I will highlight my personal experience:
- 1 year-old dogs: nearly always asymptomatic. Dogs aging 1 to 3 years:
sometimes asymptomatic, often cough and show signs of fatigue.
- Dogs aging from 3 to 5 years: cough, harsh vesicular murmur, dyspnea,
fatigue and weight loss.
- Dogs aging from 5 to 8 years: cough, dyspnea, ascites, epileptic-type
fits, cardiac arrhythmias (right atrial ventricle).
- Dogs aging from 8 to 10 and up:weight loss, poor body condition, cough,
dyspnea at rest, hepatitis, nephritis, syncopes, epileptic-like fits
and an overall change in relation to how the animal has adapted to living
with the disease.
I believe it is useless to talk about all the other animals infected
with c.p.f, as this is all well documented in the references
At the beginning of the eighties I professionally knew the C.P.F. Still
today I always apply a check-up scheme: a recent and remote case history,
a check-up with a general and particular objective test, instrumental
exams, like thorax x-ray from a side view and dorsoventrial projection.
ECG, Echocardiography B.D, T.M, blood tests (haemocrome with formula and
a liver and kidney functionality test). It is impossible to generalize
before starting a possible treatment.
The above requires you to evaluate the seriousness of the disease, to
select the patients and to choose the correct pharmacological dosage,
with a practical and theoretical purpose to save the dog's life.
Diagnosis:
- A smear from a blood sample, to show the presence of microfilariae.
- Standardization of the microfilariae, as in the area where I work, Dirofilaria Repens and Dipetalonema (both of which are not cardiac filariosi) are present
- Recent technology tests of rapid immune migration to find D.immitis antigens in the dog's blood, serum or plasma.
- Snap Canine Heartworm P.F. Semi-quantitative serum and plasma blood
test to find antigen (D.Immitis)
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