I totally agree--before I realized it was a problem in our area I had two
cats with heartworm.  I'm in Northern California and since it's so dry here
in the summer you wouldn't think this would be an area that would support
that many mosquitoes.  It's pretty mild and rainy here in winter and we can
see mosquitoes even in January if it's been warm.

Hailey survived with few symptoms after the initial episode where he briefly
lost consciousness. If I hadn't seen it happen I never would have known he
was sick.  Sweet Sam had to be euthanized after a miserable, horrible
illness.  Sam had would have difficulty breathing, my wonderful vet would
remove fluid from around his lungs but it would just come back until he
finally started coughing up blood.  It can cause sudden death with no prior
symptoms.  It's an awful disease and it's so easily prevented.

As far as I know there is not an effective treatment.  Cats hearts and blood
vessels are so small that when the adult worms die they eventually break up
and can clog the blood vessels.  When my first cat Hailey was diagnosed the
emergency vet (of course it's never my vet on in an emergency!) said that
there were studies at Davis University Vet School (in Davis! CA) where they
were doing open heart surgery and scooping out the worms but only if the
worms could be seen on the right side of the heart.  It was very risky.

I'll get off my soapbox now but it's something I feel very passionate about
after seeing what it could do to my own cat friends.

Bonnie