worms

[Majestic]

I have just adopted this dog from this young lady who has just been moving into her new apartment. The dog is kinda skinny because he doesn't want to eat. Perhaps, with all the moving, the dog, chatski, gets into depression.

But that is not the only problem, he went potty when he just arrived to my house. I took a look and see many many worms. The worms are white color, flat, and it is about 1/2 inch long (or about 5 cm). Are they heart worms?

I saved his poops. Do you know what kind of worms they are? I definitely will take him to the vet today and bring along his poops.

I am also afraid the worms or their eggs might get into KiKi to. I put them in separate rooms now. How should I save KiKi from getting anything from this dog?

Thank you!

[Karen]

To the vet for him! Poor pup! Keep KiKi away from his stools - anyway, I am sure the vet will answer most of these question for you!

[Kfamr]

It sounds like you are talking about tapeworms.

Tapeworms are caused by ingesting a flea with the parasite.

First thing, remove all feces from the yard immediately. To find so many worms in his stool means he has been infested with them for a while. It is rare to see tapeworms in stool. Which could also be why he is so skinny.

You most certainly need to bring him, and Kiki, to the vets so they both can get dewormed. Kiki can easily get them from him.

My oldest, Simba, has tapeworms last year. I had to deworm all three of them just to be on the safe side.

[Majestic]

Thank you for your advices.

[mjsteiro]

Kiki can get the worms by licking her feet. If she walks in the puppys stool and then licks her feet, that is how she can get them from the puppy. So it would be best to keep Kiki away from the puppys stools until you get the puppy dewormed. It would be wise to worm them both also. The worms just drain the energy out of the animals if they have them for awhile. You will see a big difference in the puppy after a couple days of being wormed. Good luck!

[Majestic]

thank you all. They have been dewormed.

[dragondawg]

If you are seeing what looks like "rice" in the dog's feces then what you are seeing are seqments of the adult worm being shedded.

Part of the tapeworm's life cycle is to live in the flea's gut. Thus a dog can get tapeworms by either eating the infected flea, or eating the infected flea's feces. My mom once had two dogs. One never got tape worms, and the other seemed regularly infected with them. The reason being the one that regularly became infected enjoyed grooming the other dog. So it ended up eating flea feces.

The best course you can follow is take worm puppy to the Vet for a tapeworm shot. Also they might give it Capstar to kill all indigenous fleas. Assuming your other dog if flea free it should be ok.

[Majestic]

thank you for advice.