Heartworm disease is a serious and preventable parasitic condition causing severe cardiopulmonary damage and welfare harm in affected dogs.
Heartworm disease causes progressive cardiopulmonary suffering that owners often attribute to normal ageing until the disease is well advanced. By the time clinical signs are obvious, significant irreversible damage has often occurred. Prevention through regular, consistently administered prophylactic medication is straightforward, inexpensive, and almost completely effective. Treatment of established disease causes significant iatrogenic welfare harm as well as targeting the disease itself.