Puppy Parasites 101

COMMON Puppy Parasites

I think it is important that every dog owner educate themselves on the common puppy/dog parasites in order to properly care for their dog. PARASITES are a COMMON issue in any dogs life. They are in all our environments. 

EXTERNAL PARASITES

Fleas and Ticks:

Year round monthly prevention is necessary for any dog! Not only do they cause itching and irritation, they can cause internal parasites and life threatening infections like lymes disease, tick fever or erlichia. They can also cause an infestation in your home that can be hard to get rid of! We recommend Advantage II at 12 weeks.

Mosquitos and HEARTWORMS

They don't look that harmful but it just takes one bite from an infected mosquito to infect your dog with HEARTWORMS. These can be very life threatening. We recommend starting an ivermectin based monthly heartworm prevention like Heartguard or Interceptor. These have been around for many years and have less neurological side effects that the combo pills. You can try those later on when the pup is 6 months old or so. If they do test positive for Heartworms, they will need treatment! There are two options. 

1. Immiticide® Injection therapy at the vet, it's very toxic and some do not survive! They must be crated for a week or so and require doxycycline and pain meds.
2. Long term 2 year SLOW KILL method with Advantage MULTI. Much easier on the dog, perfect for mild cases.

INTERNAL PARASITES

Roundworms: 

Did you know that every puppy is born with round worms? Yes even if mother is dewormed prior to birth, they are passed through her milk! This is why we have a strict deworming schedule here! They look just like long pale spaghetti noodles! They can also pickup round worms from wild animal feces. The eggs are visible on a fecal test or visible in the puppies feces. 

• Pyrantel or Fenbendazole is recommended.

Tape Worms:

Fleas are actually the cause of tape worms! If your dog has a flea on them and chews at their skin to try and kill them, they actually ingest the flea and end up with tape worms! These are not seen on a fecal test and are only visible in the stool and look like flat short white rice segments. 

• Treatment recommended is praziquantel (one dose , then follow up dose 2 weeks later) Sometimes these can be hard to get rid of, so this is why it's so important to follow a strict flea/tick regimine.

Hookworms or Whipworms:

These two worms are pretty scary! They can come from so many sources, either from up from the ground and migrate through the skin or they can ingest larvae from the ground. They can't be seen without a microscope but they can be seen by your vet on a routine fecal test! Hookworms can cause severe anemia. 

• Treatment is usually fenbendazole (panacur) along with an iron supplement and is very effective.

All of the above are EASILY PREVENTABLE with deworming and preventatives! These last ones are not so easy to see on a fecal test and are a little more tricky to treat without the pup reinfecting itself!

Coccidia and Giardia are invasive, non-worm parasites that live in a dog's intestinal tract. Transmission of these parasites can come from infected soil, water, feces, food, other animals, and more. These two parasites are harder to prevent as they are always there and just become a problem during stress of transition and travel.  Is it really a worm? No, it is more of a bacterial parasite. 

Coccidia are single-celled and found more frequently in puppies, where they may acquire it through their litter mates or mother. It causes a gel like yellowish loose stool and can multiply quickly.  As with all parasites, diligent sanitation practices are important to stave off these parasites. 

• We give a preventative medication at 6 and 8 weeks for Coccidia called Toltazuril so we rarely see this, we will gladly send you medication if your pup tests positive. Some vets use a similar medication called Marquis, or an older medication called Albon.

Giardia is quite common--affecting up to half of all puppies. Most healthy adult dogs won't have problems. Many can have no symptoms from giardia and it is hard to find on a routine fecal test. During the stress of traveling and rehoming these protozoan type parasites are opportunistic and can surface. They cause a loose fatty stool, gelish or dark greenish stool and can cause loss of appetite and dehydration. Where is it? It's at dog parks, boarding facilities, kennels or anywhere with numerous juvenile dogs where they can step in poop and then later lick their feet. They can also pick it up by eating feral cat feces or wild animal feces. There is a very sensitive Giardia Antigen Snap Test now that a lot of vets use because they can't see it on a routine fecal test. This test is so sensitive it can show a positive if the dead giardia dna is still present until it leaves the pups intestinal tract. So if the pup did have any giardia here and we gave our 5 days of prevention before they leave, they may still show a positive.  It may take 10 days to show a negative. Some pups will never show a negative! Some pups just carry it! 

• Treatment is oral dewormer (fenbendazole) and some vets will add Metronidazole (antibiotic). Usual treatment is for 10 days, then wait 10 days to retest. Even after 20 days, they can still show a positive! So don't freak out! Mature dogs in the home usually do not have problems catching it. If the pup is having normal stools, I would not continue with round after round of the medicines. Metronidazole over a long period can cause seizures. Probiotics are a great idea for young puppies especially when on antibiotics. 
• Since Giardia has become so common in young puppies, we are now sending home medication to hopefully prevent it from surfacing during the stress of transition. If your pup does test positive, please let us know and if needed, we would be happy to send you more medication and even a home test kit to recheck 10 days after meds. 

 Please know, we do EVERYTHING we can to prevent ALL parasites and spare no expense doing so.