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Reminder: Your cat should be receiving heart worm preventative



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 1st 06, 02:24 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
MaryL
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,779
Default Reminder: Your cat should be receiving heart worm preventative

Just a reminder: This is prime mosquito season, and cats *can* get
heartworms (with deadly results). I live in East Texas, so my twosome get
Heartgard all 12 months, whereas those in northern areas probably need it
only for certain months of the year (ask your vet). I always use it on the
first day of the month because that makes it easy for me to remember -- and
is also the reason for this reminder. Many of you already use Heartgard,
but I frequently meet people who have never heard of it or who think that
only dogs can get heartworms. Heartworms are more common in dogs, but they
are often even more disastrous in cats.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e
Recent pics: http://tinyurl.com/clal7


  #2  
Old July 1st 06, 07:28 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
22brix
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 506
Default Reminder: Your cat should be receiving heart worm preventative


"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message
news:FIupg.22744$8q.10361@dukeread08...
Just a reminder: This is prime mosquito season, and cats *can* get
heartworms (with deadly results). I live in East Texas, so my twosome get
Heartgard all 12 months, whereas those in northern areas probably need it
only for certain months of the year (ask your vet). I always use it on
the first day of the month because that makes it easy for me to
remember -- and is also the reason for this reminder. Many of you already
use Heartgard, but I frequently meet people who have never heard of it or
who think that only dogs can get heartworms. Heartworms are more common
in dogs, but they are often even more disastrous in cats.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e
Recent pics: http://tinyurl.com/clal7

I totally agree--before I realized it was a problem in our area I had two
cats with heartworm. I'm in Northern California and since it's so dry here
in the summer you wouldn't think this would be an area that would support
that many mosquitoes. It's pretty mild and rainy here in winter and we can
see mosquitoes even in January if it's been warm.

Hailey survived with few symptoms after the initial episode where he briefly
lost consciousness. If I hadn't seen it happen I never would have known he
was sick. Sweet Sam had to be euthanized after a miserable, horrible
illness. Sam had would have difficulty breathing, my wonderful vet would
remove fluid from around his lungs but it would just come back until he
finally started coughing up blood. It can cause sudden death with no prior
symptoms. It's an awful disease and it's so easily prevented.

As far as I know there is not an effective treatment. Cats hearts and blood
vessels are so small that when the adult worms die they eventually break up
and can clog the blood vessels. When my first cat Hailey was diagnosed the
emergency vet (of course it's never my vet on in an emergency!) said that
there were studies at Davis University Vet School (in Davis! CA) where they
were doing open heart surgery and scooping out the worms but only if the
worms could be seen on the right side of the heart. It was very risky.

I'll get off my soapbox now but it's something I feel very passionate about
after seeing what it could do to my own cat friends.

Bonnie


  #3  
Old July 1st 06, 07:43 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
MaryL
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,779
Default Reminder: Your cat should be receiving heart worm preventative


"22brix" wrote in message
...

"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message
news:FIupg.22744$8q.10361@dukeread08...
Just a reminder: This is prime mosquito season, and cats *can* get
heartworms (with deadly results). I live in East Texas, so my twosome
get Heartgard all 12 months, whereas those in northern areas probably
need it only for certain months of the year (ask your vet). I always use
it on the first day of the month because that makes it easy for me to
remember -- and is also the reason for this reminder. Many of you
already use Heartgard, but I frequently meet people who have never heard
of it or who think that only dogs can get heartworms. Heartworms are
more common in dogs, but they are often even more disastrous in cats.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e
Recent pics: http://tinyurl.com/clal7

I totally agree--before I realized it was a problem in our area I had two
cats with heartworm. I'm in Northern California and since it's so dry
here in the summer you wouldn't think this would be an area that would
support that many mosquitoes. It's pretty mild and rainy here in winter
and we can see mosquitoes even in January if it's been warm.

Hailey survived with few symptoms after the initial episode where he
briefly lost consciousness. If I hadn't seen it happen I never would have
known he was sick. Sweet Sam had to be euthanized after a miserable,
horrible illness. Sam had would have difficulty breathing, my wonderful
vet would remove fluid from around his lungs but it would just come back
until he finally started coughing up blood. It can cause sudden death
with no prior symptoms. It's an awful disease and it's so easily
prevented.

As far as I know there is not an effective treatment. Cats hearts and
blood vessels are so small that when the adult worms die they eventually
break up and can clog the blood vessels. When my first cat Hailey was
diagnosed the emergency vet (of course it's never my vet on in an
emergency!) said that there were studies at Davis University Vet School
(in Davis! CA) where they were doing open heart surgery and scooping out
the worms but only if the worms could be seen on the right side of the
heart. It was very risky.

I'll get off my soapbox now but it's something I feel very passionate
about after seeing what it could do to my own cat friends.

Bonnie



Thanks for your report. That is painful even to read about, but you have
done a great service because so few people realize how bad heartworm can be
in cats.

MaryL


  #4  
Old July 1st 06, 08:33 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
22brix
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 506
Default Reminder: Your cat should be receiving heart worm preventative


"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message
news:qnzpg.22805$8q.6923@dukeread08...

"22brix" wrote in message
...

"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message
news:FIupg.22744$8q.10361@dukeread08...
Just a reminder: This is prime mosquito season, and cats *can* get
heartworms (with deadly results). I live in East Texas, so my twosome
get Heartgard all 12 months, whereas those in northern areas probably
need it only for certain months of the year (ask your vet). I always
use it on the first day of the month because that makes it easy for me
to remember -- and is also the reason for this reminder. Many of you
already use Heartgard, but I frequently meet people who have never heard
of it or who think that only dogs can get heartworms. Heartworms are
more common in dogs, but they are often even more disastrous in cats.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e
Recent pics: http://tinyurl.com/clal7

I totally agree--before I realized it was a problem in our area I had two
cats with heartworm. I'm in Northern California and since it's so dry
here in the summer you wouldn't think this would be an area that would
support that many mosquitoes. It's pretty mild and rainy here in winter
and we can see mosquitoes even in January if it's been warm.

Hailey survived with few symptoms after the initial episode where he
briefly lost consciousness. If I hadn't seen it happen I never would have
known he was sick. Sweet Sam had to be euthanized after a miserable,
horrible illness. Sam had would have difficulty breathing, my wonderful
vet would remove fluid from around his lungs but it would just come back
until he finally started coughing up blood. It can cause sudden death
with no prior symptoms. It's an awful disease and it's so easily
prevented.

As far as I know there is not an effective treatment. Cats hearts and
blood vessels are so small that when the adult worms die they eventually
break up and can clog the blood vessels. When my first cat Hailey was
diagnosed the emergency vet (of course it's never my vet on in an
emergency!) said that there were studies at Davis University Vet School
(in Davis! CA) where they were doing open heart surgery and scooping out
the worms but only if the worms could be seen on the right side of the
heart. It was very risky.

I'll get off my soapbox now but it's something I feel very passionate
about after seeing what it could do to my own cat friends.

Bonnie



Thanks for your report. That is painful even to read about, but you have
done a great service because so few people realize how bad heartworm can
be in cats.

MaryL


Yeah, it was very painful. I felt so guilty about not using preventatives.
I'm a microbiologist in a local health department lab and I should have
known but these were indoor cats and I didn't realize we were in an endemic
area. It wasn't something that came up on my radar. We'd always given our
dog Heartgard but I really wasn't aware of how bad it could be for cats. I
also thought that if they were indoors they should be fine. According to my
vet the mosquitoes that carry heartworm do come into houses, even with
screened windows.

The sad thing with Sam was that he was a stray that we'd taken in (after the
neighbors decided they didn't want to feed the 10+ cats they'd been
feeding--they didn't even move, they just stopped feeding them). By that
time we'd gone through Hailey's illness and all my cats were on Heartgard.
We started him on Heartgard when we brought him in but I guess he'd already
been exposed. All cats are special but he was just a sweet, sweet cat and
he was young (maybe 3 years old). They loved him at the vet and cried just
as hard as I did when we finally had to euthanize him.

If my story will help any cat from getting this disease it'd be wonderful.
Bonnie


 




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