How is my dog tested for heartworm disease?

It's a little bit of blood that we take from your dog, sometimes out of the front leg and other times out of the neck. We mix it with a reagent and put it in this test, and it takes about 10 minutes in our office. Ultimately, it'll give us a positive or a negative.

We test with blood, so we draw a couple of drops of blood from your pet. Many of them don't tend to mind it one bit. And we have a test here in-house that we run that lets us detect any of those adult female worms present in your dog.

It's a very simple blood test. We just take a small sample of blood. About three drops of blood are all we need, and then it is run on an in-house test.

Your dog is tested for heartworm disease annually, ideally during their wellness checkup at the veterinarian. Veterinarians across North America recommend this testing, which is done through a blood test.

Your dog is tested for heartworm disease by taking a small blood sample. The test can be run in the clinic and will give results usually in about 10 minutes. It is a very accurate test, requiring just a small blood sample.