Thursday, March 14, 2013

Safe, Effective and Natural Preventative Methods for Heartworm

By Geraldine Dimarco


For people who own dogs, these precious pups are usually treated like children more than the animals that they are. As such, it is a difficult ordeal to watch them suffer sicknesses like heartworm that when left on its own for long, can result to serious complications, even death. Here are simple natural heartworm preventative measures that will help you in this matter.

Before we proceed, let us learn what a heartworm actually is. Heartworms are parasitic maggots that lodge itself in the canines tissues through mosquito bites. While not all mosquito bites are terminal, an infected mosquito will transfer its larva into the dogs bloodstream. The danger comes when the larva reaches maturity and travels to the vital organs like the heart and lungs.

The fundamental natural heartworm prevention tip is to ensure that your pet is supplied with fresh food. A good diet translates to a good immune system, which in turn wards off infections internally. Commercial food in the market contain processed chemicals that weaken this immune system; so give raw meat, vegetables and fruits and avoid food with artificial flavoring and excessive sugar.

Mosquitoes do not bite healthy animals. Hence, it will do your dog well to improve on the factors that will boost his immune system. Take care of the liver especially-- it functions to remove waste and stores essential vitamins and minerals. Other than a healthy diet, keep away from any form of synthetic medication that will introduce chemicals that are detrimental to your dogs system. Moreover, avoid stress inducing situations for the canine.

Another essential natural heartworm prevention tip is to make sure your dog has regular exercise. Engage in fun physical activities with your pet. Not only will it give you quality time, it will be good for his health as well. What exercise does is improve their heart and circulatory system. The red blood cells take oxygen throughout the body while the white blood cells fight any infection that tries to latch itself on the host. If your pet has a healthy heart, adult heartworms will find it difficult to implant itself in it.

If you stay in a place where contracting heartworms are more common than usual, be sure to visit your vet for regular check-ups. A simple blood test is sufficient to show if your pet is indeed infected with heartworms or any kind of sickness. Also, unless it is strongly recommended by the veterinarian, you must not administer synthetic drugs to the animal. Doing so will damage the immune system after a while.

It is definitely better to employ natural heartworm preventative measures than have a pet infected with heartworm. Medicines that are known to cure this infection are highly toxic because they serve to kill the heartworms, not prevent it. Because it is a form of insecticide, frequent doses of it, however small it may start with, will be bad for the other organs of the dog as well.

Animals that are lethargic and have lost a lot of weight might already have heartworm. Other symptoms include coughing and difficulty in breathing. If you find these in your pet, visit the vet as soon as possible.




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