Which worm does my dog have

Mosquitoes transmit the parasite, and since avoiding mosquitoes is nearly impossible in most places, vets recommend regular heartworm preventatives to keep your dog safe. Heartworms grow and multiply within the heart, causing severe lung disease, heart failure, other organ damage, and ultimately leading to death if left untreated.

According to the U. Food and Drug Administration , heartworm disease is most common along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States from the Gulf of Mexico to New Jersey and along the Mississippi River and its major tributaries, but it has been reported in dogs in all 50 states.

In addition to dogs, coyotes, wolves, and foxes can be carriers. Prevention is the best approach to dealing with heartworms. Treatment is lengthy, expensive, and can have serious side effects. To make matters worse, treating heartworm in dogs usually requires confinement and exercise restrictions. This can be hard on dogs and owners alike. They may even be harmful to a dog that is already infected.

If your dog exhibits any of the symptoms listed above, your veterinarian will ask you to bring a stool sample so worms can be detected or ruled out as a cause. Even when there are no symptoms, it is wise to take a stool sample to your vet when your dog is having his annual examination. Heartworms can usually be detected by a blood test.

In some cases, though, a radiograph, ultrasound, or echocardiogram is required. The American Heartworm Society says that in the early stages of the disease, many dogs show few symptoms or no symptoms at all, yet the earlier treatment begins the higher the success rate.

Your vet can recommend deworming medications to treat different types of intestinal parasites and heartworms, as well as preventative medications. Since puppies are susceptible to receiving worms from their mothers, they must also have their stool tested regularly. AKC is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to akc.

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Dog Name Finder Browse our extensive library of dog names for inspiration. Find out the best and worst foods for your dog and which to avoid. Additional Resources AKC. Clubs Offering: Training Classes. Worms in Dogs: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment. Roundworms can also cause disease in people. For more information, click here. Hookworms are less than a centimetre long with hook-like mouth parts.

Hookworm symptoms can include bloody diarrhoea, weight loss and anaemia. Severe infestations can be fatal. Dogs get hookworms in a few different ways:. Hookworms can also cause disease in people. Dogs get tapeworms by ingesting an infested intermediate host. For example, flea tapeworms are transmitted when a dog ingests an infested flea and hydatid tapeworms are transmitted when dogs eat the offal organs of infested grazing animals e.

There are usually no symptoms of tapeworm infestation in dogs, although flea tapeworm segments passed by infested dogs may be visible in the faeces or around the anus — they look like small white grains of rice. Both hydatid tapeworm and flea tapeworm can infest and cause disease in people. For more information click here. Ringworm is not actually caused by a worm.

It is a fungal infection which can cause skin lesions in dogs and cats. It is also zoonotic which means that it can be transmitted from animals to humans. If you notice any skin lesions on your pet it is best to speak to your vet. Whipworms are a parasite of the large intestine. The symptoms of whipworms in dogs can include watery or bloody diarrhoea, weight loss and lethargy.

Dogs with whipworms shed eggs in their stool. These eggs are incredibly hardy and can survive for years, still capable of infecting dogs when they are eaten. Many dogs with whipworms develop few symptoms, but they could include weight loss, dehydration, anemia, a pot-bellied appearance, and diarrhea that may contain blood or mucus. Infestations can be difficult to identify, since whipworms shed eggs intermittently. An examination of even several stool samples may not reveal the presence of whipworms.

Because whipworm infestations can be hard to diagnose, veterinarians may prescribe a whipworm medication based upon clinical signs only.

They need a flea to carry them in order to infect a dog when a dog ingests the flea. Tapeworms tend to cause very mild disease in dogs, but in severe infections cause malabsorption of nutrients and diarrhea similar to that of a roundworm infection. If you were to see an entire tapeworm, you would notice that they have a small head at one end with many tiny brick-like, repeating segments.

They even move around a bit shortly after they are passed and before they dry up, and they look like little grains of rice or confetti. It is also these segments of the tapeworm that contain the eggs. Once dogs shed tapeworm eggs, flea larvae eat them. Dogs get tapeworms by eating infected fleas and by eating wildlife or rodents that are infested with tapeworms or fleas. Most pets do not become sick as a result of a tapeworm infestation, but they can develop irritation around the anus.

You may notice your dog scooting or licking or biting their tail area. Check under the tail to see if you can see the rice-like tapeworm segments stuck in the fur or near the anus. Tapeworms cannot be killed by many common over-the-counter wormers. It is essential to use one that is labeled specifically for tapeworms.

Some worms can remain dormant in the pet's body and become problematic at a later time. Look at the photo on the right. To reveal the presence of roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms, a veterinarian needs to use a microscope to look for their tiny eggs in a specially prepared sample of feces. To do this, your veterinarian will usually mix a stool sample only about a teaspoonful is needed with a special solution and then use centrifuge to bring the eggs to the top of the liquid.

Note: Tapeworm eggs do NOT generally show up in stool samples. Tell your veterinarian if you spot these rice-like segments in the stool or caught in the fur under the tail.

You can get hookworms if you come into contact with infected soil, such as walking with bare feet. If hookworm larvae penetrate the skin, they can cause "cutaneous larval migrans," an itchy skin disease.

Occasionally, hookworm larvae can migrate into deeper tissues and cause more serious health problems. You can get roundworms from your dog if you accidently touch fecal material from your dog and then your mouth.

Children are at most serious risk, especially if they play in an environment where dog or cat feces may be present, such as in a sandbox. Roundworm eggs, if ingested, are even more dangerous than hookworms.

Once in the body, the larvae can migrate almost anywhere, including the liver, lungs, eyes, and brain. Humans cannot be infected by the same whipworm species that infects dogs, but there is another type of whipworm that can infect humans.

Please take the worming advice of your veterinarian seriously and adhere to strict sanitation principles whenever pets and children are in close contact. To learn more about how pet parasites can affect people, look at the Centers for Disease Control website at www.

The type of dewormer will depend on the type of worm present. Not all worms respond to the same treatment, and no single wormer works against all kinds of parasites.