The Risks To Dogs Of Lungworm
Your pet dog and Angiostrongylus vasorum, lungworm.
Most dog owners are unaware of just how common and easily contracted lungworm, like many other diseases, is. Even though lungworm is easily treatable, it’s important to keep up your pet insurance policy so that the grave consequences otherwise possible are avoided.
Joe Inglis, the celebrity vet, is not the only expert to have made recent comments about the danger to pet dogs posed by lungworm. How do dogs become infected and how can owners prevent the infection in the first place?
Molluscs such as slugs and snails often harbour a parasite called A. vasorum so that their ingestion can lead to the contraction of lungworm. The problem is caused by this organism even though it does not affect humans.
A dog can easily unknowingly eat one of these unsavoury molluscs whilst chewing a toy or scavenging.
What happens when a pooch gets this far? According to Bayer Animal Health, which is currently running the Be Lungworm Aware campaign to raise public interest in the issue, the main problems that come with digesting an infected mollusc is the fact dogs can then easily contract the disease in a cycle which is hard to interrupt or eliminate. This is so because other dogs will become infected through contact with their excrement.
The research showed that in spite of over 60% of UK dog owners knowing that lungworm could be fatal, only about half knew how the infection was acquired.
Dr Inglis was disturbed to learn that less than half had any knowledge of the disease at all.
The blood vessels that lead to the lungs become infected as a result of the adult parasites making the heart and vascular system their home. Respiratory distress, shown by chronic coughing and lack of energy, can result from this.
Bleeding copiously if cut - because of damage to its blood clotting mechanisms - and a general lifelessness are additional symptoms.
It is important to realise that lungworm is an easily treatable disease, Dr Inglis said, as long as pet health care is sought as soon as these signs become apparent. If, however, you do not obtain treatment right away, your pet’s health can rapidly decline to a fatal conclusion.
The assumption that a three-month worming would eliminate all parasites, including A. vasorum, might easily be made by some pet owners.This, unfortunately, is not so. A completely separate course of treatment is necessary to eliminate the lungworm although prevention is possible, say the Bayer Animal Health initiative, by means of the monthly application of a topical solution.
The chances of your pet catching lungworm by cross-infection can be reduced by clearing up any dog mess that you might come across.
By bringing inside all objects that might end up with molluscs attached if left outside, Dr Inglis suggested that the risk of infection would be reduced.
Putting up a list of lungworm symptoms in your home could be a way of eliminating the disease.
This way, you will have the information you need right at your fingertips should your pooch begin to exhibit any worrying signs.