Dogs and Worms

It is one of life's little truisms that if you own a dog, your dog will inevitably also play host to dog intestinal worms at some point in it's life. Dogs and worms go hand in hand and have done so for thousands of years.

Dogs and worms have an interesting relationship. The worm is a parsite that uses the dog to supply it with the living environment and nutrients it needs to survive. As a result, it doesn't really want to kill the dog because that would endanger it's own survival as a species.

However, theirs is not a symbiotic relationship either as that would require the dog to gain some benefit from the worms, and that certainly is not the case, although in some instances, the dog shows no outward clinical signs of carrying a worm burden

Puppies seem to be the most likely to have a heavy worm burden, and show clinical signs. Vomiting, diarrhea, poor growth, dull hair coat, anaemia and lethargy are the most obvious clinical signs that you will see with a heavy roundworm (ascarid) infestation in puppies.

So when you acquire a new puppy, keep in mind that it is probably a walking worm dispenser and it is best to deworm the pup before you bring it home so that there is a reduced chance of the pup contaminating the environment with viable dog worm eggs. If you already have adult dogs at home, deworm them at the same time so that they don't act as a source of worms for the pup!

This plan is however not fullproof as worm eggs have the ability to survive and remain viable for long periods in the environment. However, any step you take to decrease the worm load in your puppy is a bonus in the long run.

Not all puppies or dogs will actually display any clinical signs of a worm infestation and so it becomes difficult to know if they have worms or not.

To help you in this regard I have written a Free Report: Does Your Dog Have Worms? which will give you several pointers regarding dog worms and your dog or puppy.

The Quick(ish) Guide to Dog Worms is a comprehensive, informative, yet easy to read guide that covers all aspects of dog worms that are important to dog owners.

These include the various types of worms your dog is most likely to get, how these worms survive and multiply, what effect they can have on the dogs AND humans, prevention and treatment strategies and the like.

"The Quick(ish) Guide To Dog Worms" can be found at http://www.quickqualityinfo.com

Here is an article on Dogs and Worms that you might find useful and interesting.

Help! My Dog Has Worms In His Stools