🐛 WORMS 🐛

Y’all, the worm game is strong. Worms are ever adapting and becoming resistant to de-worming medications, depending on where you live.

There are several types of worms. Roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms, whipworms, pinworms, heartworms, etc.

What should you do if you think your puppy has worms?

Don’t freak out. It’s more common than you know.

Puppies are wormed 2/4/6/8 weeks and still sometimes can have worms. Puppies can get worms from licking bird poo off a blade of grass, drinking from a rain puddle, squatting a little too low when they potty, and that lists goes on and on. And it only takes a week for puppies to have full size worms from this.

I use a rotating schedule of Panacur/Fenbendazole (SafeGuard) and StrongID (Vet Rx) for my puppies. And I deworm for 3 days in a row before they go home so that there’s no chance of surviving worms (hopefully, fingers crossed). I also have fecal tests ran at 6 weeks, as well at the 8 week appointment to ensure they are clear.

Worming your puppy monthly is a good thing. This includes your adult dogs and cats too if they have any outside exposure at all, although adults tend to have a stronger immune system to prevent them.

Heartworms are different. They are not affected by the two medications stated above. And some vets will ask you to spend $30/month on a heartworm pill. When you have a couple of dogs, this quickly becomes costly! An alternative that was suggested by my vet (who is also a breeder) is 5% Ivermectin liquid, which is the same active ingredients as the expensive heartworm medications. After carefully researching this, I could not find any negatives to it.

www.heartwormprevention.com - this is where I get mine. It is $25 and will be enough for two 50lb dogs for two years. I basically take the heel of my bread or other stale pieces, put the amount of ivermectin in it, smear with a little peanut butter and the dogs eat it monthly.

Below are some more resources to read, if you’re interested in these crawlies:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/common-canine-intestinal-parasites-1117426