HEARTWORM DISEASE is a serious, often fatal disease of dogs caused by the internal parasite Dirofilaria immitus. Adult worms live inside the dog's heart and larval stages live in the dog's blood stream. The disease is spread from dog to dog by mosquitoes. Origninally a disease primarily of the southern states, it has now spread nationwide. Because of our year-round mosquito population and our outdoor lifestyle, South Florida has the highest rate of infection of the entire country. Unfortunately, estamates are that over half of all dogs are currently not on a heartworm prevention program. Adult heartworms reach a size of 8 to 14 inches in lenghth and 1/8 inch in diameter. As the number of adult worms present in the dog's heart increases(often times over 60 or 70), they interfere with the heart's ability to pump blood. Heartworms cause heart disease, interfere withcirculation to the lungs and vital oragans, and can cause damage to the vital organs. If untreated, they usually lead to the premature death of the dog. The disease is treatable, but the treatment is expensive, involved, and not without risk. fortunately, heartworm disease is now an easy disease to prevent. Two medications are now available which, ;when given monthly, will prevent the infection from developing. Adult dogs should be tested to be sure they are heartworm free before stating a preventive medication. Testing is optional in very young puppies--they should be started on preventive medication at 3 to 5 months of age. THE HEARTWORM TEST being used is an adult antigen type. The American Heartworm Society has recommended antigen testing over traditional microfilarial testing as the preferred method of deermining the presence of heartworm infection. Antigen testing is relaiable and accurate, detecting many ifections that microfilarial testing can miss. Heartworm antigen tests are often referred to by veterinarians as "occult" heartworm tests. This is because a dog can have a heavy infestation of adult heartworms in its heart, without having any ciruculating microfilaria. A dog with this type of infection will give a "false negative" when tested with the traditional micrfilarial methods. Hence the term "occcult' for the infection is "hidden" from these types of tests. So the Indexx Pet Check adult antigen test. It is an enzyme linked immunoassay test, commonly know in the medical field as "ELISA" type, which tests for antigens circulating in the dogs blood stream which are produced by the adult female heartworm. The specificity of the ELISA heartworm antigen tests are generally 99% or higher. Most studies have found sensitivity varies from 80% to 90%, which is much higher than traditonal microfilarial tests. A small sample of blood will be collected from you dog for analysis in the laboratory. Results will be discussed with you by your veterinary.