Deb from Custom Canine Unlimited explains that heartworms, spread by mosquitoes, can sideline working dogs for 6-12 months. The kennel does annual blood tests and starts prevention immediately on negative results, using monthly tablets or annual injectables. Heartworms take 6-7 months to show up in tests, so consistent prevention matters most.
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Welcome to this week's Short Set. My name is Deb, and I am the current Kennel Master at Custom Canine Unlimited. Today we're going to be talking about heartworm awareness, as April is the Heartworm Awareness Month. For working dogs specifically, heartworms pose a really big risk if they get bitten by a mosquito, which I know seems impossible with all their hair, but it does happen. It can put them out of work from anywhere from 6 months all the way up to a year, depending on if you do the fast kill or the slow kill. For most of our working dogs, the fast kill is going to be the safest option for us because they do not like being put on low crate rest and restraint, basically where they have to be on leash or in a crate at all times, and they're not allowed to do any type of work. This is why our kennel and what we recommend to our clients is to keep your dogs on heartworm prevention month to month, or even an injectable where they can get it every 6 months or every year. Every year your dog is supposed to get an annual visit at your veterinarian's office. and we do this for all of our dogs here when they come into our facility. Um, during this time is when we get their blood tests done, where they get the heartworm test. This is really important for us because heartworms take months to become positive in a dog's blood. It's 6 to 7 months, so if we don't get this done yearly and then get the dogs onto preventatives, sometimes it can be missed. So So we want to make sure that this is being done properly. With this, when your veterinarian does a blood draw, um, it's a pretty quick test that they do. Um, most are snap tests. It's just a single droplet of blood, and then they can tell you within a couple of minutes if your dog is positive or not. Once a dog has been tested negative for heartworms, we do put them directly on their prevention. Our kennel chooses monthly chewables because our dogs are only with us for such a short time. With this, we have had dogs who have tested positive before. This is always a really sad day for us. Not only is it an expense that we have to cover, but it does mean that, that dog is not able to train or work for upwards of 6 months. When we've had this, we do the fast kill as again, it's safest for our dogs here. However, a pet or a pet owner might be able to get away with the year-long or slow-kill version for heartworm prevention and the killing methods of the heartworms. As always, you should consult your veterinarian. They're going to determine how long your dog has had heartworms, how severe it is. They might even take x-rays. With this, it is something that can permanently have effects on your dog's lifespan by shortening it due to how the dog's heart and lungs have been affected. Heartworms themselves are really thread-like, almost see-through looking worms that affect the heart and lungs. So you're not able to see them if the dog's pooping. You're not able to see really any outward signs aside from the dog being a little bit more lethargic than normal, and then having that blood test pop up positive. When we had a dog who was heartworm positive, there were absolutely no outward signs. The dog was extremely high drive. They were jumping around, running around. They were completing training without any problems. The only thing we saw, which isn't normally typical, the dog was a lot more thirsty than normal. If your dog is being housed outside or anywhere where they're coming into direct contact with mosquitoes, you know, places like Florida where it's high humidity, Even places in South Carolina, North Carolina, if you're in the states, anywhere by like a sea line or a lake, these are going to be places that have a lot of mosquitoes present. You do want to make sure that you are preventing your dogs with the chewable or the shot monthly. Our kennel does not like to give topicals to our dogs, although there are topicals that can be given for heartworm prevention. we find that the excess amount of chemicals on their skin isn't always good for our working dogs. However, we know several other people use them, and they are a safe method for your dog if it's been prescribed by your veterinarian. This is just a short message from Custom K9 Unlimited because it is Heartworm Awareness Month. This is really important to us, and we hope that you take some notes on how to take care of your working dogs and your pets properly. We'll see you Friday.
