Southern Yorkies

WANTED: DEAD or ALIVE…WORMS (Preferably Dead)

I grew up along the banks of the Waccamaw River, when I retuned to the Myrtle Beach about 5 years ago- I found a place to live that is equally as beautiful as where I grew up. I love where I am living; it is absolutely beautiful. Having said that, I have never had some many issues with creepy crawlers and cooties in my life!! I started checking to see about how much money I had spent on worming treatment, fecal exams, and treatments in the past year. To my surprise, that total was over $500.00. That is a lot of money to spend on poop! So, I decided that I had to do something differently and fast. I started researching and found some products with an off-label use,that can be used for puppies and dogs that work and don’t break the bank!

Puppies are immature dogs, and the word “puppy” describes dogs from birth to sexual maturity, which is around 4 to 8 months of age. It varies depending on the breed. You may have heard the term “deworm” which is, basically, treating for parasites using drugs called anthelmintic. Given the term deworm, people seem to mainly think about worms, but a couple of other categories of parasites are worth mentioning.

Common Parasites That Affect Puppies

There are five main groups of parasites that commonly infect puppies:

Ascarids (roundworms)
Nematodes (hookworms, heartworms, whipworms)
Cestodes (tapeworms)
Coccidia (Isospora, Cryptosporidium)
Protozoa (Toxoplasmaand Giardia)

Only a few of these parasites can be easily seen: tapeworms, whipworms and roundworms. The rest are microscopic, and they are identified in body fluids, primarily in the feces. So, if your puppy has diarrhea but you don’t see any “worms” that doesn’t mean parasites are not the cause! The most important being roundworms, hookworms, coccidia and tapeworms.

What Parasites Are Most Common In Puppies?

While parasites can infect dogs at any life stage, puppies are a concern because they don’t have a mature immune system, they don’t have a lot of fat stores to use for energy and they have higher fluid intake demands than adults. Because most of the common parasites cause inappetance, diarrhea and vomiting, loss of fluid is more harmful to puppies than adult dogs. Some parasites are spread to puppies through their mother via the placenta or through mother’s milk — roundworms are a key example of this.

Diagnosis Of Worms And Other Parasites In Puppies

Some puppy parasites are large enough to see and can be found in the feces or on the areas around the anus. I would say the most common is the tapeworm. Tapeworms are made up of segments (proglottids) where their eggs are contained. They shed these segments in the stool, and many puppy owners see these segments in the stool, on their puppy’s fur or on the ground. They look like small maggots or cooked rice grains that move — NASTY!

Choosing the treatment, knowing if the parasite is a danger to you, other pets or your family, and the need for environmental/home cleaning all depend on the type of parasite causing the infection.

Have you ever been asked by your veterinarian to “bring in a stool sample”? Well, that’s what we examine to search for parasite eggs and microscopic parasites. This is the most common method to diagnose roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and coccidia. Other parasites, namely whipworms and Toxoplasma, don’t shed their eggs routinely in the stool. There are other tests of the blood and serum for those parasites whose eggs are not readily found in feces; these are mostly used for Giardia.

Treating Worms And Other Parasites In Puppies

Many treatments are available for control of parasitic infections, and these come in many formulations: pills, chewable treats, liquid, granules added to food, pastes and injections. The benzimidazoles are most popular and include drugs like fenbendazole, mebendazole and albendazole. This class of anthelmintics (anti-parasite drugs)are used to treat roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms and whipworms. A typical treatment protocol would be to give the product for one to three days and then repeat the dosing in two to three weeks.The repeat dosing is used to kill the parasites that were not adults (eggs, larvae) during the first treatment but have now “grown up.” Most life cycles of puppy parasites are around three weeks long.

Other parasite treatments include praziquantel, used for flukes and tapeworms; pyrantel pamoate for roundworms and other nematodes; and macrocyclic lactones like ivermectin and milbemycin found in heartworm preventives. So, by using most monthly heartworm preventives, you can also treat for intestinal parasites.

Side Effects Of Deworming Puppies

For the most part, the major classes of anti-parasite drugs (avermectins/benzimadizoles) have a very high margin of safety, meaning that giving too much will rarely cause problems. That being said, don’t leave the bottle out for your little fur baby to help himself and follow the dosage given in this blog post or by your veterinarian.

Puppies with a large number of parasites (high worm burden) may become ill after treatment. Imagine all of the parasites in the intestines all dying at once, the lining of the intestines become inflamed, causing diarrhea, vomiting and lack of appetite. This is usually a self-limiting problem, and puppies are back to normal within a day or so.

Prevention: Puppy Worming Schedule And The Environment

Using many of the same drugs for treating parasitic infections will also prevent them. Current recommendations from the CDC and the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists are to provide deworming medications against roundworms and hookworms at 2 weeks of age, repeating the dewormer every 2 weeks until the pups are 2 months old. Ideally, treat monthly from 2 months to 6 months of age to eliminate different developing stages of the intestinal parasites.

Puppies should be dewormed using the above protocol despite fecal exam results. Puppies may have prepatent infections with minimal to no parasite eggs being shed in their feces.

Pregnant dogs should also be treated to try to prevent trans placental infection to the fetal pups and to prevent transmission through nursing. Your veterinarian will provide a plan for you, because there are a few regimens available.

Housing conditions and location are important factors related to parasitic infection. Puppies housed together, with frequent exposure to new dogs and puppies, are more likely to become infected. Unclean conditions, exposure to other animals’ feces, and transmission from other creatures — like fleas, mosquitoes and cockroaches — increase the chance of infection, too.

Natural Dewormers

As with any medical product, there are persons who search for more “natural” ingredients. The problem is that there is little scientific data proving or disproving their effectiveness. Many products have multiple ingredients like sage leaf, fennel seed and papaya leaf. Although individual ingredients can have some degree of anti-parasite activity, the exact dose and combination needed to kill and prevent parasites is largely unknown to the scientific community.

Some naturalistic and holistic health care providers recommend products like diatomaceous earth and garlic to prevent parasites from infecting the GI tract. I could find little peer-reviewed, scientific information on whether that combination truly is effective in puppies. However, there was one paper that stated garlic and papaya do not control parasites in goats and lambs.

In my opinion, because the more modern dewormers (fenbendazole, praziquantel, pyrantel) are so safe, proven and relatively inexpensive, there is no need to experiment with herbs, plants, and Voo Doo medicine on your puppy to treat his or her worms. In more direct terms, kills the little suckers with what works!!

In The Know About Parasites In Puppies

I hope that you now have plenty of information about parasites affecting puppies. Remember, all puppies should be treated from 2 weeks of age to 8 weeks of age, minimum. Because I live riverside, I treat my puppies and adults for MUCH longer. I treat my adults with fenbenazole monthly or if we have standing water on the ground for a few days. and I dose my puppies every 2 weeks starting at 2 weeks. Products like fenbendazole are very safe and effective. Many parasites that your puppy may have can infect you and your family, like roundworms and hookworms.

So, to treat your fur baby at home for worms, you will need a few things: (All items can be purchased at Amazon.com or any local Tractor Supply Store.) Once you have all of the given items, then use my handy dandy cheat Fenebenazole Dosage Cheat Sheet to treat your little one. Fenbenazole Dosage Chart (You’re Welcome!) Make sure and weigh your puppy EACH time before dosing them, as puppies can have a growth spurt and the dosage will then increase. Then find your puppies weight down the LEFT column with the corresponding dosage. Voila! Now, get out there and KILL SOME WORMS!!

DISCLAIMER: Please know, I am NOT a veterinarian, nor do I play one on TV! But, I have always had animals in my life and I have been breeding yorkies, specifically, for about 15 years.