28/08/2026
🐾❤️ Meet Valerie — a beautiful girl with a very important story to share. ❤️🐾
Valerie is a gorgeous 2-year-old girl who came to us for a routine check health check-up, where she also tested positive for heartworm! Valerie didn't have any symptoms, highlighting just how important testing is for pets who have never been on heartworm prevention before.
For the past 3+ months, Valerie has been undergoing the long, gruelling treatment required to fight this serious disease. It hasn’t been an easy journey for this young girl, but we are absolutely thrilled to say that Valerie is doing really well! 🥰🐶
Her story is an important reminder that heartworm is not something we can assume is “not around here.”
🦟 We DO have heartworm in the Toowoomba region.
Heartworm is caused by a parasite that is spread by mosquitoes. When an infected mosquito bites a dog, it can transmit heartworm larvae. Over time, these parasites mature into adult worms that live in the heart and major blood vessels of the body.
Heartworm disease can cause:
❤️ Damage to the heart and lungs
🫁 Severe respiratory disease
😔 Exercise intolerance, coughing and lethargy
⚠️ Permanent organ damage
💔 And in severe cases, it can be fatal
The really tricky part? Dogs can have heartworm for a long time before obvious signs appear. By the time symptoms become noticeable, significant damage may already have occurred.
🛡️ Prevention is MUCH better than treatment
Heartworm disease is preventable with regular heartworm prevention. Depending on your dog's individual circumstances, there are different preventative options available, including monthly and longer-acting treatments.
Once a dog is diagnosed with heartworm, treatment is considerably more involved, expensive and much riskier than prevention. Treatment involves carefully killing the adult worms while managing the potential complications that can occur as the worms die.
Valerie's treatment has required months of care, patience and monitoring, and we couldn't be happier to see this beautiful girl doing so well. 🥰
Please don't assume your dog is safe from heartworm simply because you live in the Toowoomba area. Heartworm is here, and prevention matters.
If you're unsure whether your dog's heartworm prevention is current, or you're not sure which option is best for your pet, please give our team a call on 46308399. We'd much rather help you prevent this disease than have to treat it.
🐾 Protect them before the mosquitoes get them. 🦟❤️