? Probably not. I probably should just go ahead and get the generic heartworm prevention, which actually the one that I looked at did include intestinal worm prevention as well. So two for one.

Dr. Zoo: 27:16

And then I looked up one again, a generic one. I just looked for the lowest cost that I knew would be effective for a 50 to 100-pound dog and it was like $6 or $7 per month per pill. So really very affordable. Don't go to mcdonald's that month one time and you'll be fine and probably you'll save your own life. Yeah, save your pen.

Dr. Zoo: 27:36

And so I mean there cost was. There's not an excuse. There really isn't, and there's so many resources out for people who may be like going to the vet in the heartworm test and exam. Maybe that adds to cost, and I realize that that's important. You have to calculate those things and there's, of course, I'm a vet, so I'm going to promote that you should go to your vet and get a good, complete exam for other reasons, but if it's like not doing it at all, then there are plenty of outreach programs. We have here Apparently Animal Resource Center, we have the Animal Alliance, have snap and snip and emancipate. There's so many places where you can get a heartworm test and a prescription for heartworm medicines for very low cost.

Amy Castro: 28:14

Yeah, it doesn't have to turn into a full-blown. It doesn't have to, yeah yeah, for me.

Dr. Zoo: 28:19

I love animals. I want to advocate for them. If you're not coming to me as a vet and you need to go to a resource center, I'd rather you go there because I want your pet to have the protection that it needs and it doesn't take much really cost-wise. It might take some of your time but again it's worth it. If you want your pet to be around for the long expectancy of its life, yeah, because cartons will definitely cut that short, yeah.

Amy Castro: 28:40

So what about people that say I'm not going to bother with the expense now, I'll just treat it when they get it If they get it, yeah.

Dr. Zoo: 28:52

Yeah, talk about how much that, not even just the monetary cost, although that stimulates our decisions a lot, so we have to talk about that.

Amy Castro: 28:55

Let's talk about that, but then also talk about the process, cause I think people realize it's not just I go in, I get a pill and it fixes it.

Dr. Zoo: 29:00

That's right, exactly it is a two to six month treatment, depending on which way you go with that. And as long as those worms are in there they're creating damage. You know A we just talked about how it takes at least six months to discover it's even there. So they're in there, damaging the pet for six months. Then let's say if you even got it tested right away and decided to treat it right away, then you're adding two to six more months of those worms being present and damaging your pet's heart, kidneys, kidneys, liver, all those things. And then let's say and this has happened many a time I've treated a dog for heartworms, maybe they were age three, four. We got rid of the heartworms, they learned their lesson, they kept their pet on heartworm prevention. But at age seven, eight, nine, their dog goes into heart failure anyways, because the damage has been done. Damage has been done and that is the saddest, because they have their regrets. They have already decided. I'm never going to make that mistake again, but it will sometimes those consequences still follow us.

Dr. Zoo: 29:55

Yeah, yeah, we don't want that with. Definitely prevention is much better cost wise. Easily a thousand to two thousand or so here in our area, but certainly if you're up on the east coast I've seen five thousand dollars, six thousand dollar estimates. Yeah, if it's a very serious case where they're already in heart failure and they're going to need things like heart medicines the rest of their lives or follow-ups with a cardiologist or a specialist, I mean that can go way higher than $5,000 or $6,000. So cost-wise definitely not the way to go versus your $5 or $6 or $7 a month minimum. If you get the fancier stuff that has flea and tick prevention and air mite prevention in it, great. I mean, yes, you're going to pay more, but fleas, ticks and those sort of things bring germs to people too that can be deadly from cat's friend's fever, lyme disease, absolutely.

Dr. Zoo: 30:40

So, yeah, there's a lot of benefits for people too. When your pet is on heartworm prevention, usually it's going to be all encompassing hookworms and roundworms. Actually, the intestinal parasites are also contagious to people, unfortunately. Yeah, so again, double benefit, you know, for you, for your pet, you know, if you got kids, I mean, definitely want to consider something like that. Yeah, um, and so cost-wise definitely worth it to prevent versus treat.

Amy Castro: 31:03

Yeah, yeah and then the process of treatment. Like I know, we've gone through that several times with rescue pets, I I don't think people realize that you know well, why don't you just go ahead and go through the? You know, the shot, the walking, the cage breast? I mean, it's a process.

Dr. Zoo: 31:19

Yeah, so once you decide, okay, I'm going to treat this pet. First, they have to be on an antibiotic for 30 days that weakens the worms. Then after that we decide at that 30-day mark we're going to run some tests Like let's make sure your heart is fine, make sure your kidneys, your liver are fine, before we basically give a worm killing injection into the lower back muscles, absorbed into the pet, and that's done at day 60. So it's 30 days of antibiotics, 30 days of making sure the animal does well after the antibiotic and doing those important tests. First injection happens at the 60-day mark. 30 days from that we'll do a second and third injection, back to back, so you'll have a total of three injections.

Dr. Zoo: 31:57

Every time we do these injections it's two to four weeks of very strict cage rest because you're killing these worms, they're loosening from these vessels and they could likely get stuck in other important places, not to mention the lung, but also the heart, the kidneys and liver. We've talked about that but basically when they're dead they're more likely to be floating around and getting stuck. So if your pet gets overexcited and who's not going to get excited when mom comes home from work? You know that sort of thing. They can literally dislodge a piece of worm and have a stroke and die. They can have basically a heart attack. You could say they could definitely clog up the liver or kidney, something like that.

Dr. Zoo: 32:32

So we offer sedatives. You're giving your pets pills two to three times a day, not only just to keep them calm but to reduce the side effects of those pieces of dead worm floating around in the system. And then you have to still wait six months from that to know if the treatment was successful. You have to still wait six months from that to know if the treatment was successful. You have to test them six months later. Now the good news is that the treatments are pretty effective. Yes, there might be some side effects. Definitely better than the way old school we use arsenic-based products.

Dr. Zoo: 32:59

We don't do that anymore, but just the fact that the worms are dying and chunks of worms are floating around the body is very risky still too. So yeah, especially because we do discover this in young dogs that are two or three years old. They want to bounce off the wall and you have to no, no, no, stay calm. Two to four weeks, get a crate and a kennel.

Amy Castro: 33:16

And yeah, just just so everybody hears that I mean we're talking about. Your dog is in that crate like 24 seven. You open the crate, you put a leash on, you walk it slowly outside, you let it pee in the grass, you turn around, you put it back in the cage. No jumping on the sofa, no jumping on the bed, no running around the house with anybody else. I mean it's a nightmare.

Amy Castro: 33:38

It's a lifestyle change, yeah. And to the fact that you're now going to have to sedate your pet because you're going to have to stick it in a box yeah, because you don't want it to possibly die of a stroke instantly, yeah. So it's quite an ordeal for your family, for your pet, and then, you know, add the expense and the long-term damage. I mean, it's just ridiculous to put yourself through that.

Dr. Zoo: 33:58

Definitely prevention is, let's say, the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of gear. In this case for sure.

Amy Castro: 34:07

So I would hope that by now anybody that's listening to this episode or watching this episode is fully convinced and has no doubt whatsoever that this is the way to go with their pet Just prevent the heartworms, give the monthly or the annual shot, whatever it might be. So if there's just one kind of final thought, or if you've got a couple of final thoughts that you want to leave people with about heartworm prevention, because it is heartworm prevention month or at least heartworm awareness month, Heartworm awareness yes.

Dr. Zoo: 34:32

It's both. It is both, and the reason is because this is where we're really getting a mosquito outbreak, so this is the time where they're going to be more likely to catch it, although, as you know, in Texas it's like all year round. I can tell you for sure, in January I was bitten by a mosquito.

Amy Castro: 34:46

Oh yeah, I'm already seeing them already and it's funny that we're recording this today, because when we're done, in about an hour or so, I've got a mosquito prevention person coming. I don't want to kill all the bugs in the yard, right, but the mosquitoes were committing this on the air. The mosquitoes were so bad last year I used to wear my bee suit when I would go out to mow, because they eat me up. I must put up a lot.

Dr. Zoo: 35:07

You're right, they're heat seekers Exactly. Well, if you're mowing and getting all sweaty? Yeah, no doubt about that. Yeah, I mean I think the key takeaways we talked about, but I'm just going to summarize them. It's not that expensive, there's ways to get it and the appropriate ways. It includes testing every year, as well as at least getting one of the generic formats, and that prevention is definitely better than having to treat. So an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Yeah and yeah, and we want your pet to live a long, healthy life. That cats and dogs are prone to that. And for cats and seals and other animals, big cats too, yeah, tigers and lion they keep. You got a tiger.

Dr. Zoo: 35:47

If you work in a zoo, you're probably probably using heartworm prevention. Yeah, it's pretty neat. Yeah, I had a consult with a few at the Houston Zoo about that and they're like oh, yeah, it's prevention everywhere, cause we were talking about another case. But anyway, that being said, that was my first question. They're like, oh, yeah, that's every month, for sure. Yeah, they're on it For sure. Yeah, they're on it. They probably use ProHart. Now, the shot that lasts Might be easier for a tiger or a lion. Probably so. Yeah, probably so. Can't just put it in peanut butter? There goes my arm.

Amy Castro: 36:14

There, you go.

Dr. Zoo: 36:15

I could only imagine.

Amy Castro: 36:16

Well, like I said, I hope that people are fully convinced at this point. I will be admitting right now which I hate to admit I've never given my cats because I've kind of done that it's indoors thing. But I think now I'm going to change that whole philosophy.

Dr. Zoo: 36:29

And there's a generic version. Especially when you do rescue, I know, the cats multiply in your life. So yeah, absolutely yeah, there's generics now of those things. Yeah, definitely recommend it. Yeah, okay, you'll hit all the benefits with it.

Amy Castro: 36:43

Well, dr Zhu, once again I appreciate you being here on the show to share this. It's always fun to be here. I know we have a good time, but I think it's just such an important message and when I saw it pop up on my calendar that it's, like I said, heartworm Awareness Month, I thought who can I get to come on the show at the last minute to come help?

Dr. Zoo: 36:59

me Anytime, anytime, especially for heartworm disease.

Amy Castro: 37:02

That's a big one, yeah, we see it a lot around here well, I appreciate it all right thank you, yeah, thanks for listening to another episode of muddy paws and hair balls and we will see you next week. Thanks for listening to muddy paws and hair balls. Be sure to visit our website at muddypawsandhairballscom for more resources and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app so you'll never miss a show. And hey, if you like this show, text someone right now and say I've got a podcast recommendation. You need to check the show out and tell them to listen and let you know what they think. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode. And if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.