Heartworm disease distribution is expanding with climate change, making awareness of regional risk and consistent prevention essential for dogs in increasingly affected areas.
Heavy heartworm burdens cause progressive cardiopulmonary disease that significantly compromises quality of life. Affected dogs experience reduced exercise tolerance, chronic cough, and eventually heart failure as worm burden accumulates over years. The disease progresses silently - dogs with early infection show no signs while worms grow and multiply. By the time clinical signs appear, significant irreversible cardiac and pulmonary damage may have occurred. Monthly prevention at minimal cost prevents this trajectory entirely. The failure to provide year-round prevention in endemic areas represents a preventable welfare failure that condemns dogs to years of progressive cardiopulmonary suffering.