IMPORTANCE OF DEWORMING OF DOG—WHY,HOW & WHEN TO DEWORM ?
Compiled & Edited by-DR RAJESH KUMAR SINGH ,JAMSHEDPUR, JHARKHAND,INDIA 9431309542,rajeshsinghvet@gmail.com & DR ASHUTOSH MISHRA, PATNA
How to deworm your dog?
Deworming or also known as worming. This is a process of giving appropriate medication to the dog to get rid of the worms or parasites like tapeworms, hookworms, roundworms, whipworms. These worms dig up into the intestines of the animals and affect their digestive systems in such a manner that they are likely to lose weight, get pale gums, anemia and even result in bad diarrhea. Every pet parent wants their pet to be healthy, hearty and energetic so deworming plays a significant part to sustain a healthy lifestyle of your pet.
Who doesn’t like seeing their lovable, adorable creature hopping and wagging their tails joyfully across each corner of the house? As a dog parent it is obvious to love your dog’s energetic nature but on the contracting side, this very habit exposes your dog to various health risking threat, one of them being, parasitic attack. But how do we discover it? Well! Has your dog lost appetite lately? Does he vomit out anything that it eats throughout the day? Or is his potty appearing belly like? In either of the situation, you dogs need a medical attention and an immediate visit to the vet because these are the possible signs of presence of worms in your dog.
We understand your concern toward your beloved pet as a dog parent!
CONFIRMING THE WORMS IN YOUR DOG’S BODY—-
If you see any such sign that may be a symptom of worms in your dog, you need to consult your vet at the earliest. There are various possibilities to confirm the presence of worms in its body. The most preferred test that your vet performs is the fresh stool check-up where he checks the stool of your dog under a microscope to discover probable worms in it. In case of heartworm (a type of worm found in the dog’s blood), it gets transferred from the blood of one dog to another and can be tested in the clinic by taking the blood sample of your dog. In either of the cases, it is important to diagnose your dogs at the earliest to save him from major threats that a worm can cause.
Symptoms suggesting that the puppy has Intestinal worms
—–
Pet parents often look for guidance wondering the symptoms of dog having intestinal worms. Some of the commonly observed symptoms which can help you figure out if your Dog has intestinal worms are the following:
• Lethargy/ tiredness
• Worm segments around the anal area
• Loss of appetite
• Coughing
• Weight loss
• Anaemia
• Vomiting
• Pale gums
• Potbelly or bloated stomach area
• Bleeding
WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF WORMS FOUND IN A DOG’S BODY?———-
Now that you know about probable threats of worms in your dog, it is also important to have a clear cut insight on the types of worms and the scenarios, whereby these can affect your dogs:
1) Tapeworm
This tiny rice-like, nutrition sucking worm is the most common one found in the dog’s body. In fact, they are inevitable! Tapeworm starts developing in the intestine of your dog after a span of every 3 months (no matter how safe you keep him), where deworming is the only solution (consult a vet before you choose to do something).
2) Roundworms
These round shaped warms are the nutrition sucking worms that enter the intestinal tracts of the dog through licking its egg found on the feces of insects such as earthworms, roaches, and birds (that might be there in your garden).
3) Whipworms
As a matter of fact, these 2 inches whip-like parasites are comparatively less harmful to your dog’s health. On the contradicting side, these worms enter the dog’s body through consumption of contaminated soil and it is nearly impossible to remove them from the soil. The best you can do is, plan a monthly check-up of your dog to specifically focus on the parasites or keep a dose of dewormer intact.
4) Hookworm
The deadliest of all, hookworms are a blood-sucking parasite which can be fatal for young puppies. These teeth looking worms are usually developed from the egg, passed in the feces on infected animals which mature in the warm and damp environment. They usually stick to the paws of the dog and enters the body when the dog licks itself. These are the possible worms that might have entered in your innocent dog’s body, if he is showing the above-mentioned symptoms. The parasite infection can be minor to fatal depending upon the time period of the infection. In this scenario, it is important to take your dog through a deworming process after consulting the vet.
WHAT IS DEWORMING?—————–
Deworming is the process of eliminating the ghost parasites from the body of the dogs that enter through feces of larvae and through swallowing their eggs that come in contact with your dog’s body (also develops on the skin on the dog and cause allergy). They stick to the intestine of the dog’s body and extract nutrition’s from the tissue. You can opt for deworming your pet by medicating him the best available dewormers after consulting your vet.
Importance of deworming for dogs-————–
As a pet parent, you would only want good health and condition of your dog. Deworming is an important step in the direction of keeping your dogs healthy.
In this context you must note that it is totally normal and natural a thing for worms to develop in intestine. However, they cannot be allowed to remain and multiply in there. When worm infestation exceeds the normal limits, it can cause fatal health conditions in animals. In fact heavy worm infestation may even lead to death.
Moreover, this would not just be harmful for animals, but also for human beings. As a pet owner, you might often play with your pet or dog. You need to take care in this context that interacting with a severely infected dog can be pretty fatal for human beings. Thus deworming dogs on schedule is quite important.
Deworming Medications: Best Dog Dewormer
When it comes to worming, there are three alternatives available in market, i.e., syrup, tablets and XL tablets. Let us brief these three deworming medication alternatives for you-
Syrups:—
Deworming syrups are ideal for the purpose of worming puppies. Pups can be reluctant to eating tablets and so syrups will be better for puppies weighing up to 5 Kg. Recommended syrups:
Beaphar Worex Suspension: The syrup offer efficient remedies to the worms and can ideally steer clear intestine of hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms and Whipworms. The syrup is proven safe for puppies. There is no need to keep puppies empty stomach and hungry for deworming with this syrup.
Sky Ec Skyworm Deworming Syrup: Sky Ec is reliable deworming syrup for your puppy to kill away all the intestinal worms.
Bayer Drontal Puppy Syrup: Good deforming syrup for pups.
Dosage: 1 Ml of Syrup per Kg (Weight of puppy) as per the Deworming schedule explained below.
Tablets:—–
Normal Deworming tablets are idea for growing puppies or ‘just turned adults’- ideally puppies weighing over 5-7 kg. So once your ‘paw-pal’ has crossed the 5 Kg weight, you can prefer giving him deworming tablets. Recommended Tablets
Beaphar Worex Tablets For Dogs: It is a wide Spectrum Dewormer and fights against roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and tapeworms.
Sky Ec Skyworm Dewormer Tablets: Just like Sky Ec syrup, the tablets are FDA approved, reliable medications.
Petcare Praziplus DewormerFor Dog: The product boasts to be free from side effects and safe for pups.
Bayer Drontal Plus Tablets: These tablets safely and effectively remove the regular intestinal worms with a single dose.
Dosage: 1 tablet per 10 Kg (Weight of puppy) as per the Deworming schedule explained below. In case of normal tablets, you are required to give about 1 tablet per 10 Kg body weight of the dog. This mean if your pup weight 30 KG, it needs to be given 3 tablets.
XL tablets:
Giving 3-4 tablets in a single dose can be troublesome in larger brreds. XL Tablets avoid the scenario. The general dosage for these would be 1 tablet per 35 Kg. So for an adult dog weighing above 30 Kg, XL tablets are ideal solutions.
Beaphar Worex XL Tablets: Great dewormer for larger breeds.
Savavet Kiwof Plus XL tablets : is a reliable XL tablet that you can consider. The brand is a common Vet recommended brand, making it a trustworthy brand.
Summing up, or all the pet owners who had been wondering “what are the deworming medications to be given?” enlisted below is brief of the best dog dewormers available in market.
Sky Ec Skyworm Dewormer
Bayer Drontal Puppy
Bayer Drontal Plus Tablet
Beaphar Worex Suspension
Beaphar Worex Tablets For Dogs
Petcare Praziplus Dewormer For Dog
Savavet Kiwof Plus
It is, anyway, best to consult a vet in selecting the dewormer. Certainly, an expert will be able to suggest best dog dewormer or best worming medications for your dog.
How do dewormers work?—–
When given an appropriate dosage as per prescription, deworming medications simply kill and flush out the worms that have been multiplying up in the intestine of the pets. These medicines simply help in getting rid of problematic worms from the body and in keeping the pet’s health intact.
Deworming Schedule——–
Mentioned below is the answer to the most frequently arising question in context of deworming- “how often are dogs wormed?”, “At what age of puppy deworming is to be done?” or “what should be the deworming schedule?” etc. The deworming dosage should be anyway as per the prescription of the vet.
A puppy must be first given the deworming dose at 3 weeks of age. There onwards, they must be dewormed every 2 weeks until they attain 12 weeks of age.
The frequency lowers with age. From 12 weeks of age to 6 months of age, deworming medications should be given every month.
In small and Medium breeds- From 6 months of age to 12 months of age, it is suggested to deworm your puppy every 2 months.
In Large and Giant Breeds– From 6 months of age to 18 months of age, it is suggested to deworm your puppy every 2 months.
The frequency of offering deworming medications would reduce and should be made stable once your dog attains adulthood (around 1 years of age in small and medium breeds and around 1 and half years of age in Large and Giant Breeds). Post this age, they must be dewormed every 6 months.
It is also advisable to change the brand of the deworming medicine and not use the same brand every time that is in case you have any doubt on it.
Deworming schedule for pregnant dog—-
Pet owners are often doubtful about deworming a pregnant dog. Here is the general deworming schedule you can follow in for a pregnant dog. Still, getting a nod and advice from vet is recommended. Deworming medication should be given 2 weeks before the delivery and also 2 weeks after the delivery of the litters.
Deworming Dogs during Pregnancy- is it necessary?—-
Pet owners often wonder ‘is deworming in pregnancy safe?’ Worms most commonly find their way to a puppy’s intestine while feeding on mother’s milk. So very obviously, if the parent dog is infected by these worms during the breast feeding period, there is a great likelihood that puppies will be infected as well. Thus to deworm breast feeding dog is very important. In case of a healthy dog, the general deworming schedule for pregnant dogs can be followed, as suggested above.
Reactions and Side effects of deworming——-
Sometimes, deworming makes dogs sick or uncomfortable, mostly for short time duration. Few generally observed deworming side effects are vomiting, mild diarrhoea (temporary), temporary appetite loss, worms on dog stool etc. These side effects of deworming generally fade and dogs get better within 12-24 hours itself.
However, in some cases, the dewormers can be harsh on the puppies and can cause allergic reactions like collapsing, unsteady walking, breathing troubles, drooling excessively etc. You must consider taking your dog to vet under these circumstances. It always advised to give them deworming before they go to sleep in the night.
Also, in case your dog or puppy has been worm infested heavily, the deworming process may cause intestinal blockage with dead worms. The symptoms suggesting this situation are continuous and prolonged pains and/or vomiting. Such situations can sometimes be harmful and may require an operation.