The American Heartworm Society is the leading resource on heartworm disease, and our mission is to lead the veterinary profession and the public in the understanding of this serious disease. Every year, hundreds of stories are written on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of heartworm, as well as on the plight of affected pets. These stories are an important way of reaching both veterinary professionals and pet owners with information they need to know about heartworm disease.
The American Heartworm Society is led by a board of directors comprised of veterinarians and specialists in the fields of veterinary parasitology and internalmedicine. As leaders in the fight against heartworm disease, they are available as resources and authors of related stories.
Members of the media are encouraged to contact the American Heartworm Society for information, visuals and interviews about heartworm disease. Please contact Sue O’Brien at Obriensuek@gmail.com. This email is for media inquiries only. All other inquiries, please email: info@heartwormsociety.org.
Driven by the underdiagnosis and undermanagement of heartworm disease in cats, the American Heartworm Society outlined four main reasons for recommending routine heartworm screening in cats:
aiding diagnosis in symptomatic cats
monitoring heartworm-positive cases
establishing baselines before preventive treatment
assessing heartworm risk in specific areas
Source: American Heartworm Society, November 2024. Link. The revised guidelines advise using both antigen and antibody tests, with antigen tests performed on heat-treated serum to improve accuracy. Antigen-antibody complexes in feline samples are more likely to yield positive results after heat treatment than canine samples.
Newly released revisions address the underdiagnosis and undermanagement of heartworm disease in cats.
The American Heartworm Society has updated its Feline Heartworm Guidelines regarding screening, mosquito control and treatment options.
“As an organization dedicated to reducing the incidence of heartworm disease and its impact on pets, the AHS has long been concerned about the underdiagnosis and undermanagement of heartworm disease in cats,” said the organization’s president, Dr. Jennifer Rizzo.
The American Heartworm Society (AHS) has updated their Feline Heartworm Guidelines for veterinarians. The guidelines—last revised in 2015—addresses persistent underdiagnosis and undermanagement of heartworm disease in cats, and provides more robust data on prevention, testing and treatment, according to AHS.1
The guidelines update was spearheaded by a committee of AHS board members. The revisions were completed after a thorough scientific review by experts from the fields of parasitology, cardiology, and clinical practice. It includes revised advice on heartworm screening, mosquito control and treatment options for heartworm-positive cats.1
Routine heartworm screening is now recommended for cats, according to the recent guideline updates announced by the American Heartworm Society (AHS) in managing the disease.
Addressing the “persistent” underdiagnosis and undermanagement of heartworm disease in cats is the driving force behind recent guidelines updates from the American Heartworm Society (AHS).
The AHS Feline Heartworm Guidelines for veterinarians, finalized following a scientific review by parasitology, cardiology, and clinical practice experts, provides revised guidance on heartworm screening, mosquito control, and treatment options for heartworm-positive cats.
Holly Springs, NC—Persistent underdiagnosis and undermanagement of heartworm disease in cats, along with more robust data on prevention, testing and treatment, recently led the American Heartworm Society (AHS) to update their Feline Heartworm Guidelines for veterinarians. The update, completed after a thorough scientific review by experts from the fields of parasitology, cardiology, and clinical practice, includes updated advice on heartworm screening, mosquito control and treatment options for heartworm-positive cats. The guidelines can be found on the AHS website at heartwormsociety.org/guidelines.
Heartworm tests for dogs are routine but essential diagnostic tools that veterinarians use to screen for heartworms in dogs. Because heartworms live in a dog’s blood vessels, testing requires a small blood sample, usually taken during an office visit.
To understand how heartworm tests in dogs work, it’s helpful to first understand the heartworm’s life cycle.
Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, which are primarily considered outdoor pests. But if you’ve assumed that your indoor cat isn’t at risk for heartworms and heartworm disease, it’s important to understand what risks your cat is still exposed to even if they are only indoors.
Here’s why your couch-surfing kitties needs the protection of a heartworm preventive, regardless of whether they spend time outdoors.
“Heartworms Unraveled” provides comprehensive, staff-oriented education on heartworm management
Holly Springs, NC — Whether their goal is to provide comprehensive staff training on all things heartworm-related—or to simply adopt client-friendly talking points on heartworm diagnosis, prevention and treatment —veterinary practices can now access the American Heartworm Society (AHS) “Heartworms Unraveled” for their clinical staff members.
“Heartworms Unraveled” is a series of five video-based training modules created to provide comprehensive staff education on heartworm biology, heartworm life cycle and epidemiology; heartworm testing; heartworm prevention; heartworm treatment; and feline heartworm disease. The video faculty includes specialists and practitioners from the AHS board of directors, as well as AHS board member and certified veterinary technician Paola Dominguez-Lopez, who provides client education tips at the conclusion of each training module.
“We see clinical training that equips veterinary technicians and other staff members to confidently speak with clients about the importance of heartworm management as one of our top priorities,” says AHS President Jenni Rizzo, DVM. “Heartworm disease is a serious and complex disease in dogs and cats, and veterinary staff members play an invaluable role in educating clients about it. Not only do staff members interact with virtually every client in the practice, but as committed pet owners themselves, they have the passion—and the credibility—to talk about heartworm disease in ways that resonate with pet owners.”
The training modules, which range from 25 to 45 minutes in length, can be accessed by veterinarians and staff members once they register for the course at https://bit.ly/3W72kr8. The AHS is making the training modules available to veterinarians and staff members free of charge but asks practices that can afford to do so to make a small donation to the organization to defray program costs.
About the American Heartworm Society
The mission of the American Heartworm Society is to lead the veterinary profession and the public in the understanding of heartworm disease. Founded during the Heartworm Symposium of 1974. The American Heartworm Society aims to further scientific progress in the study of heartworm disease, inform the membership of new developments and encourage and help promote effective procedures for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of heartworm disease.
Resource provides latest strategies to prevent and treat heartworm disease
The American Heartworm Society (AHS) published on April 9 an updated version of its Canine Heartworm Guidelines on heartworm prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
The colors are changing but your clients’ heartworm prevention programs shouldn’t. To help spice up your client outreach programs this fall, the AHS has created a new set of posters you can print or post on your social pages.
To keep this message front and center with your clients, we’re sharing a set of new posters you can print OR post on your Facebook or Instagram page.
To save or print a poster, just click on the image below, then click on the “download” button and save the PDF file.
To save a poster for use on your social pages, simply open the downloaded poster, then right click on the file and follow the menu instructions to save the file as a JPEG image.
