Worming your Cat and Dog
When it comes to the health of your cat and dog, you want to ensure they stay as healthy as possible and are comfortable. Sometimes though, a healthy diet and plenty of exercise aren’t enough to stop your pet picking up some problems. Worms can be picked up through several means, such as sniffing around other animal’s excrement or ingesting the eggs of the worms, and puppies can be born with worms when exposed to them in the mother’s womb. You can buy plenty of medicine that kills worms, but unfortunately there is no known way to prevent them. Today, Animal Friends is advising you on how often you’ll need to treat your pets for worms, and the tell-tale signs you should look out for.
How often should I worm my dog/cat?
You should look to worm your dog or cat four times a year if they are adult. This may change depending on your specific cat/dog, for example if your cat commonly hunts mice or your pet suffers from repeated flea problems, but this number may be different depending on your wormer. With puppies and kittens, the treatment needs to be more regular. It is advisable to start a worming programme at 2 weeks of age with puppies, and you should continue worming once a fortnight until 12 weeks old. It is also suggested you treat the bitch at the same time as the pups, to stop them spreading again once treatment is administered. Once a pup reaches 12 weeks of age, it should then be treated at 3 monthly intervals. By contrast, kittens are not born with worm larvae already present, so worming does not need to start until 6 weeks old, with further treatments every 3 weeks, until 4 months old. Thereafter, worming at 3 monthly intervals should be adopted.
You should treat your dog immediately when symptoms show; in the early stages of infection, it's very difficult to tell if your pet is infected. In dogs, mature tapeworms start shedding egg-filled segments, which irritate the dog's bottom. This causes the classic symptom of tapeworm infection -- 'scooting', or dragging the bottom along the ground (always get advice from your vet with this symptom, as this could merely be the sign for a problem with the anal glands; another problem which can cause just as much discomfort). Apart from this, there are very few definite signs, but these may include vomiting, diarrhoea, a dull, lifeless coat, a loss of appetite, lack of energy, and, especially in puppies and kittens, a pot-bellied appearance.
As worms can infect humans, it is important that you clear any faeces immediately from around your house, especially if you have small children, and routinely treat your pet for worms. Vets will often be able to do this during a regular check-up, so enquire at your vets for a routine worming treatment and set one up.
