Dufus Question for yall

[SpiritHorse]

How often do dogs need to be wormed?
For the life of me I can't remember.

[Lexi_Lover]

I'm pretty sure its once a month, or once every 6 weeks.

It also depends on the medication you are using for that. You may need to check the package, or call the vet. I know with the stuff we use, its once a month.

[finn's mom]

I had no idea you had to worm a dog past being a puppy....I've never done that with any dog! Dang, none of my vets have ever mentioned that. Hmmmm.....I need to ask someone here soon.

[JenBKR]

Originally posted by finn's mom
I had no idea you had to worm a dog past being a puppy....I've never done that with any dog! Dang, none of my vets have ever mentioned that. Hmmmm.....I need to ask someone here soon.

Me neither...I better check!

[finn's mom]

Here's a site I got this tidbit from....

http://www.pet-experts.com/html/buying_a_dog.html

Worming
Internal and external parasites can also be a common problem. It is important to worm your puppy every two weeks from the age of two weeks until twelve weeks. After which time the puppy can be wormed quarterly. ****Dogs should be wormed against tapeworm and roundworm on a quarterly basis.**** Symptoms of worms can include the following: rice-like segments in your dog's faeces, increased appetite, weight loss, scooting (rubbing bottom along ground), diarrhoea, vomiting and in extreme cases anaemia.

That's nuts, I'll have to call my vet in Texas and ask why she never told me about this. But, I do know, too, that she is of the opinion that we over-vaccinate our pets anyway. Maybe that's why she didn't tell me about it. But, no other vet that I've taken a dog to has told me that, either. So weird!

[JenBKR]

Roscoe doesn't seem to have any of those symptoms, but I'd better get him into the vet anyway. I'm surprised I was never informed of that. I just trust the vet to tell me what to do.

[ParNone]

Most of the heartworm medicines have preventatives for hook, whip and round worms now. So that's probably why vets don't recommend any other wormings. I've got mine on Sentinel, which guards against fleas too.

[lv4dogs]

Originally posted by ParNone
Most of the heartworm medicines have preventatives for hook, whip and round worms now. So that's probably why vets don't recommend any other wormings. I've got mine on Sentinel, which guards against fleas too.

Yeah I think that plays a big role.

I think its mainly vets that are out there for money are the ones who reccomend a regular worming.

I personally am not too worried about it, not only does my heartworm preventative prevent agains hooks, rounds & whips but a lot can be seen by the human eye, including tapes. Plus you will usually see other symptoms. Tapes really are not that dangerous providing your dog is healthy & has fresh water & food.

If you are really worried instead of just worming them I'd get a fecal sample done yearly. There's so many types of parasites & some require different meds than others. I'd rather know for sure what my dog has & use only that med to treat it. Granted you may get a piece of feces with no worms or eggs in it, but as long as you are not seeing worms or symptoms too I wouldn't worry about it.

[finn's mom]

Originally posted by ParNone
Most of the heartworm medicines have preventatives for hook, whip and round worms now. So that's probably why vets don't recommend any other wormings. I've got mine on Sentinel, which guards against fleas too.

I use heargard heartworm preventive, I wonder if that's why she never said anything about worming him quarterly.....I'll be getting a new box for august, i'll check it then.

[KYS]

Interesting, Maybe I will think about buying
some worm meds.

I wormed the dogs when they were pups,
but as adults I just did the yearly poop
test at the vets and went by the results
unless they had symptoms.

[dragondawg]

The Heartguard will get some of the worms. Sentinel gets more (e.g. tapeworm, whipworm). For the most part Sentinel especially should keep the worm population down to minimal levels.

The game I play with my Vet is that puppies go in for their yearly examination. When they ask if I want a fecal exam- I decline. I then inform them to provide me with the Panacur. The idea being that they probably would come back and tell me the dog has some form of worm, and/or prescribe the Panacur anyway. Thus I save on essentially a worthless fecal exam charge. The one time they came back and said there might be some worms, and prescribed Panacur. So again, why even bother with a fecal exam?

My next one is due to go in the early part of December. I intend to purchase the Panacur online since it's non-prescription, and cut costs more. The Vets are gonna hate it.

For those not familiar with Panacur it comes as a powder in 3 different size packets. You can buy the appropriate sized packets that add up to the weight of your dog, which equals one day's dose. The powder is sprinkled over their food once a day for 3 days. Both of my dogs didn't object to the taste. However one had an upset tummy after day 1. Pre-dosing with Zantac fixed that.

Note on tapeworm. The dog has to ingest a flea, or the flea's feces to become infected. My parent had two dogs where only one ever got tape worm, and she repeatively got infected with it. The dog liked to "groom" the other dog by licking it. Thus it consumed flea feces, and infected itself. Sometimes it just doesn't pay for a dog to act like a cat.

[finn's mom]

I've never had a vet say my dog had worms, so, I've never heard of Panacur......I guess I'll just stick with what I've been doing.

[SpiritHorse]

Wow I didn't know.
I am the one who asked for the wormer not the vet advising me to.
My dogs are on Heartworm stuff so I won't worry about it unless I have to.
Yearly check, maybe that is where I got the worming thing from.
Well I will have 3 happy dogs no more nasty wormer unless have to LOL

Thanks all.....