Dr Megan Hassall | Veterinarian BVSc | King Country Vets
Dr Megan Hassall | Veterinarian BVSc | King Country Vets
WHILE having the little bundles of joy around is fun, they come with a lot of responsibility.
One of the main health issues for young puppies is worms. Routinely worming your puppies is important for their health and helps prevent secondary diseases.
A worm infection impacts puppies’ growth and causes a potbellied appearance. It limits their nutritional intake and can have secondary complications. Hookworms can cause severe gastrointestinal signs (diarrhoea and vomiting), even in older puppies. They can cause blood loss and the puppies become very sick from these severe infections. Migration of the roundworm can sometimes cause blindness in dogs. This is because the juvenile forms travel around the body. This has been particularly documented in young heading dogs and huntaways.
The main sources of infection are the mother and other dogs on the property. It is important to make sure all dogs on the property are up to date with worming and that the mother is wormed during pregnancy. This is so the number of eggs in the soil is low when the litter of puppies are born.
Routine worming should be done every two weeks until 12 weeks old, then monthly until six months old. After this, dogs can be wormed every three months with an all wormer. It is important the product used is an all wormer. This means the product does not just treat tape worm. Puppies are more susceptible at a young age to all types of worms so should be covered for tape worms (sheep measles), hookworm, roundworm and whipworm.
If you have working dogs or dogs that go on farm, they should be wormed the two months in between. This can be with a tapeworm only product. This helps protect farms against the
Spread of sheep measles. Sheep measles is the infection of the meat of a sheep with the cyst stage in a tape worm lifecycle. It results in a downgrade of the carcass during processing.
Housing also plays a role, as worm eggs are passed in the faeces and contaminate the ground. Puppies then pick up the eggs from the soil. Therefore, making sure they are in a clean environment is important.
This means moving the pen regularly or picking up faeces in the pen to reduce contamination.
Protecting your kids
Kids and puppies are a great combination. It is great for puppies’ socialisation and the child’s animal handling, but unfortunately, it is not without risk to the kids. If children become infected with worm eggs they can hatch in their digestive systems.
Roundworms can even travel around the human body and even cause blindness in children. Therefore, it is important that your kids always wash their hands after handling the puppies and wash off any other contaminated areas.
