What is heartworm disease and what is the symptom of dogs have been discussed in last blog. This blog continues to talk about the knowledge that animal lovers have to know and this post aims to discuss about heartworm disease which happen in cats.Cats-lovers should notice that cats also have the possibility to suffer from heartworm disease if they are bitten by an infected mosquito. Fortunately, heartworms of cats are not serious as those of dogs. But cat-lovers should be careful to your cats for they are still at risk.
What is the difference of heartworm disease between dogs and cats.
Firstly, heartworms of cats stay shorter and grow faster than those of
dogs and the number of mature worms of cats is less than dogs’. Generally, larvae grows to mature heartworms within 8 months in cats and they can produce microfilariae at the moment. Cats’ worm burden isch less than dogs’ because cats generally have only one to four
worms.In addition, it is not easy to find microfilariae in cats’ bloodstream. 85 percent 0f dogs having heartworm disease are foud microfilariae in bloodstream, however, only about 20 percent of cats have microfilariae in bloodstream. Thus cats’ microfilariae is live shorter than dogs’.
Secondly , detection of infection in cats is not easy as that in dogs. The general method to test heartworm disease in cats is utilizing the combination of two heartworm tests. But negative test do not show the presence of heartworm disease and positive test do not imply that the cat have an active infection. It have to combine the test result with symptom of cats to draw a conclusion.
Thirdly, symptom of cats’ heartworm disease is different from dogs. It has been noticed that dogs’ symptom is apparent, but cats’ is not. About 60 percent of cats can heal themselves showing no symptoms and a few cats will die in a sudden for heartworm disease without any symptom. The most apparent symptom of infected cats is the lung
discomfort which is caused by worms living in bloodstream. If a cat was bitten by an infected mosquito, it would takes 4 to 6 months to deliver the immature heartworms to heart and lung. When the immature heartworms die , the cat’s lung will have a obvious reaction. This reaction present as breathe with difficulty and cough. After the death of mature heartworms, toxins released by dead hearworms may lead to a worse lung disease , cardiac failure and even death.
Prevention
Of course, the best therapy is prevention. Some reliable products for preventing cats from heartworm disease including oral products and other types of products have been launched. What’s more, keeping the living places of cats clean is also vital.