Heartworm prevention is very effective. As long as the heartworms aren't resistant to the medications, then it will kill all of them.

We usually start puppies at 8 to 12 weeks of age, depending on the type of prevention. Once you adopt a dog, that's when you want to go ahead and get started as well.

Heartworm disease is prevented by using different oral, topical, or injectable medications.

The more time dogs spend outside, the higher their risk of contracting heartworm disease. However, even indoor dogs, especially in areas like Florida, can still come in contact with mosquitoes and are therefore also at risk.

Heartworms are transmitted through mosquitoes. Mosquitoes take a blood meal from a dog, which contains the heartworm larvae, and then they go and drink from another dog where they inject some of that blood with the microfilaria into the next dog.

Canine heartworm disease is caused by heartworms, which are parasites that live in the bloodstream.

The main risk is congestive heart failure leading to death.

It is very rare for dogs to have complications. Most of the side effects involve a little bit of GI issue and of course they could have allergic reactions, but these drugs are usually typically very safe.

Yes, there are risks. The greater the stage, the more risk that you take when you're doing heartworm treatment. So you want to catch it as early as you can.

The complications of heartworm disease include exercise intolerance, coughing, potential heart disease and death.