Heartworm Life Cycle

Once mature heartworms can live for 5 to 7 years in dogs and up to 2 or 3 years in cats.

Heartworm life cycle. Create a Treatment. Heartworm disease in the cat may take several forms. A more in-depth overview of heartworm life cycle and prevention.

That is why monthly prescription heartworm medicine for pets is so essential to your pets overall health and wellness. These parasites are transmitted from one animal. The profile of heartworm disease can be quite different in cats compared to dogs.

The L1 larvae now transferred from the infected dog to the mosquito molt to L3 larvae. The life cycle of a heartworm begins with the adult female releasing young microfilariae into the host animals bloodstream. In dogs infected with heartworms Dirofilaria immitis the adult heartworms live in the large blood vessel feeding the lungs the main pulmonary artery.

Another unique feature of the heartworm life cycle is that the female adult does not lay eggs but produces microfilaria a type of motile embryos. Click on the life cycle you would prefer to download and print. The cycle of a heartworm is as follows.

So lets start the heartworm life cycle by assuming there is a dog infected with the heartworm and has L1 larvae in its blood. The microfilariae circulate in the bloodstream for as long as two years and are ingested by bloodsucking mosquitos where development occurs and the cycle repeats. When mosquitoes bite the infected animal they carry these microfilariae which stay within the mosquitoes for the next 10 14 days and mature into the larval stage.

Both versions are available in either color or black and white. Heartworm Life Cycle Heartworm disease is a very serious and potentially fatal condition that is caused by a parasitic worm a roundworm that is very long and called Dirofilaria immitis. The microfilaria matures for approximately two weeks depending on the temperature.