Major Heebies

[OneCoolPup]

Just a few minutes ago I was sitting here reading through the messages on this site with Sadie on my lap. The only light in the room was the computer. I felt something tickling my leg and I reached down to scratch it and noticed this white thing stuck to my finger. It looked like rice. I thought "oh no, please don't let it be worms" so I turn the light on and sure enough she has worms! I just had her and the other puppies treated three weeks ago... she never had them, but i guess they never got rid of them and she caught a case. So I'm wondering.. is the over the counter stuff just as affective? What are the chances I caught them? I have the heebies now. I never actually SAW a worm before. I know this is a common problem and usually easily fixed, but this just happened a few minutes ago, and I had to tell someone.. and since i was here anyway... jeesh, i want this cleared up ASAP!

[OneCoolPup]

I was just thinking... my older dog never had worms (she's the mommy to the puppies) and Sadie didn't have them when I got her. Do puppies usually get worms even if the mama dog didn't have them? We've had strays and coyotes come around.. maybe they're the cause? I know it's not a big thing, but I feel bad about this!

[Little Freddie]

<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm24.gif" border=0>I'd be freakin too! LOL. If it were me, I would call the Vet ASAP and ask, also to see if if they want to see Sadie. I believe worms are transmittable to humans. You want to work on getting rid of those ICKY wormies once and for all!http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/sick.gif Don't forget to mention about the strays & coyotes! Good luck!

Susan

[Roxane]

Just a wee word of advice. Get out the pooper scooper and clean up all the feces you can find. They can reinfest themselves. In some places the eggs/larva will remain in the soil for a long time.
Learned the hard way many years ago.
Roxane

[TessieMom]

If it looked like rice, chances are she has tapeworms. Easy to treat, take her to the vet. If my memory is correct, tapes usually come from injesting infected fleas, so if it is tapeworms you shouldn't get it... but go to the vet and one visit should solve your problem! Rena

[Penny's Aunt]

Yes, get med from the vet for tapes. The over-the-counter stuff for worms is for Roundworms (Ascarids), & doesn't have any effect at all on tapeworms. At my vet, for a 10# animal a dose costs $4-5. No fasting, no side effects, no problems.

[wireweiners]

Tape worms and round worms can form cysts in the muscle of the mother dog. These cysts don't bother the adult dog and they will show negative for worms. When the dog is pregnant, the stress and the hormonal changes "wake up" for lack of a better term the cysts and they break dormancy and form worms which are passed to the puppies. Found this out when my dog had pups. <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm28.gif" border=0>

[OneCoolPup]

I have seven dogs to treat, so I wonder if the vet would let me bring the doses home. I was on vacation this week, so tomorrow would be the best day to get this taken care of and I have a cold too, so I feel lousy. Don't I have great luck? I wonder if there's anything that can be sprinkled onto the lawn that can get rid of parasites. We did have a lot of fleas this year so that could be it too. Poor Sadie, I haven't been as huggy kissy today as I usually am with her. I'd pet her and run and wash my hands! She couldn't figure it out and spent most of the evening trying to get me to play with her. She likes to tap me with her right paw to get my attention and then bound across the room, ears flopping. If I don't come, she lifts her paw as high as her head and paws at the air as if she's waving at me to get my attention. It's such a cute sight!

[Penny's Aunt]

All of my vets have let me pick up the meds & give them at home, because it's not a really big deal.

The tapeworms have to go through an intermediate host (fleas), then the dog has to swallow the infected flea to get the tapeworms, so don't feel you have to be ultra-clean around her. She's had them for a while.

Also, I'm sure tapeworms are host-specific. Meaning certain kinds only affect certain kinds of animals: dog tapeworms only infest dogs, cat tapeworms only infest cats, human tapeworms only infest humans. Other kinds can cross these barriers.

p.s. The cat tapeworms are usually quite large; it's kind of unnerving to see them sitting up & waving at you! Ick!