Pet Care

Pet Care

Your dog and.....Tapeworms

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.

tapeworm

Tapeworm (Dipylidium caninum)

The most common tapeworm. These worms look like joined up bits of rice (segments). Tapeworms live in the first part of the stomach of the dog (the small intestine) and can grow very long……..up to 20 inches (30 cms) in length. (This is small compared to the tapeworm Taenia that can grow to 3 metres in length!). The small head of the worm sticks to the edge of the stomach (the stomach wall) by it’s mouth which is like a big sucker, and behind it, rather like train carriages, are the segments that have growing worm eggs inside them. These segments break off the main body and travel through the stomach to the outside of the dog in its faeces (poo). These segments can be found on the dog’s bottom (anus) in the bed, as well as in the faeces. Flea larvae help the tapeworm, by eating the tapeworm larvae that are released from the tapeworm segment once outside the body of the dog. As the flea grows up, so do the tapeworm larvae inside it, and as the dog nibbles and scratches to get rid of the biting and itchy flea, it swallows it, swallowing the tapeworm larvae too, that start to grow inside the dog. Dogs that have tapeworm can have runny poos (diarrhoea) and puppies do not grow very well. This worm can be passed on to us, usually young children, but that is rare.

Toxoplasma gondii

Is mainly a cat parasite that uses most mammals (animals that have babies rather than eggs) as temporary hosts to live inside. In cats these parasites produce many eggs that find their way out of the cat’s body through the faeces (poo). Dogs and other animals pick up the parasite by eating the faeces or animals that have the parasite in their muscles or stomach. In dogs these parasites can live dormant (asleep or inactive) and only cause a problem if the dog becomes ill. If there are cats in the same household as dogs, then it is important to remove cat faeces from litter trays and from the garden, so the dog does not eat the faeces and people cannot pick up the parasite. Humans can pick up the parasite and if a woman is expecting a baby, the parasite can cause big problems with the unborn baby.