Parasites: parasite   (n.)    An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host. Or Unwanted, harmful lodgers on or in your pet!

Parasites that affect your pets may be small, they may be revolting but they are also clever as you will find out as you read! Your pet can be home to hundreds of these revolting parasites and most of them cause disease and not only to your pet but many can cause disease in humans as well.

Internal Parasites – Worms

Most cats and dogs are infected with intestinal worms. The effect of the worms will depend on the type of worm, the amount of worms, the age of the animal and it's immune status. Young puppies or kittens born with a large worm burden can actually die because of it.

How often do you deworm your pet?

How does your pet or you get worms?

As we said earlier worms are very clever. All worms lay eggs. For the intestinal worms these are shed in the animal's faeces. These can survive in the environment or the host animal for years, just waiting for the right time to hatch out and grow in to an adult worm to start the life cycle all over again. These eggs wait until they are eaten, by a pet grooming off dirt (and eggs) picked up when in an infested area, licking and sniffing the ground eating infected host, and for us, eating unwashed veggies, infected meat or poor hygiene. Others use a host animal such as pigs or cattle, they form a cyst filled with eggs in the body of the host, this is then eaten (not cooked fully) and it all starts over.
Add to this that most worms can be passed from the mother to her babies via the placenta and her milk and you will understand that having worms is not unusual.

There are two main groups of intestinal worms: Nemotode Worms and Cestode Worms.

Nemotode Worms

Round worms also called Ascarids.
Toxocara canis, Toxocara cati are two round worms found in the small intestine of dogs and cat respectively. They are round in cross section and long and slender, they can grow to more than 10cm in length. These are the type of worm most often found in puppies in large numbers causing a pot bellied, colicky pup with vomiting and diarrhoea. They may also stunt growth and cause respiratory disturbances.

Below: Round Worms in Faeces
from a puppy

They have a complicated life cycle with various stages and migration through several types of tissue within the body. They can form cysts within the body that are “activated” by hormones during pregnancy, passing the worms to the unborn pups via the placenta – clever hey? By 11 days old the pups will be re-infecting their environment (and each other) with worm eggs!

Although humans can become infected, it does not usually cause a problem but they can form cysts in the tissues. These can cause visceral larval migrans or ocular larval migrans – a cyst in the eye!! This is most likely to be a problem in children, it was found in the USA that up to 10% of children between 1and 4 years were infected with round worms.

(Round Worm is not to be confused with Ring Worm which is a fungal infection of the skin.)

Hookworms - Ancylostoma

Hookworm are named for it's hooked head part. They attach to the wall of the intestine causing damage and loss of blood. This bleeding in to the intestine can cause anaemia in young or debilitated pets. As well as ingesting the eggs, one of the larval stages can burrow through the skin, but these do not migrate to the intestine. Large numbers burrowing through the skin can cause dermatitis. Hookworms can cause diarrhoea and abdominal discomfort. The eggs can remain dormant for up to 4 years in the environment.

Left: Scolex (head part) of Hook worm

Cestode or Tapeworms

Taenia species, Echinococcuso and Dipylidium (flea tapeworm).
Tape worms are flat in cross section and very long. The long body is made up of segments. These segments fill with eggs as they age. They are gradually shed and look like cucumber seeds around the pets anus or in the faeces. The head part has hooks and suckers and attaches to the intestinal wall. Tapeworms damage the intestinal wall and reduce the absorption of nutrients leading to malnutrition, weight loss and abdominal pain. The segments around the anus cause itching which can lead to scooting.

Left: Scolex of Tapeworm    Right: Tapeworm

These worms all use an intermediate host to complete their life cycle. The dog or cat ingests the intermediate host and so the life cycle continues. The intermediate host varies with the species of tape worm. For humans the most serious is the Echincoccus species that uses sheep or other mammals as it's intermediate host. The sheep ingest the egg from infested pasture, cysts full of eggs form in the tissues and wait to be consumed. If we consume a cyst in under cooked meat a cyst will form in us (waiting for us to be eaten!). These cysts, often found in the liver or lungs can rupture and the incubation period is up to 15 years. These can cause death!!!

For our pets the most easily spread and most common tape worm would be the flea tape worm. The pet will easily ingest the infected flea when grooming.

How often will you deworm your pet now?

Recommended de worming protocol.

Puppies and Kittens

Puppies and Kittens should be de wormed monthly from 6 weeks of age until five months of age. This is usually done at the time of the vaccinations. At Valley Farm we will use either Milbemax or Prazifen paste. Both of these products are broad spectrum de wormers working on both cestode and nemotode worms and both are very safe.
Puppies born with a heavy worm burden can be de wormed from two weeks of age with Milbemax .

Pregnant Bitches and Queens

Dogs and cats should be regularly de wormed before becoming pregnant. They should be dewormed during the pregnancy about ten days before labour and if necessary this can be repeated during lactation. Milbemax and Triworm-D for dogs is safe to use for this.

Adult Dogs and Cats

The de-worming protocol for adult animals depends on their lifestyle. If you have a cat or dog that goes out of your garden they should be de wormed every three months, this is especially important for hunters that consume their prey (remember intermediate hosts!).
For house cats and dogs that do not go out walking deworming twice yearly is usually sufficient.
For adult dogs we recommend Triworm-D and for the toy breeds Milbemax as they are very small tablets for very small dogs.
For adult cats we recommend Triworm- C, one tablet per 4kg body weight or if you have a big cat then Milbemax does up to 8kg with one tablet.

Important things to remember:

• If you introduce a new pet in to the household it is advisable to de-worm all the animals together.
• If you see that one pet has worms, deworm all the pets.
• If any of your pets have fleas then it is important to de worm them all to interrupt the tape worm life cycle.
• If you have a young child it is advisable to de worm more frequently to prevent cross contamination.
• We may at times change the deworming preparations that we use to prevent resistance.