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This article is taken from the FDA site:

They Write;

“The bad news: Heartworm disease can be fatal to dogs, cats, and ferrets. The good news: You can protect your pet from this disease.

It’s a preventable disease, which is why it’s so frustrating as a practitioner when you see a case,” says Melanie McLean, D.V.M., a veterinarian at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Treatment can be hard on animals, and McLean says it’s much easier and healthier for the pet to prevent the disease in the first place.

Heartworms are carried by infected mosquitoes that transmit parasitic worms that grow in the arteries of the lungs and heart of dogs, cats, and other species of mammals, including ferrets. The heartworm larvae enter the bite wound and move through the pet's body. They can grow up to 12 inches long.

The disease is not contagious from one pet to another, and heartworms in humans are very rare.

The FDA recommends the use Heartworm Prevention Medication Year-Round

The FDA has approved several heartworm prevention medications for dogs and cats, but only one, to date, for ferrets. Treatment can vary, as oral, injectable or topical, depending on the animal species, but they all target heartworm larvae, not adults.

That’s one reason veterinarians often recommend that pets receive heartworm prevention medication all year long. Although there are a fewer number of mosquitoes in the winter, there is still a risk that an animal could contract heartworms if the owner stops giving medication during this season.

“You never know when the first mosquito is going to come out, or when the last mosquito is going to die. Heartworms have been reported in dogs in all 50 states, and just because you live in a state with a colder climate doesn’t mean that your animal is safe,” McLean warns. Animal owners who stop giving heartworm prevention medication during the winter run the risk of their animal contracting heartworms. If the animal becomes infected and you later resume giving the heartworm prevention medication without testing, you may be putting your pet in danger. The preventive medication can kill so many microfilariae (the offspring of adult, female heartworms) at once that it could shock the animal’s system, with potentially fatal results. Also, the prevention medication will not kill adult heartworms, which will continue to reproduce.

Testing for Heartworms is Important

Be sure to have your veterinarian test your dog before you start using a heartworm prevention medication. (Prevention medications for dogs come in all three forms: oral, topical, and injectable. Talk to your veterinarian about which is best for your dog.) Dogs that have heartworms may not show symptoms right away, and your veterinarian can easily test your dog with a simple blood test.

And even if you’ve kept your dog on a steady regimen of preventive medication, your veterinarian should test for heartworms on a yearly basis. No drug is 100 percent effective, and you want to make sure the drug is working. Moreover, owners often forget to give the prevention medication for a month or longer.

Cats and Ferrets: Indoor Pets Need Heartworm Prevention Medication, Too

Even if your pet rarely or never goes outside, she should still take a heartworm prevention medication. Mosquitoes that transmit heartworms can easily access the indoor environment (and therefore your pet) through open doors and windows.

Heartworms don’t survive as well in cats as they do in dogs, but cats are still at risk for heartworm disease. However, diagnosing heartworms in cats is not as easy, and testing is not as simple, or accurate, as in dogs. In addition to blood work, testing in cats can include X-rays and ultrasounds.

Unlike for heartworm disease in dogs, there is no FDA-approved treatment for killing adult heartworms in cats. Because of the additional complications associated with diagnosing and treating cats, prevention becomes the best weapon against heartworms in cats. It’s best to place both indoor and outdoor cats on a year-round, FDA-approved medication to prevent heartworms. For cats, there are both topical and oral prevention medications.

Testing for heartworms in ferrets is also not as easy, simple, or as reliable as in dogs. No drugs are FDA-approved to treat heartworm disease in ferrets, so prevention is critical. There is one drug (Advantage Multi for Cats) approved to prevent heartworms in ferrets. It’s a topical medication, and is also useful for killing adult fleas.

Useful Tips About Heartworms and Your Pet

• Talk to your veterinarian about when and how often to test your pet for heartworms.
• Talk to your veterinarian about which type of heartworm prevention medication is best for your pet. For example, pet owners with children should pay particular attention when using topical treatments, which are applied to the skin, and follow the directions carefully to minimize the child’s exposure.
• Heartworm prevention medications are by prescription only—so beware of an internet site or store that will dispense medicine without a prescription.
• FDA monitors approved heartworm prevention medications for problems that may occur with use, such as unexpected side effects. Pet owners are encouraged to report any side effects to their veterinarian and the drug company that manufactured the prevention medication”.

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Heartworm in cats

Heartworm in cats is caused by the same parasitic worm – Dirofilaria immitis– as in dogs, the transmission path between animals is the same, spread by mosquitoes, but the disease has several major differences.

While the dog is the natural host for heartworm the cat is not.

A dog can have many adult heartworms. A cat often no more than eight.

In dogs the disease is caused by the larger size and number of worms, in cats the disease is caused by the smaller worms but a greater inflammatory reaction to them, particularly in the lungs.

In dogs the average lifespan of a heartworm is 5 to 6 years, worms can grow up to foot in length. In cats average lifespan is 2 to 3 years, maximum length around 8 inches.

Because the size of the organs in cats are generally smaller, a fewer number of worms can cause adverse reactions.

Signs & Symptoms. 

Symptoms in cats differ from those in dogs because the heart worms are more likely to infect the lungs.

In cats the first symptoms usually show up as coughing or wheezing. If the disease a left to progress, further symptoms show as weight loss, loss of appetite, vomiting and eventually death.

There are two stages of the disease in cats, first stage would usually occur within 70 to 90 days, when the smaller worms have migrated from the skin to the heart and lungs.  At this stage the lungs become inflamed and the result is the classic coughing and wheezing.

Second and much worse stage occurs when the worms die, as the worms break down they poison the blood, this causes a massive immune response, overloading the cats system causing it to go into shock.  At this point death is most likely, unfortunately at this point no treatment is available.

What can be done then?

So if no treatment is available, then what can we do?  Clearly prevention is better than cure. 

Dog owners are well aware of the risk of heartworms.  Cat owners on the other hand are less aware, unfortunately for cat owners the disease is so hard to detect that it can often go unnoticed till it’s to late.

There is no treatment available for cats at this point, but there are effective prevention medications that – as a bonus also combat fleas.  Application is simple, just a case of applying monthly between the shoulder blades. So no fleas and no worms!

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Heartworm in dogs

Heartworm disease in dogs is the result of an infection of the parasitic worm – Dirofilaria immitis. Dogs contract this heartworm after a bite from infected mosquito.

To understand how to prevent this debilitating condition in your dog let’s take a look at the life cycle of the worm.  The life cycle of the worm begins when the mosquito that bites the dog injects a small bit of saliva and previous blood meal into the dogs skin. this injection by the mosquito contains anticoagulant compounds which reduce blood clotting in the area of the mosquito is feeding from, this injection from the mosquito may also contain microfilaria -larvae- from a previous blood meal.

The injected larvae grow in the dogs skin for up to 2 weeks before they migrate to the dogs heart. After about two months the small worms have completed their journey from the skin of the dog to its pulmonary artery where they take up residence, then over the next three months, they continue their growth into adult worms.  Adult female worms can grow up to 12 inches in Length.  They continue to grow and breed and increase in numbers.  The offspring that they produce are known as microfilaria, these then migrate into the bloodstream and circulate throughout the body.

Microfilaria can live up to two years in your dog’s blood stream waiting for the next mosquito to bite the dog and transfer them to the next host.  Adult heartworms can live 3 to 6 years in your dog’s body.

All dogs are at risk of catching heartworm disease, but dogs living in warmer climates are more prone to the disease where is dogs and cooler climates and less susceptible to mosquito bites.

How disease symptoms make themselves apparent is by coughing and wheezing, an intolerance to exercise, loss of appetite, though some dogs just show a general decline in conditioning. Heartworm disease initially causes damage to the tissues of the heart but over time the worms can make their way to the lungs, this stage of the infection causes the classic wheezing and the coughing up of blood. If the growth of these worms is left unchecked they will continue to migrate through the body making their way to the liver. At this point it takes a massive toll on the doge immune system, and death is certain if the disease remains untreated.

Treatment is available for infected dogs, it is expensive and it will kill the worm, the issue being though the dead worms will leave the organs and enter the bloodstream, where they then start to breakdown, this causes a massive toxic shock to the dog and death again is a very real possibility. Clearly prevention is better than cure.

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