Intestinal Parasites and Your Pet

We recommend a fecal exam to check for intestinal parasites every 1-2 months for puppies and kittens and twice yearly for adult dogs and cats. Some parasites are microscopic and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Parasites are shed intermittently so a negative fecal exam does NOT mean there are no parasites anywhere in your pet’s body.

The most common types of intestinal parasites include:

• Roundworms. A puppy or kitten infected with roundworms may display the following symptoms: abdominal discomfort, a dull coat and a pot-bellied appearance. Common in puppies and kittens, these long, cylindrical worms are transmitted in a variety of ways. Because larvae can cross the placenta, puppies and kittens can actually be born with a roundworm infection. The larvae can also be ingested in milk while the newborn nurses. Infective eggs can be ingested from the soil contaminated by the feces of an infected dog or cat, or a puppy or kitten can become infected by eating a mouse or bird containing roundworm larvae.

To help prevent roundworm infection of both your pet and your family, be sure to bring your new pet, along with its de-worming history, to us as soon as possible after acquiring your new friend. Keep your yard and kennel area clean. Because it takes two to three weeks for eggs to become infective for both humans and animals, proper disposal of your pet’s feces will greatly reduce the number of larvae in your soil. Make sure that any sandboxes are covered when not in use, and be sure to change the sand if feces are found in the box.

It’s very important that your children wash their hands before eating, especially after playing in the soil. Park soil in particular can be heavily contaminated with roundworms.

Finally, make regular de-worming part of your pet’s health program. Bring in fecal samples and have your pet checked for worms at whatever frequency your vet directs, based on your pet and its history. You should also use a heartworm preventative that helps control roundworms as a precautionary measure.

• Hookworms “graze feed” off the intestinal wall of your pet, inducing many punctures in the lining of the small intestine. The resulting loss of blood into the digestive tract may give a blackish appearance to your pet’s feces, which can become foul-smelling and fluid. Puppies especially may develop symptoms of pale mucus membranes, weakness and anemia. Severe hookworm infection in puppies can even result in death.

Should your pet become infected, we can prescribe a variety of effective drugs. In most cases, we de-worm your pet twice within three weeks to ensure that all worms are gone, including those that may have not matured yet at the time of the first de-worming. Make sure to bring in a stool specimen six weeks after the second de-worming to verify the infection has been completely cleared.

Preventative programs for hookworms are similar to those for other worms and parasites and include routine fecal examinations, prompt treatment of infected pets, proper disposal of infected pets’ feces and the use of a heartworm preventative that also helps control hookworms. Ask your veterinarian for brand recommendation for these preventative programs.

• Whipworms. Infection in dogs can only be determined by microscopic examination of a fecal flotation. Whipworms are spread by the ingestion of eggs from the feces of an infected dog. These eggs hatch in the small intestine before migrating to the cecum, a pouch located between the large and small intestines, after about a week. They develop into adults here and begin passing eggs within three months.

We will recommend a treatment for whipworms based on several factors, including the age and condition of your dog. Whipworms can be very difficult to eliminate due to their location in the cecum, so we may wish to test fecal samples periodically after treatment to determine if further treatment is needed.

A preventative program to control the occurrence of whipworms should include routine fecal examinations and prompt treatment of infected dogs. Properly dispose of feces from infected dogs and thoroughly clean their housing and run areas. Trifexis and Advantage Multi, monthly heartworm preventatives, will help to control whipworm infections.

• Tapeworms are different than other worms in that they require an intermediate host to be transmitted from pet to pet. The most common intermediate hosts include fleas and small rodents. Your pet must actually ingest the intermediate host in order to become infested with tapeworms. This is fortunate if you have more than one pet, because it means you only need to treat the animal that is infected; the parasite cannot be transmitted through contact with stool alone.

Unlike other types of worms, tapeworms cannot often be diagnosed by checking a stool sample. Instead, you may find segments of these flat, parasitic worms in your pet’s bedding or in the fur around the rectum and tail. These segments are yellowish to white in appearance, and approximately one-fourth inch long, and may expand and contract. When dry, they resemble grains of rice.

To treat a tapeworm infection, we put your pet through two stages of treatment. First, we destroy any tapeworms currently infecting your pet. Next, we control reinfection by eliminating contact with the intermediate host. All the medicines we prescribe are extremely effective, but they will not prevent reinfection if your pet continues to have contact with the intermediate host. For this reason, it’s of utmost importance to limit your pet’s contact with possible hosts, such as fleas and small rodents.