Recurring worms?

[QueenMolotov]

Please help me as it feel like I am losing my mind!

We have an 11yo dog who no longer goes on walks. She only toilets in our garden. We are surrounded by cats and I think foxes visit at night so as well as my dogs poo, I am often always cleaning up the neighbour's cats poo and what I think might be fox poo. I am a SAHP, neighbours work and I don't think they notice the poo. Anyway, it's always by MY house (no cats)

The bigger problem is that I think I've noticed tapeworm in the poo quite a few times. My dog is wormed regularly with Drontal but the gap in needing to worm her is getting shorter. I used to do it every 12w, then 8 weeks then last time I needed to do it after 4w. It's been 4w since she was last wormed and I think she needs worming again because of what I was today. There have been poos on the garden with what I think are worms in that could be from my dog: right size, shape colour. But then the other day there was some out front that was identical that definitely was not from my dog.

I'm so confused. I keep the house clean especially as I have 2 young children and vacuum every day, including the dog's bed. I also flea her every 4w. Last time I wormed her after 4w, it seemed to really upset her stomach; she had diahorrhea and very smelly wind for several days.

What should I do? Should I worm her again or wait to see a few more poos that I know are hers? She poos at night so I usually clean up in the morning so it's difficult to know if it's hers.

FWIW, what I noticed today was loads of tiny, white seed-looking things within a sloppy poo (sorry, that was gross).

Please help.

How is the dog in itself? If you're sure the poo is your dogs then I'd be taking her straight to the vets

I would also go to the vet as she probably requires a different vet prescribed worm routine . Also why does she not go out for walks ( I'm nosey) .

It's rare to see worms in poo, You would only see a section of tapeworm in poo (it's called a proglottid and looks like a grain of rice) this is because when they are wormed they digest the worm just like any other protein. There is little point in worming more often than every three months as the wormer only gets the adult form and that has not had a chance to develop if you worm more regularly. It's the roundworm that is a risk to humans. If you treat the dog four times a year with something broad spectrum like Advocate and add in Droncit to get the tapes, you are doing your best.

The dog seems fine in herself - no bottom scraping or anything like that. She doesn't go for walks as she seems reluctant and pulls back towards the house, so we don't force her out.

So, vets can prescribe stuff other than prezoquantil? (Sorry if I've spelled that wrong).

Should I ensure it's her poo, and then take her to the vet if it is?

Thanks for all your replies so far. I'm quite stressed out about this.

And what do roundworms look like? These things I'm seeing are tiny, like lots of little seeds in the poo. Like tiny pieces of rice.

Assuming it is my dog who is affected, could she be picking up worms from the ground where old poo has been? Like, if she sniffs the grass or soil where there was once a poo with worms in, could she be reinfected that way?

I never leave poos on the grass, btw. I clean them up as soon as I see theme the longest they're ever there is overnight.

*them not theme (typing fast as I am at work!)

If you are worried collect a poo next time she does one and take it to your vet for a worm count.

Are you sure it's not something else she has eaten ? some chewed up vegetables look quite worm like on the way out !

Very good point, Flame. She does sniff/nibble the grass and parts of the hedge. The grass grows a small, seedy-looking weed-thing that she possibly eats, so I hope suppose its plausible.

She farts a lot and it smells bad these days, so we only give her part fresh chicken/Bakers senior mixer to eat. She has a couple of Pedigree treats (Rodeo and Dentastix) throughout the day, so bits in her poo would come from the garden.

I've decided to monitor her poo as closely as possible over the next week (difficult as she's terrified of fireworks so doesn't go out much, and she poos at night). If I see anything suspicious, ill telephone our vet and ask if I can bring a sample in for them to look at, and see what they say.

I spent a portion of today googling pictures of the various worms dogs can get I'm certain they're not roundworms; the pictures of tapeworms looked larger, fatter and fewer than what I've been seeing.

The things you do ....

Thank-you for your replies. You've been very helpful.

If you are seeing the grain of rice like structure, it is likely to be a tapeworm segment. Take a look at a fresh poop as the segment will move. Part of the way it works is the segment breaks off and travels down to the dogs bum and emerges when the dog is relaxing (not having a poo) and it wiggles around on its bum which irritates the dog and it licks its bum and ingests the segment. Segment then eventually becomes a new tapeworm and the cycle starts again so if you are seeing them in poo and want to confirm it's tapeworm, look to see if the are moving. It's no good looking at old ppoo as they don't wigggle for long.

Make sure you are giving enough wormer for the dogs bodyweight or even consider changing the wormer. Use a proper one from the vet. Drontal is the recommended wormer for when you are bringing your dog back from abroad. If that doesn't sort it, someone has been feeding your dog rice!

Sorry about the extra letters in there - haven't got my glasses on!
Roundworms look like rubber bands. You would never normally see them in poo as if they come away (after being wormed for example) they are digested. They live higher in the gut. If a dog has a heavy infestation they can vomit them but you rarely or never see them in poop. The best advice is to worm every three months with a good multiwormer like Drontal or Milbemax enough for the animals bodyweight and let one of those wormings include something like Advocate spot on that would get the French Heart Worm. If you took a sample to the vet, they would charge you and the answer is worming anyway so..... You won't see Tapeworm eggs because they are hermaphrodites. The bit coming out the back and going in the front is the new worm. Parasites are gross but interesting. There is a fair bit of evidence that pets are losing their immunity because they are wormed as they need parasites to 'tune' their immune systems. That is no reason to not worm though.

Okay, so I picked up a poo that had the same suspicious looking stuff in it this morning: lots of tiny, seed-looking things on it and in it.

Then, Dog went out and did another poo. It was sloppy so I couldn't pick it up but I didn't notice any stuff.

What I did notice is that she eats the grass. On the grass grows a weed/flower that has a bundle of tiny white seed looking things as it's head.

I wonder: is it possible that these are not digestible and it's these that I'm seeing in her poo?

You can get wormcount kits and results yourself without going to the vets if you want to be sure

here

They give an amazing service and next day results

Thank-you mary, that's a really useful link

To be specific, the stuff that grows on our grass looks like wheat and grows in the shape if a dandelion. The grains of wheat are about the same size as what I'm seeing in her poo. I know she's eaten grass as I had to pull some green grass out of her bottom

Is there a chance that I'm mistaking the wheaty/grainy/seedy-looking grass for tapeworm?