My dog is always inside the house. How can it be exposed to heartworms?

Heartworms are passed by mosquitoes that first must bite an infected dog. If one mosquito bites a dog with heartworms, it picks up the "baby" worms in the blood, where it is carried for about 2 weeks. Then, when it bites a new dog, it passes the "baby" worms to the new dog.  Thus, predicting a pattern of infection can be difficult.  I have drawn a town diagram 2 years ago, and found no true pattern to the areas of infection.  Mild winters, and delayed freezes, have seemed to increase rates of infection in our area - especially when the mosquitoes bite more just before it freezes!

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