Occurrence of Heartworms in Cats
Heartworms had always been more prevalent in dogs. It was thought
earlier, that heartworms never infected cats. But it all changed, when
research showed cats do have heartworms in their heart, and it could be
as deadly as it is in dogs.
Still, the extent of the affect of heartworms in cats do wary, and it is
in sharp contrast to the affect of heartworms in dogs.
Firstly, the number of heartworms in cats is much lesser in number. You
would find only 1-3 heartworms in a cat’s body. Still, even a single
heartworm could be detrimental for a cat, especially if the heartworm is
a grown up adult.
Symptoms of heartworms in cats
A cat when affected by heartworms could face severe coughing, or even
vomiting. These are the few signs of heartworm disease in cats, but it
may also be a passing irregularity, and not exactly a heartworm symptom.
The major symptom of heartworms in cats is however, the breathing
problems. If your cat has begun breathing faster than normal, then you
should call a vet and get your cat checked.
Your cat might also experience sudden weight loss, which is again, a
prominent heartworm symptom in cats.
How to diagnose heartworms in cats?
Diagnosing heartworms in cats is very difficult, because the tests
normally don’t pick, if there’s any heartworms present in a cat’s body.
Even if, the cat has heartworms, still the tests may show negative, and
that is a cause for concern.
You are however, advised to undergo specific blood tests of your cat,
which increases your chances to trace heartworms in cats.
The tests are performed in two steps.
- Heartworm antibody tests. This test is conducted on cats
to make sure if there’s any heartworm present, dead or alive. Even
if the heartworms had died, the blood tests would indicate positive.
However, heartworms in other parts of the cat’s body would also test
positive. The most remarkable aspect of the test is that the tests
would also catch any non adult heartworms present in cats.
- Heartworm antigen test. It is the second test, and
conducted to ascertain the presence of adult female heartworms. The
tests only confirms the presence of adult female heartworms, which
eventually means, if the cat’s body has male, or non adult
heartworms, the tests would show negative results. However, the test
would show positive results, only if the cat’s body has two adult
female heartworms.
The test becomes successful, if both the tests show positive
results.
There are still more tests to confirm the presence of heartworms in
cats.
Ultrasound is used more often by vets these days, to find
heartworms inside a cat’s body.
The result has been mixed, in some cases, cats have not tested
positive, even though the cat had heartworms. While in few other
cases, the cats had tested positive.
The process of ultrasound does search a cat’s body, to locate
heartworms. Normal adult heartworms are picked by ultra sound more
easily.
Length of heartworms in cats
An adult heartworm would grow as long as 11 inches and remain in a
cat’s heart. Equally long heartworms are also found in arteries
leading to the heart.
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