The Cape Coral Animal Shelter has issued a warning: Pet owners should make sure their pets are on a monthly heartworm preventative.
“Our warm, humid climate and abundant rainfall creates ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes — and this can be deadly to our pets,” the shelter said in a release. “As summer reaches its peak, so does the risk of pets contracting heartworm disease — a serious and potentially fatal condition spread by mosquitoes — that affects both dogs and cats.”
Heartworm is spread by mosquitoes, making it especially dangerous in warm, humid climates like ours. Once infected, a pet can suffer from severe lung disease, heart failure, organ damage, and in some cases, death. Dogs are natural hosts for heartworms, but cats are also at risk — even indoor cats…