Is my dog coughing from heartworms? How are they detected and spread?

I am sorry to hear that your dog is coughing. There are so many reasons for chronic cough such as allergic bronchitis, pulmonary hypertension, heartworm disease, enlarged heart, fungal infection, parasites, and cancer. To answer your question heartworm is transmitted by mosquitoes only and can not pass through people. Also, there is no answer to how long it takes for a cough to resolve. It completely depends on what is causing the cough. I would highly encourage you to consider a follow up appointment with your veterinarian soon. X-rays, bloodwork, and a fecal exam may be recommended to help determine the diagnosis and best treatment plan. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your school project. I am an associate veterinarian in Colorado Springs, CO. I have been in practice for 12 years. I recently saw. a case of heartworm disease. The dog was a 5 year old spayed female mixed breed dog. She was rescued from a group in southern Colorado. Thankfully she was not symptomatic for the disease and responded well to treatment. Heartworm disease is transmitted to dogs by mosquito bites. I hope this information helps!

Hello, there are multiple causes for a cough like the one you are describing. One potential cause may include heartworm disease, however, this can be checked with a snap test. If it returns positive for heartworm, then there are medications you can try at home to treat this disease. Other causes may include heart disease and lung disease. Some primary lung diseases such as bronchitis and pneumonia can cause this. To fully explore this causes for your dog's cough, he may need x-rays, a cardiology consultation, and a heart worm test. The other cause in smaller dogs include a collapsing trachea. Ideally your coughing dog should not live an fast or active lifestyle to prevent exacerbation of her cough and from her going into respiratory distress. Please see your veterinarian soon if your dog continues to cough. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Hello, & thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. We usually do a test where the antigen to heartworms can be quantified using a very small amount of blood. There are many companies that make these tests & they usually are less than $40 to run. The test only takes 10 minutes & shows either positive or negative. If a dog has a significant number of heartworms, sometimes you can see them directly in a drop of blood under a microscope. If the test comes back positive, depending on the overall health of your pet, we start therapy first with a round of the antibiotic Doxycycline, then we use a form of medical grade arsenic, injected into a muscle, either 2 or 3 times over a short course of time. This will kill any adult heartworm that are in the heart & in the vasculature in the lungs. It sounds pretty intense, but most dogs come through very, very nicely. I hope this helps. Take care.

Yes, if you live in an area with mosquitos. Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, not by dog to dog contact. The mosquito injects larva into the blood when they bite the dog and over six months they grow into adult heartworms that live in the heart and surrounding blood vessels. Infected dogs have many worms in their heart and they eventually die of heart failure if not treated. The treatment is expensive and can be hard on the dog. Heartworm prevention is given monthly for life and protects your dog from heartworms and intestinal parasites. There are many different safe products some that include flea prevention also. Please talk with your veterinarian about getting prevention for Sophie soon. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Sophie.

The dogs cannot directly spread heartworm disease between each other. However, mosquitoes can bite your newly adopted dog and if they bite your other two dogs, they could transmit heartworm disease. Make sure your other two dogs have been heartworm tested recently and are receiving heartworm prevention every month without fail. If you do those things, there should not be an issue. :-)

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Besides being due to heartworms, coughing can be a sign of many conditions such as pneumonia, bronchitis, heart disease, among many other possibilities. I recommend that you have Scooby evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Likely diagnostics to be performed include thoracic radiographs and bloodwork. Treatment would be dependent on findings. Good luck and have a good night!