Natural Pet Health

Worms in dogs and cats are tenacious parasites and treatment can be frustrating. In spite of the treatment that you may adhere to for your pet, there is always an underlying risk of re-infection. This is due to the fact that worm larva and eggs can stay dormant in the tissues and intestines for a long time before maturing.

The above mentioned condition makes prevention a pertinent aspect of controlling worms in dogs. It is also important to note that some intestinal parasites can only be controlled and total eradication is not possible.

Prevention and treatment of worms depend upon the typical lifecycle of each type of worm. Dog tapeworm and cat tapeworm infest cats and dogs mainly when an infected flea or rodent is consumed. One species of roundworms need a foreign host to mature whereas others can infect cats directly. Some others can infect kittens through mother’s milk too.

There are a variety of worms that cause illness in your dogs such as: heartworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, and whipworms.� What causes worms in dogs?

Let’s take a closer look.

Hookworms are predominately found in dog feces.� If your dog eats these feces they can develop this condition.� Look for the following signs: loose stool or blood in the stool, the dog seems bloated, gas, has an unusual appetite, and his coat seems to be on the dull side.

Roundworms come from dogs ingesting the egg of the roundworm.� In puppies, they may become infected through the mother.� Signs that your dog has roundworm may be exhibited as follows: vomiting, diarrhea, bloating, gas, and an unusual appetite.

Hookworms are considered to be the most pathogenic of all canine and feline parasites including roundworms and dog tapeworm.

Hookworms are excessively greedy blood suckers and cause extensive loss of blood. They ‘hook’ on to the walls of the intestines and draw out blood and ingest it directly. Some can bite and cause lacerations which result in blood leaking. To add to the miseries, the esophageal glands of the hookworm secrete an enzyme that inhibits blood coagulation.

Hookworms can penetrate skin and infect humans as well. Barefoot humans and children who play in areas where dogs defecate are at a high risk of infection. A study of the lifecycle of hookworms can go along way in achieving the goal of treating hookworm infection and eradication of hookworms from the environment.

Hookworms are relatively more dangerous than other types of worms in dogs. Left untreated, hookworms can lead to death. This is particularly true for young puppies.

Hookworms are ravenous creatures that suck blood by sticking themselves to the intestinal walls of the host. The hookworm larvae can even burrow into the skin of the human foot or leg causing itchy lesions.

Hookworms are not so common among the feline parasites that infect cats, but if they do infect a cat, they can be equally problematic for cats, dogs and humans alike.

The most common species of hookworm that infects puppies is Ancylostoma caninum. The natural habitat of this species is warm and humid areas in countryside but they are known to survive almost anywhere.

It is not easy to break the life cycle of intestinal parasites like roundworms and dog tapeworm.
The main hurdles are the encysted larvae that can remain in a dog’s body for years. Since the worm eggs have a huge appetite of bearing vagaries in their environment, they can remain dormant for a long time before becoming active.

Looking for an appropriate treatment at the first visible signs of worms in dogs is the first thing that should be done. Noticing the symptoms of worms in dogs depends on the amount of time that you spend with your dog and the level of care that you provide for your pet.

Parasitic worms in dogs and cats normally reside in the intestines. The one aspect of these parasitic worms is that worm larvae and eggs can remain dormant for years in tissues and wait for an appropriate trigger to surface and infest your pet.

In many cases it is the stress factor that acts as a trigger for worms to migrate. Feline parasites like roundworms and hookworms can surface abruptly in advanced stages of pregnancy and transmit to the young ones.

Kittens can get infected while in the womb of the female cat or through the milk of the infected mother. Adult cats can get infected by ingesting worm infested feces. They can also fall prey to these parasites if they consume a prey that is infected.

Canine or feline parasites are a potential source of danger for pets and humans alike. A single female Toxocara canis, commonly known as roundworms, can shed up to a hundred thousand eggs in a single day.

Humans, especially children, are exposed to these eggs when they are excreted in stools or vomit. On entering the skin they can cause visceral larva migrans leading to red, intense itching eruptions in humans. Ocular larva migrans can even lead to blindness.

Worms in dogs and cats are a common phenomon with most of the transmission of the contagion taking place through the fecal or nursing route. Intestinal parasites do not spread through contact but the eggs that are excreted in the stool are capable of infesting other pets and humans.

There were times when it was believed that the only way worms in dogs passed on to puppies, was through the mother’s system while they were still in the uterus. Whereas this contention still holds good for some types of worms, it has now been established that worms can infest puppies through other means also.

Worms like dog tapeworm, and dog roundworms and even some feline parasites have a typical lifecycle and can enter a pet’s body through various means.

Tapeworms are intestinal parasites that can infect cats and dogs alike. However the kind of tapeworms that cats are most susceptible to are different from those that infect dogs in most cases. Cats are most likely to be infected by three groups of tapeworm species.

* Dipylidium caninum
* Taenia
* Echinococcus

In most cases the manner in which each of these groups infects the cat is different. The Taenia species infects a cat when it eats a prey that is already infected. Dipylidium caninum infects cats when they eat lice or fleas that carry larvae of tapeworms. Echinococcus infection is through eating raw meat or carrion of an infected host.

Worms are parasites that derive nourishment from the host and thrive. In turn parasites do not provide any benefit to the host but they do not kill the host also. Worms in dogs normally find shelter in intestines.

If your pet has worms, these can be transferred to humans as well. Spread to humans does not necessarily involve close contact. Humans get infected when the egg infected excreta is ingested in some form or another. Children are at very high risks of getting affected since they tend to play in the dirt and this could include feces infected areas as well.

There are four major types of worms in dogs.

* Roundworms
* Hookworms
* Tapeworms
* Whipworms