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Heartworms: 4 ways to protect your dog
from: The Complete DogThere are only two ways you can effectively prevent heartworms from attacking your dog and becoming a problem. First, never let a mosquito that carries heartworms get inside your house and near your dog. Second, never let your dog go outside of your house, not in your yard, and especially not during mosquito season.
These precautions would make sense if you lived in a brick house with no doors and windows! They might also work if you have a dog doesn't enjoy playing and being outdoors and has no need to go outside. In reality, however, there's no sure way to keep your pet from being bitten by a mosquito that carry heartworms. Since all dogs love playing outside and sticking their noses everywhere, it's important for them to get proper care and sensible preventative measures to ward off heartworm infestation.
Here are four suggestions you can apply that can reduce your dog's risk:
1. Consult your vet about preventive medication from heartworms so that even if your dog is bitten by a mosquito infected with this parasite, the medication in his body will automatically destroy the heartworms before they start to mature and cause illness. Even though your dog doesn't like the outdoors, it's always possible a mosquito can slip inside and stop by for a bite. So even if your dog is an indoor pet, it's a good idea to give him heartworm medication.
2. Before you administer the heartworm medication to your dog, make sure he isn't already infected. It can be dangerous to give heartworm preventive drugs to a dog already infected with the parasite. Have your vet perform a blood test before prescribing the medication and and then he can start taking the medication if he's clean. Keep in mind it's possible for some of the older tests for heartworm to be inaccurate. It's good to have your vet see your dog's record and decide if he needs to have a newer and more accurate test before administering the heartworm medication.
3. Since it's difficult to entirely eliminate mosquitoes away from you, your house and your dog, you can put up a tight-fitting door and window screens to minimize their chance of getting in. You should also replace or fix damaged screens as soon as you can.
4. If you've thought about putting up a birdhouse in your yard, then you should consider getting a purple martin birdhouse. The birdhouse will attract these hungry birds to your property where they can eat thousands of mosquitoes every day and thus minimize the number of mosquitoes, especially those infected with heartworms.
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