Types of Canine Worms
Posted on | February 6, 2010 | No Comments
Dog worms come in many forms and effect your dog in a different way. Knowing what they are, and the symptoms they cause your dog to experience will help you treat your dog as early as possible and prevent future occurrences.
The following lists the most common types of dog worms.
Roundworms
Roundworms infest a dog’s intestines. Puppies are especially susceptible to Roundworms, which they can contract while still in their mothers wombs. Roundworms show up in dog feces as thin worms that look like spaghetti.
Hookworms
Hookworms attach to a dog’s intestines where they drink the dog’s blood. Once again, puppies are especially vulnerable, because they can get hookworms through their mothers’ milk. Hookworms are difficult to detect; they can kill a puppy before its vet can find the parasite’s eggs in a fecal exam.
Whip worms
Whipworms are just what they sound like — long parasites that look like a whip. They infect a dog’s colon, causing blood in the dog’s feces, along with weight loss and anemia. A veterinarian must diagnose whipworms through a fecal examination.
Tapeworms
Tapeworms are transmitted to dogs through fleas, another good reason to keep pets free of fleas. Dogs ingest the tapeworms when they eat the biting fleas, or when they eat flea-ridden garbage or the carcasses of birds, rabbits, and rodents that have tapeworms. Tapeworms are usually diagnosed by finding egg sacs around the dog’s anus. The egg sacs often look like grains of rice, and may or may not be moving.
Ringworms
Ringworm technically isn’t a worm, but a fungus that attacks a dog’s skin. It’s highly contagious and can be passed from dogs to cats and on to humans. Treatment involves a anti fungal medication and shampoo and/or a dip.
Heartworms
Heart worm is the most dangerous worm that threatens dogs. Mosquitoes spread these parasites that lodge in the heart and blood vessels. Heart worms can take as long as six months to develop; during those six months the worms grow to be as long as 12 inches and wrap themselves around the heart muscles and the vessels leading to the lungs. Veterinarians strongly urge prevention of heart worms through medications such as Interceptor, because treatment of heart worm infection is costly for the owner and stressful for the dog.
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