Welcome to Hopkins Pet Hospital!

Did you know that it’s National Pet Dental Health Month? The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) started this awareness campaign several years ago to alert people about the importance of caring for their pet’s oral health. Although most pet owners take excellent care of their dog or cat, many often overlook tooth brushing and scheduling regular professional cleanings. The result is that 80 percent of companion animals have some form of dental disease by the time they reach age three. The Hopkins Pet Hospital veterinary team encourages you to strongly consider the importance of dental health for your pet.

Now that the calendar has officially flipped over to 2019, you may be focusing on meeting some new resolutions for the upcoming year. Perhaps one of those is to be an even greater pet owner than you already are. This is an excellent resolution, and Hopkins Pet Hospital wishes to offer some tips below to help you achieve it!

The heartworm parasite prevents a serious and sometimes fatal threat to companion animals. Unfortunately, it is not difficult for your pet to be infected,  and it’s difficult to treat in dogs. There is no heartworm treatment for cats.

 

The main route of heartworm transmission to dogs and cats is through a mosquito bite. When a mosquito bites an infected animal such as a dog, cat, coyote, fox, or wolf, its takes in larvae from baby worms. The larvae develop into mature heartworm over the next 10 to 14 days. If the mosquito lives that long, it will bite again and transmit heartworm to an unprotected pet or wild animal.