Worming your dog on a regular basis is essential to protect them against internal parasites. The worming involves administering the medication in liquid or tablet form. Adult dogs need to be wormed a minimum of once per year, however once every six months is strongly preferred. Dogs showing any signs of infection should be wormed immediately and all breeding bitches are to be wormed prior to mating.
There are many types of roundworm parasites that can affect your dog, but the most harmful of the roundworms are those that belong to the Ascarid family and live in the small intestine feeding on the digesting food in the dog’s gut. Ascarids are particularly harmful to puppies because they can penetrate the gut wall and pass via the blood to the liver and then to the lungs. From there they can crawl up the trachea to be coughed up and swallowed ending up back in the gut. Infected puppies are at a much higher risk for developing hepatitis, pneumonia, fits and gut obstructions. Regular puppy worming treatment is vital.
As puppies get older, the worms will travel to the muscles where they can form cysts. These worms can lie dormant until the dog becomes pregnant. They can then migrate to the lungs and this is why virtually every puppy is born with roundworms and must be wormed very regularly at a young age.
Roundworms can infect humans, and in a low number of cases they can cause disease. Proper hygiene and common sense concerning children and puppies should control the transmission of worms to humans.
Tapeworms can be identified by a dog dragging it’s rear end across the floor. Because these worms tickle the dogs anus, if you see your dog scooting, you may want to visually inspect the feces and treat it as soon as possible.
