The technical medical terminology for a heartworm is a filarial worm of the genus Dirofilaria. Generally speaking, it is a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes that affects dogs.

This is a question for your vet. Often puppies are started as early as 8-10 weeks of age, but it depends on the type of heartworm preventative to be used.

Heartworm Press was created in 2003.

There is no heartworm vaccination. Dogs and cats can take monthly oral preventatives to keep them from developing a heartworm infection.

No, the puppies will not be heartworm positive just because their mother or father was. However, having a heartworm positive dog around makes it much more likely that the other dogswill contract a heartworm infection if they are not kept on heartworm preventative regularly (and in the case of puppies started on it early) due to the fact that the heartworm dog serves as a reservoir from which mosquitos pick up infective heartworm larva and then they bite another dog and infect it.