Coyote Worm Infestation Like Scene From Sci-Fi Movie

This Long County coyote had a bad case of the heartworms.

Bob Chestnutt, of Ludowici, was deer hunting in Long County when a coyote that he shot turned into a moment where he thought he was in the middle of a sci-fi movie.

“I shot this coyote on Oct. 29 while deer hunting in Long County,” said Bob. “When I walked up to him, I saw something that looked like string or fishing line on his side. I was having trouble comprehending how this could be. When I looked closer, I could see some of it moving. It did look like a scene out of a sci-fi movie! At this point, I thought it might be a tape worm but later thought maybe heartworms. I text a picture to my vet who confirmed that it was 100% heartworms.”

GON reached out to Andrew Curtis, who is a regular blogger and freelance writer for GON. Andrew is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine for Healing Paws Animal Hospital in Tifton. He had the below to say about coyotes and heartworms.

“Most people don’t think about coyotes being dogs. They are essentially just a specific breed of dog, like a lab, terrier, pointer, etc. Coyotes can in fact breed with domesticated dogs; it’s not likely because of their wild nature, but it can happen.

“Heartworms are a common parasite in dogs (canines), especially in the southeastern U.S. Mosquitoes are the culprit for transmitting the parasite. The way this works is a mosquito sucks the blood from a dog with heartworms. One drop of blood from an affected dog can contain several microscopic larvae. (FYI Larvae are the babies. Larvae is plural; Larva is singular.) Once inside the mosquito, the larvae grow and change. Then, the mosquito can bite another dog, and before sucking the blood, it will regurgitate the larvae into the new host, where the larvae will continue to mature until they become full adult heartworms that look like spaghetti noodles in the heart.

“Heartworms are not directly contagious from dog to dog. They have to have a mosquito to complete the life cycle. The mosquito is called the intermediate host.”

“Heartworms usually take several years at least to cause life-threatening heart disease (although I have seen 2-year-old dogs occasionally dying of heartworm-induced heart failure, but it’s not often). On the flip side, I have seen many dogs have heartworms for well over 5 years and remain healthy. I’m not sure what the average life expectancy is for coyotes in the wild, but I imagine it’s not more than a few years, so heartworms probably don’t have time to kill many coyotes.

“In the picture, obviously the hunter hit the coyote in the heart since there are so many worms exiting the wound. Heartworms can also be in the lungs, but a load that heavy is from the heart. As you can see, those worms don’t leave a lot of room for blood inside the heart. The heart has to work overtime to pump the blood through the body to overcome the physical obstruction that the worms cause, creating heart failure.

“Here is another reason to cull the coyote population: the more canines in an area with heartworms, the more potential spread there will be because the mosquitoes have more heartworm positive targets—like our pets. Heartworm prevention products are highly successful at preventing the transmission, but many dog owners do not give the prevention on a regular basis. Or many believe that if their dogs are MOSTLY indoors, that they don’t need heartworm prevention. All it takes is one mosquito with larvae to bite a dog that is unprotected.

“It takes about 6 months from the time a canine gets injected with the heartworm larvae from a mosquito until those larvae develop into full adult worms in the heart. As a side note, there are successful veterinary treatment options available for dogs.

“Coyotes can also spread intestinal parasites and deadly canine viruses (like distemper and parvo) to our pet dogs. More incentive for the GON Coyote Cull!”