The American Heartworm Society and Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ 2019 Shelter Heartworm Management Practices Survey

Abstract

The primary objective of the 2019 Shelter Heartworm Management Practices Survey was to identify the current practices employed for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of heartworm disease in animal shelters. Survey questions were developed to collect the information of interest for dogs, cats, and ferrets under the care of sheltering organizations along with demographic information about these organizations. An electronic survey was distributed to the American Heartworm Society and Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ mailing lists in February-March 2019. Cross-posting of the survey on relevant lists was encouraged. The survey invitation was directed toward veterinarians delivering care in an animal shelter and excluded practitioners providing services for shelters, shelter animals, or recently adopted animals within a private practice setting. A total of 242 survey responses were received representing private humane societies/societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals (39.7%), municipal animal control facilities (24.9%), traditional (public-private partnership) shelters (21.7%), foster-based organizations (7.9%), sanctuaries (2.6%), and breed/species-specific rescues (2.1%). The largest proportion of respondent shelters were from the southeastern United States (36.9%) and over two-thirds of the shelters had full-time shelter veterinarians (69.0%). Most respondents provided monthly heartworm preventives for dogs (81.1%) and used oral ivermectin products per product labels (67.2%) to do so. Extralabel use of preventives was reported by 21.3% of respondents. Most respondents tested all dogs >6 months of age for heartworm infection (81.9%) and did so during the intake examination (56.6%) with antigen tests (92.2%). At least some heartworm positive dogs were treated by most respondents (93.1%) using a 3-dose (42.5%) or 2-dose (37.9%) melarsomine protocol. Non-arsenical treatment protocols were utilized by 16.8% of respondents. Protocols typically included adjunctive treatment with doxycycline or minocycline (92.3%), prednisone (71.3%), and macrocyclic lactones (58.6%). Nearly two-thirds of respondents housed dogs within foster homes after treatment (65.1%). Heartworm prevention was provided by 29.9% of respondents that admitted cats and 9.9% of those that admitted ferrets. These results can be used to identify challenges to meeting recommended practices regarding prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heartworm disease in the animal shelter setting and to target operational and educational resources toward the areas of greatest need.