My boyfriend, Jerry just got back from the vet with some very sad and distressing news. His cat has had chronic vomiting for several years which would come and go. The old vet just kept recommending different foods and diet changes, not thinking anything was seriously wrong and Malibu just had a sensitive stomach.

The cat has been on a recent vomit bender and has also has been making weird gurgling sounds when sleeping. The new vet he took the cat to today discovered poor little Malibu is afflicted with heartworm.

This is an indoor cat, declawed, NEVER has the freedom to go outside and is a low risk for mosquito bites. Apparently, heartworm is not as prevalent in cats as in dogs, and many vets don't make heartworm testing and preventative medications a priority for cats as much as they do dogs.

Apparently there is NO currently approved treatment to safely eliminate the parasite in cats. Some of the potential complications from a heartworm infestation are sudden death, permanent pulmonary damage, blindness and a few more horrible things.

Please when you take your kitty for his/her annual checkup consider talking to your vet about preventative feline heartworm meds.

Malibu is now on some medication to lessen the symptoms, and now all we can do is wait it out and hope that his immune system is strong enough to resist worm propagation and wait for the current worms to die.

Again, please consider preventative heartworm meds for your cat! This happened to a STRICTLY INDOOR cat WITH NO FREEDOM TO ROAM OUTSIDE

Here is a link to the American Heartworm Society http://www.heartwormsociety.org/article.asp?id=16