Worms, worms and more worms!!!

 I wanted to yet again stress the importance of monthly heartworm prevention and intestinal parasite control. It is a very simple thing to prevent, and can safeguard your pets and your human family.  Many of these parasites we treat monthly are passed from pets to people!!! I know gross!!!  They can literally spread to the eyes of humans and cause blindness.  I encourage you to ask your eye doctor about this during you next visit!

Heartworms are not passed to people but they can cause death in dogs and cats.  In cats since they are not the natural host it is often causes a sudden death, unlike dogs who often have coughing as one of the first symptoms.  Heartworms are easy to prevent in cats and dogs(ask your vet about options).  Heartworms are not treatable in cats, just preventable.  Heartworms are successfully treated in dogs but treatment is much more expensive than prevention.  Most of the heartworm preventions available today also contain a dewormer for the "pets to people" parasites as well!!

Here are a few Parasite Maps from the Companion Animal Parasite Councils website.  Very eye opening!  This is a very interactive site that covers way more than the 2 maps below.  Click on the link above and check them all out.

First one is for Cats and Roundworms:  Roundworms are parasites that live in the intestines and are passed from pets to people.  Just a little interesting fact for all the indoor cat owners out there, "15% of all potting soil contains roundworm eggs"!!

http://www.capcvet.org/parasite-prevalence-maps/

This second map is for Dogs and Heartworms.  All I have to say is 1 in every 80 dogs tested ( I stress 'tested', what about non-tested dogs...) are positive for heartworms in the state of Texas!!! WOW!

http://www.capcvet.org/parasite-prevalence-maps/