Pet Care

Pet Care

Your dog and.....Roundworms

Dogs, as well as having insects living in their coat, can have worms living in their stomachs! It sounds awful to have worms in a dog’s stomach, but they are very common and part of owning a dog is the prevention and treatment of worms in order to keep the dog healthy (and us!). There are many different types of worms that live on the contents of the dog’s stomach, with funny names. Effective worming treatment from your veterinary surgery can prevent all of them.

Roundworms (ascarids)

Roundworms look like spaghetti or noodles with no sauce! There are two main types of roundworms:

Toxocara Canis

These are found commonly in pregnant bitches(female dogs), bitches that have had puppies and are feeding them, and young puppies (baby dogs). When a bitch is pregnant, the eggs of the roundworm (the larvae) are woken up (they may have been sleeping inside the bitch) and these can find their way to the womb (or uterus) where the puppies grow, or to the teats (mammary glands) where the puppies find milk from their mother. Some puppies have larvae inside them too, and by the time the puppy is two weeks old, the worms are grown up adults! These adult worms lay their eggs which find their way out side the puppy’s body by the anus (where the poo comes out) and can stick to the bottom or to the puppy’s fur. As the mother cleans the puppies with her tongue, the larvae can be eaten by her and she will get more worms inside her. As the puppies can get worms from their mother and the mother can get worms from her puppies, the treatment of the pregnant bitch is very important and the treatment of puppies is very important so that they can grow healthily. Puppies can become very ill if they have many roundworms and cannot grow properly. Beware! Children especially! The tiny sticky eggs of the roundworm are too small for us to see, and we may pick them up from the dog, from grass outside where the dog likes to go and so do we, and from the dog’s bed. If we accidentally eat them, they do not grow inside us to adult worms, but stay as larvae and go around our bodies like little tiny space shuttles. They can then stop in important parts of our bodies and cause big problems, for example, inside our eye, causing us to not see properly. Luckily this does not happen very often, but making sure our dogs and puppies have worm treatment regularly, when we are told by our vet, will prevent this.

Roundworm (Toxocara Leonina)

These worms look very much the same as the Toxocara Canis. A much more easy to treat roundworm, because it does not move around the dog’s body, and stays in the stomach. Dogs can get these worms by eating larvae by accident when out for a walk and scavenging (looking for food and eating things you may not want your dog to eat!). These worms are not generally passed on to humans, but it is still very important to pick up the dog’s faeces (poo) regularly from the garden and when you are out on a walk. Making sure your dog is treated for worms regularly is very important, and your vet will tell you what treatments you need for your particular dog.