That's a great question because there is a vector for heartworm disease. If we could get rid of mosquitoes, that would get rid of heartworm disease. As you’re likely aware, mosquitoes transmit all kinds of diseases. And if we could eradicate mosquitoes, there would be lots of diseases that we would be able to get rid of. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. So even a strictly indoor dog, which is rare, that never steps foot outside is still going to be at risk in Texas because mosquitoes fly. They can get into the house, bite your dog, and transmit heartworm disease. You can do things in the environment to reduce your mosquito exposure, which I think is helpful and useful. Still, it in no way makes it okay for your dog to not be on heartworm prevention because you can never guarantee there won't be a mosquito in the environment.

At this point, no. There is not anything effective for treating heartworm disease. And so the simple answer to that is no, there's not.

Yeah, that's a great question. If you get on the internet, you're going to see many talks about heartworm preventions being a slow kill heartworm treatment. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There has been some recent research with one topical product, as the ingredient moxidectin was shown to at least shorten the adult heartworm lifespan. But it's still not considered an adulticide or something that kills or treats the heartworms. Heartworm prevention is part of the treatment in the sense of preventing further infection, but it's not a treatment for adult heartworms. That is a different treatment that needs to be done that has a much higher likelihood of clearing the infection of the adult worms.

That's always the question because heartworm preventions are so effective. The answer to that is yes because, especially in Texas, we have one of the highest incidences of heartworm disease in the entire country. And heartworm prevention is not 100% effective, so even if you give it consistently, I have had dogs come back positive. And this is true even when we were sure that the owners were giving it consistently. So that happens rarely, but it can. And realistically, many dogs, if not most dogs, are not on the prevention 100% accurately and on time all the time. These little lapses can turn into an issue as well.

Most, if not all, FDA-approved heartworm preventions are incredibly effective—in fact, over 99% effective. That's very fortunate because, again, in Texas, heartworm disease is such a big deal. Having prevention that we can be very confident in is a very good thing.

Every dog, especially in Texas, should start heartworm prevention by eight weeks of age. If your pet's over eight weeks of age, then get them on prevention as soon as possible. Mosquitoes, which transmit heartworm disease, will bite a young puppy and an adult dog, so we need to start them by eight weeks.

The big categories to think of are the monthly oral preventions, such as a chew or tablet that you give monthly. There are a couple of topical options that you put on with a little liquid directly on the skin that get absorbed systemically to act as heartworm prevention. Then, there is one injectable heartworm prevention that's given under the skin that lasts for six or 12 months, depending on which product it is.

Yeah, absolutely. Anything we do in the mouth that is going to cause discomfort, we always treat with pain meds. Even the basic cleaning is going to be somewhat uncomfortable, so we give them pain meds during the procedure. But anything postoperatively that's going to be painful, so for example, with extractions, we numb everything in the mouth before we do anything so they wake up comfortable and we can keep them on less anesthesia. Then, they're going to go home with anti-inflammatories at a minimum and sometimes additional pain medications because pain control is extremely important.