It might now even be noticeable until a year after infection(Heartworm). The only way to detect heartworm when it first affects a animal is through a blood test. Changes aren’t see in the dog until the final stage of the heartworms. Signs start to being shown in the last stage because that’s when the worms start to appear in the right ventricle. While they are in the ventricle the worms start to destroy the artery lining. When the worms do this it’s make inflammation on the animal’s body making it visible to it’s owner. Then after the artery lining the worms partially break blood vessels. This is when the animal starts to show more visible symptoms. The basic symptoms include coughing, nose bleeds, shortness of breath, and possibly pneumonia (Dunn). Some more intense symptoms include loss of energy, heart murmur, and collapsing (Brevitz). The most brutal symptoms include decrease in appetite, extreme wright loss, and heart failure which could lead to death. The severity of the symptoms all depends on the number of worms. These symptoms can all be treated if you get treatment done