This week’s segment features Sophie the 9 year old pit bull terrier!!! 🐾Approximately a year ago when Sophie came for her annual wellness examination and testing we found that she tested positive for heartworm disease. Heartworm disease is a serious condition caused by worms that live in the heart, lungs, and blood vessels of affected dogs. It’s spread by mosquito bites—when a mosquito carrying heartworm larvae bites a dog, the larvae enter the bloodstream and grow into adult worms. Left untreated, heartworm disease can cause lasting damage to the heart and lungs, and may even be fatal, which is why prevention and treatment if diagnosed is so important! Given Sophie’s advanced age and other health conditions we elected to not pursue the traditional treatment for heartworms (melarsomine). Sophie is undergoing a slow kill treatment utilizing a 1 year heartworm shot- Proheart 12. This injection contains moxidectin which is an agent that will kill the adult heartworms in a slower fashion. Using this new protocol we were able to clear Sophie of her heartworm infection in just 1 year!! While the melarsomine injections are considered to be the gold standard to remove the heartworms, this new protocol allows for patients with concurrent disease processes to still undergo a safe and effective treatment. If you have questions about your pets heartworm status or utilizing this new method, give us a call at (662)524-4155!!! 🫀🪱