{"id":2663,"date":"2013-09-09T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/?p=2663"},"modified":"2013-09-09T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T21:02:10","slug":"why-urban-dogs-need-heartworm-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/why-urban-dogs-need-heartworm-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Why urban dogs need heartworm prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>As part of an owner Q&amp;A column, veterinarian Ernie Ward explains that the rare and mild adverse reactions to heartworm prevention treatment are no reason to avoid the potentially life-saving preventive medication. Responding to a question about whether an urban dog needs the prophylactic care, Dr. Ward says any dog that might be exposed to mosquitoes is at risk. &#8220;The treatment [for heartworm] is no fun and has the potential for side effects,&#8221; Dr. Ward says. &#8220;And treatment is expensive. Prevention is best.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/r.smartbrief.com\/resp\/eJmTCertqOCjBbeaCidncUCicNmyhN?format=standard\" target=\"_blank\">The Hartford Courant (Conn.)\/Tribune Content Agency<\/a> (9\/7)<\/p>\n<p><b>Q:<\/b> We&#8217;re reluctant to give our 3-year-old Shih Tzu heartworm medication because of all those side effects. We&#8217;re thinking of stopping it. We live in the city and don&#8217;t visit the park; our dog spends a lot of time in our yard. What do you think?<\/p>\n<p><b>A:<\/b> &#8220;Absolutely, this is wrong,&#8221; saysDr. Ernie Ward, of Calabash, N.C. &#8220;The benefits of heartworm preventatives far outweigh any potential chance of an adverse affect. And if there are side effects, which again are rare, most often it&#8217;s diarrhea or vomiting, which go away. If a pet gets heartworm, the disease doesn&#8217;t just go away. The treatment [for heartworm] is no fun and has the potential for side effects. And treatment is expensive. Prevention is best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mosquitoes transmit heartworm, so where there are mosquitoes, there&#8217;s likely heartworm. Whether you live in the big city or not doesn&#8217;t matter; mosquitoes like urban life, too. And with your dog spending lots of time in the yard, it seems your dog is even more susceptible to mosquitoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of an owner Q&amp;A column, veterinarian Ernie Ward explains that the rare and mild adverse reactions to heartworm prevention treatment are no reason to avoid the potentially life-saving preventive medication. Responding to a question about whether an urban dog needs the prophylactic care, Dr. Ward says any dog that might be exposed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dogs","category-healthy-pets"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why urban dogs need heartworm prevention  | The Animal Health Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/why-urban-dogs-need-heartworm-prevention\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why urban dogs need heartworm prevention  | The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As part of an owner Q&amp;A column, veterinarian Ernie Ward explains that the rare and mild adverse reactions to heartworm prevention treatment are no reason to avoid the potentially life-saving preventive medication. 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