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Heartworm Life Cycle Illustration

Heartworm Life Cycle Illustration

How do pets become infected with heartworms? It all starts with a mosquito that feeds on an infected dog and later feeds on another dog, cat or ferret. The illustration below takes you through the heartworm life cycle, step by step, and helps you understand how and when heartworm preventives work, when infection can be detected on a heartworm test, when treatment is necessary and how long heartworms live.


The American Heartworm Society has updated the heartworm life cycle for use in the veterinary clinic and for pet owners.

Both versions are available in either color or black and white. Click on the life cycle you would prefer to download and print.

Heartworm Life Cycle (Pet Owners)

Category: Heartworm Awareness Month Posters
Canine | Feline | Prevention | Diagnosis | Life Cycle | Veterinary Professionals | Pet Owners

Download PDF

Heartworm Life Cycle (Veterinary Professionals)

Category: Heartworm Awareness Month Posters
Canine | Feline | Prevention | Diagnosis | Life Cycle | Veterinary Professionals | Pet Owners

Download PDF

The colors are changing but your clients’ heartworm prevention programs shouldn’t. To help spice up your client outreach programs this fall, the AHS has created a new set of posters you can print or post on your social pages.

To keep this message front and center with your clients, we’re sharing a set of new posters you can print OR post on your Facebook or Instagram page.

  • To save or print a poster, just click on the image below, then click on the “download” button and save the PDF file.
  • To save a poster for use on your social pages, simply open the downloaded poster, then right click on the file and follow the menu instructions to save the file as a JPEG image.

For more client tools, be sure to visit the Resource Center. And if you don’t already, make sure you’re sharing our Facebook and Instagram posts!