Can Cats Get Heartworms From Mosquitoes. Spread by over 70 species of mosquitoes, heartworms can cause lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body, dr. Heartworm disease is much less common in cats than it is in dogs because cats are naturally resistant to it.
Cats can also get heartworms after being bitten by an infected mosquito, although they are not as susceptible to infection as dogs. Spread by over 70 species of mosquitoes, heartworms can cause lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body, dr. Can cats get heartworms as easily as dogs?
In addition to cats, they can infect a range of other mammal species, she adds, including dogs, ferrets, wolves, coyotes, foxes, sea lions, otters and, in rare cases, humans.
1 heartworms are parasites that infect the heart, lungs, and bloodstream of dogs, cats, and ferrets. “even if your pampered pooch only goes outside for bathroom breaks or brief walks, remember—it takes just one bite from an infected mosquito to infect a pet,” says dr. You can’t get heartworms from your dogs, cats, or other pets — only from mosquitos that carry the infection. In rare cases, heartworms have infected people, but it does not complete its life cycle.