On Wednesday we took Jonah to our Vet to get a wellness checkup and routine blood test to keep as a baseline. We were surprised to hear back on Friday that Jonah tested positive for heart worm disease! We were in shock and terribly worried. No one at the Vet’s office had known a cat to test positive so they were equally surprised. Heartworms while quite common in dogs if not given preventative meds, is VERY rare in cats. The vet explained to us that the heartworm test run on him was an
antibody test which means that he had been exposed. It did not necessarily mean that he has an active infection. The best way to determine if he had an active infection was to run a heartworm
antigen test. Today we got the wonderful news that Jonah’s body self corrected the problem. Cats’ bodies are normally resistant hosts to heartworms so we’re SO happy that he won’t require lifelong treatment. The
American Heartworm Society website has an excellent explanation of feline heart worm disease. Yay for Jonah!
On Wednesday we took Jonah to our Vet to get a wellness checkup and routine blood test to keep as a baseline. We were surprised to hear back on Friday that Jonah tested positive for heart worm disease! We were in shock and terribly worried. No one at the Vet’s office had known a cat to test positive so they were equally surprised. Heartworms while quite common in dogs if not given preventative meds, is VERY rare in cats. The vet explained to us that the heartworm test run on him was an antibody test which means that he had been exposed. It did not necessarily mean that he has an active infection. The best way to determine if he had an active infection was to run a heartworm antigen test. Today we got the wonderful news that Jonah’s body self corrected the problem. Cats’ bodies are normally resistant hosts to heartworms so we’re SO happy that he won’t require lifelong treatment. The American Heartworm Society website has an excellent explanation of feline heart worm disease. Yay for Jonah!