TITLE
Title
BUDGET AMENDMENT: APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS (HAVE A HEART RESTRICTED FUND BALANCE) TO PURCHASE HEARTWORM MEDICATION FOR FY2026
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SPONSOR
Sponsor
Jorge Ortega
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BACKGROUND
Background
Animal Services provides medication to treat heartworm positive dogs at adoption, which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of adoptions of heartworm positive dogs. In FY2025, Animal Services had 204 heartworm positive dogs. The dog is a natural host for heartworms, which means that heartworms living inside the dog mature into adults, mate, and produce offspring. If untreated, the number of heartworms can increase, and dogs have been known to harbor several hundred worms in their bodies. Heartworm disease causes lasting damage to the heart, lungs, and arteries, and can affect the dog’s health and quality of life long after the parasites are gone. For this reason, preventing disease is the best option. If the dog is heartworm positive, treatment medications need to be administered as early in the course of the disease as possible. Heartworms are transmitted from one dog to another via mosquitoes. When a mosquito bites an infected dog, fox, coyote, or wolf, the mosquito picks up microfilaria from the infected animal’s bloodstream. These microfilaria develop and mature inside the mosquito and when the mosquito bites a dog, cat, ferret, or other susceptible animal, the infective larvae are deposited into the naïve animal. Once inside the new host, the larvae develop into adult heartworms. Adult heartworms can live for 5 to 7 years in dogs and up to 2 or 3 years in cats. Because heartworm's are so long lived, each mosquito season can lead to many worms in an infected pet. Heartworm disease has been diagnosed in all fifty (50) states and due to the generally mild climate in North Carolina, infected mosquitoes can be seen year-round. Because of the devastating effects heartworms have on an infected dog’s health and the prevalence in our state, as well...
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