How often do you worm your dog, and why?

[TheLivelyCat]

How often do I need to worm my dog?
I understand that the guidelines are every 3 months on average, however my vets have recommended I do monthly due to my dogs lifestyle, hiking, mantrailing, our location beaches, woodlands, farms ect and breed (Labrador) as they are known scavengers, shes very much a town and country dog.
I have no issue worming monthly if she is high risk, but the vet was saying that over the counter wormers like drontal dont cover lung worm, and I will definitely need to cover her for that too.
So in total im looking at £24pm to cover both wormer and flea and tick prevention. Vet doesn't do pet plans ect, and private perception works out more expensive after paying for the perception.

I buy Panacur powder on line and treat every three months. She is a collie so can’t have ivermectin which discounts a lot of wormers. She has a Seresto flea and tick collar which is very effective. The Panacur is about £30 a bottle and does three ish treatments but she hates the liquid so have gone on to powder. Think I may just do worm counts as she doesn’t scavange or drink from muddy puddles nor eats poo and we tend not to walk where there is livestock but there are fox and deer prevalent. I don’t remember worming my old dog back in the 1980s this much.

Your posts are contradictory.

Your first post says you worm monthly because of the dangers to your children.
Here you are saying dogs build up a resistance and we should use them less.

Why don't you do worm counts if you think that is the way forward?

Never wormed my older one since being a pup. Do a worm count couple of times a year and she’s never had worms.

my puppy was regularly wormed for first few months. I ought to send a worm count off for him now and if clear I’ll stop worming him.

Exactly.

@mintleavesandthyme Why mention the environment and resistance and then argue that you need to worm monthly?

I don't understand is because you are not making any sense. HTH

No the worms develop resistance to drugs. Same mechanism as antibiotic resistance. Not the dog…

I use Billy no mates sprinkled in food daily as a flea prevention, he’s only ever had fleas when he’s not been on it. It’s all herbal, no good against ticks which it claims it is but he is a spaniel spending most of each walk in a hedge collecting them. I worm him monthly as he does like to snaffle a cat poo whenever he can but on reading others comments may look into doing worm counts instead. Our vet does a pet plan but I wouldn’t use the flea treatment monthly & the other benefits aren’t really useful to me so I have a subscribe & save set up on Amazon & they just arrive

Sure. Which is why doctors are loathe to prescribe antibiotics...
Sorry but you clearly don't have the first clue what you are talking about.

I apologise to anyone who thinks I have been unclear.

for clarity my position is:
worms in dogs need to be treated to protect their health and the people they live with especially
children

because lung worm is now prevalent throughout the UK (thanks to people taking their pets on holiday, illegal imports and global warming) and due to the life cycle of this parasite this needs to be monthly.

this can be achieved my either treating monthly or faecal testing monthly and treating positive cases

I think faecal testing will be more standard in the future because these drugs do have environmental impacts (although you should be picking up the faeces anyway so environmental contamination should be minimal with orally taken drugs)

and because the parasites themselves will develop resistance (fleas are notorious for this, also bacterial resistance is well known and it’s the same mechanism for worms) and new drugs will need to be developed, everyone now recognises the need to be more targeted with anti infective drugs to slow this process down.

I don’t faecal test at the moment - and that’s a good challenge - i think for me it’s down to availability and convenience. And if they were positive I’d be paying for treatment as well anyway.

I've got 2 spaniels that are prone to colitis, so we don't routinely worm them as they react so badly to it. When I do treat, we use Panacur liquid and treat over 48 hours. Only ever had to treat for fleas once... after bastard dog no 1 decided to have a nibble on a rotten rabbit carcass that fleas were jumping all over. They've never had them since, and only got ticks on a visit to Devon. We live rurally, I'd add. I don't treat them with harsh chemicals unless I need to.

Are you always rude and nasty?

I know exactly what I’m taking about 👍

@mintleavesandthyme
Same to you. To quote you: "you do misunderstand and I’m not sure how"

Your second to last post (the long one) still doesn't explain why you mentioned the environment. Nor why you are advocating for people to use more wormer and flea treatment when, as you say, pests develop a resistance to it.

As for worm tests not being available... if you have an internet connection and some money and an address, it really couldn't be easier.

Our dog has a monthly tablet from the vet which prevents fleas, worms ticks, lungworm etc. all in one go. It's about £18 a month so quite expensive, but worth it. It's called One & Done.

So thouse that worm count, what do you do about lung worm, as my understanding is fo prevent them you need to use perception strength wormer monthly? So do you worm count monthly?

Wormcount says this:
"If your dog likes licking or eating grass, slugs and snails, or drinking from outdoor water sources, or if they occasionally consume birds or animals that might have ingested snails or slugs, we recommend doing a lungworm test every six to eight weeks, especially if you live in a lungworm hotspot."

I am not in a hotspot. She eats grass sometimes but none of the other things listed. I test her about every 3 months. She has never had lungworm.

But yes, if they have it, you need prescription strength wormer from vet or a prescription from vet and buy online.

I don’t routinely worm the dogs, I give them flea treatment once a year before we go on holiday to a place where there’s wildlife and also worm a month or so after we get back. I do not give bravecto or similar i used to years ago because that’s what the vet sold and after giving it a few times one dog got cancer and the other one pancreatitis and other health issues.

you do seem to be getting argumentative on this. You are getting really emotional about this. Why are you such a zealot? and why is it so offensive to you that people choose to worm their dogs to protect them from a potentially fatal infection?

and by the way you cannot say you are “not in a hot spot” lung worm is spreading very quickly and nowhere in the England and Wales should be considered low risk (maybe you’re in Scotland)

Test and treat the results, over worming breeds resistance and as far as I’m aware, no new wormers have been bought out for a long time.

Because it makes no sense.

I love the shite people come out with when they can't admit they are wrong! Your posts are contradictory and full of nonsense.
I don't think you will find anyone on this thread who is against worming their dog. I imagine, like me, they choose to not routinely worm their dog for a multitude of reasons.
But should you choose to worm your dog monthly, then that's up to you.
See, not much of a zealot at all. Unlike you.

I am not in a lung worm hot spot.

Within a 50 mile radius, there have been 5 cases reported in the last 17 years.

Haha and another attacking emotional reply. Aren’t you lovely now adding some foul language. you’re just embarrassed by your own lack of knowledge.
a lack of knowledge about the reason for the testing/treatment timing and a total lack of knowledge about lung worm.

nothing I have said is wrong. I clarified my position when that was requested. No problem :)

Oh dear! You do make me laugh 😂😂😂
I think you might be projecting now.
And I'm not entirely sure you know the meaning of many of the words you use.

Teehee what a delight you are

Hark! Is that the sound of a barrel being scraped I hear?

The stupid thing is we don't inherently disagree. Well on a few things but basically I am just less paranoid than you. It's pretty clear you had to do a quick bit of googling in order to make your 'clarification' too 😂
But enough already.

Wvery three months on the vet plan because i am scared of lung worm which can turn very nasty very quickly.

same reason i spayed her - pyometra can turn very nasty very quickly