Worms

Hi I got a labrabully and I the lady hasn’t gotten back to me yet about how old is he he looks around 8-maybe 12 weeks old ., i seen worms and today I saw the long stringy one well I got a 7way deworming medicine from Walmart and I was scared so I gave him half of one and I’m thinking in two three days give him the other half to see tonight how he reacts… Am I doing the wrong thing? He is very active and playful and eating I bought him the Pro+ puppy food from Walmart . Please can someone let me know if I’m doing the right thing! Thank you

Hello!  I'm most interested in whether the wormer you've chosen is a) appropriate to your dog and b) is appropriate to the type of worms that your dog has.  Furthermore, 8 maybe 12 w.o. labradors might have quite a lot of weight difference between them, and most wormers are actually dosed by weight. So - what to do?  We would strongly reccommend giving your vet a call and asking for a worm-check appointment.  If you explain that you've seen a worm and need the appointment or advice ASAP, that may help.  Usually a vet or nurse will be happy to reccommend a wormer appropriate to the patient and situation.  If you can't get an appointment as soon as you like, they may reccommend a pharmacist, whoch in the UK may have the relevant qualifications.  This way, you will be sure to get a product appropriate to the situation.

Assuming that a sensible, appropriate product to the pet has been prescribed, it does make a difference if you don't follow the instructions.   Giving half a dose twice will often fail to work, because the drug never reaches the concentration in the cells that is needed to kill the worms.

Hi thank you for replying. I bought PetArmor 7way deworming medicine for small and puppies up to 25 lbs. it says it kills all types of worms.  I’ll try giving him the other half at dinner since the first half will still be in his system and see how he does tomorrow.  But I will follow up with a vet the day after tomorrow when I gather a sample to take.  Thank you he seems good he’s sleeping right now. Hasn’t vomited!

Oh my goodness I’m super happy the medicine worked!!!!!!!! This morning he pooped twice and long spaghetti worms that were dried up and dead … like I mentioned I know I’m not a vet but it’s like with babies moms just know and I had a gut feeling that half was going to work because the hole pill would’ve been too heavy on his tummy. This morning at breakfast I gave him the other half now I’ll wait 2 weeks and he should be old enough to take the hole pill for the next deworming treatment and I’ve read I should continue until he is 6 months old and then just monitor his poop!  Thank you

Hello!  I'm pleased that it worked on some worms.  Unortunately, you can't see what hasn't been killed / is still in the gut.  It is really important to follow doing instructions, because any worms that have not been killed by the half dose will still be in the gut, and they will now be the ones that parent the next generation of worms,  passing their genes on.  The next generation will be therefore be ones that have some genetic resistance to that wormer..... antibiotic resistance came about in this way and so too can resistance to wormers.  For this reason (to avoid selectively breeding worms that are resistant to wormer) we fully reccommend that people reading this stick to the prescribed doses, unless instructed by their vet.