Parasite Prevention

Heartworm: the one you can't see coming

Heartworm is spread by mosquitoes, and Northeast Ohio has no shortage of those. The worms live in the heart and lungs, the disease is silent until it's advanced, and treatment is long, expensive, and hard on the dog. Prevention, by contrast, is a monthly chew or a long-acting injection.

Because a single missed month can let an infection take hold, the parasite council and heartworm society both recommend year-round prevention plus an annual test. Our 4Dx test ($40) checks for heartworm and three tick-borne diseases from one small blood sample.

Fleas and ticks in Northeast Ohio

Fleas and ticks used to be a spring-through-fall problem here. That's no longer true. Freezing weather doesn't kill ticks; they simply go dormant when temperatures sit around freezing (roughly 32–39°F, or 0–4°C) and become active again on any day above it, even in January. Recent winters here haven't been cold enough to knock them back, and fleas thrive indoors all winter once they arrive. Blacklegged (deer) ticks, the ones that carry Lyme disease, are now established across Ohio. That's why we recommend flea and tick prevention year-round, right alongside heartworm prevention.

Modern veterinary preventatives are safe and effective, but they're dosed by weight and species (never give a dog product to a cat), and counterfeit versions are common online. Over-the-counter products are often a different story: we regularly see pets on store-bought flea and tick treatments who still have fleas or ticks. We stock products we trust, price them fairly, and match them to your pet's size and lifestyle.

Intestinal parasites protect your family, too

Roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and giardia are common, often invisible, and some can spread to people, children especially. A fecal test ($40) finds them; deworming clears them. Puppies and kittens are dewormed on a schedule during their vaccine series, and adult pets benefit from a yearly fecal check, more often if they hunt, scavenge, or visit dog parks.