One of the most common questions that we receive at West Park Animal Hospital is how to protect your pets from heartworm disease. This topic is very important to us too as we have seen the damage that this horrible disease can cause. We want to ensure you have plenty of options to protect your family. Heartworm is a parasite that lives in the heart and surrounding blood vessels of dogs, cats and sometimes other species. It can be spread by a single mosquito bite and is prevalent in Florida and the Tampa Bay area. Once a pet has heartworm disease, the treatment process can be long, expensive and painful.

Unfortunately, even with treatment, the damage caused by these worms to the heart, lungs and other organs is irreversible and can affect your pet for the rest of their life. The good news is, the preventatives we stock, such as Advantage Multi, and Interceptor Plus are very effective at reducing this risk and preventing heartworm disease. As a bonus, they can help protect your pets against parasites that live in their intestines. Please reach out to us to schedule an appointment to have your pet tested and get them started on a life-saving preventative.