If your dog spends a lot of time outdoors by water sources, such as rivers, ponds, lakes, things like that versus desert areas, that could increase their risk since mosquitoes spread heartworm. But the best protection you can offer your pet is keeping them on prevention.

It is a parasite that is transmitted through a mosquito. The mosquito will have the larval or the microfilaria stage. As the mosquito bites your pet, it delivers that microfilaria into your pet, and then from there, that microfilaria develops and grows into the adult heartworm.

If your dog is spending a lot of time outside or in the woods, maybe in fields with tall grass or things like that, and they're not on prevention, then they're at a higher risk for contracting these parasites.

They can, especially here in Kentucky—it's not like Alaska, where it gets super cold, so we see fleas and ticks all year round.

They do not discriminate, so whether your dog has short hair, long hair, or no hair, they will be there.

They do. And the reason is, we want to make sure that we're not letting any heartworms slip through the cracks. We want to ensure that the product is as effective as possible because nothing has a hundred percent guarantee anymore, and we want to try to keep your pet as safe as possible.

We will often do some follow-up tests. We'll look for the larval stage of that heartworm, the microfilariae, on a blood drop under the microscope to confirm that the heartworms are there. Sometimes we do a secondary confirmation with a send-out lab to be extra sure. But most times, that initial test is definitive.