Dog with tapeworm at the dog park :/

[Cassie16]

Yesterday I took my dog, along with my mom's dog, to the dog park. It's a "private" dog park opened up by some dude with money, and is worth the thirty minute drive and membership fee. It has a large pond with a shallow end and a deep end for swimming, a full agility course, a picnic like area, and very nice bathrooms for the humans :laugh: Humans also have the option of buying an ice cold beer while watching their dogs romp around. It really is a great place to bring your dog and hang out.

When we were there yesterday, a dog came in, ran straight to the pond, and pooped inside of it. No big deal. It's a dog, after all. Unfortunately, later an employee noticed said dog had a tapeworm hanging out of it's rear. She approached the owners and determined it was in fact a tape worm and asked them to leave. That's another good thing about this place; they require documentation of vaccinations and in a case like this, the dog is removed.

I'm a little worried about my own dog. She was in the water a great deal before we realized the dog had worms, and gulping it up as she swam along :/ I went home and checked the last time I'd given her her monthly wormer and realized I'd skipped the last two months. She gets phenobarbital twice a day and I guess I just plum forgot.

My vet is closed today for some odd reason. I guess I'll try calling Monday to see if I can pick some up. I'm kind of nervous that she's currently untreated, though.

Advice, my fellow dog lovers!

 

[Shiari]

Your dog cannot get a tapeworm by eating a tapeworm. The tapeworm eggs MUST go through an intermediate host. The most common cause is ingestion of a flea (dipylidium caninum), or ingestion of rodents/rabbits, or the viscera of sheep.

 

[Susan]

Megan is correct, the tapeworm needs to go through it's intermediate host before it can infect your dog.

I am more concerned about you skipping the monthly deworming. I do hope you mean your dog's heart worm prevention, although most of them do nothing to kill tapeworms anyway. I would be more concerned about your dog getting heart worms as they are far more dangerous than any tapeworm. It is important that your monthly preventative be administered every month, including the winter months, no matter where you live as recommended by the American Heart Worm Association. I see too many dogs and cats, both indoor and outdoor, large breed and small breed with heart worm disease. The treatment is long, risky and expensive in dogs, and there is NO treatment for cats. All for a lousy few dollars once a month. And many companies can't make giving the preventative any easier to administer (tasty chew tabs and topicals alike), and they will even remind you once a month when your pet is due for a dose.

 

[Cassie16]

Thanks for the information, guys! I had no idea the tablets do not prevent against tapeworm. I'm also comforted by the information regarding transmission.

As for the heart worm tabs- I will say that this was a reminder that I'm grateful to have received. Also Susan, thank you for your sobering account of the dangers of heart worm. Shortly after this experience, I could have kicked myself for going off her regimen. As I said, I'm going in Monday to get a new supply.

 

[girlundertherainbow]

Another way dogs can get tapeworms is by eating crickets. But as stated, tapeworms aren't that big of a deal if they are caught and treated when they arise. Here my dogs get them from fleas every now and then. I don't have a flea problem and use Frontline if/when needed BUT I can't control my neighbors dogs and stray cats that bring them in.
But as above stated, the heartworm meds are a much bigger concern. Skip one month, let your dog contract those, and you are looking at a HIGH (friend paied $800 recently for one dog) vet bill.

 

[Cassie16]

I certainly don't need anymore ridiculous vet bills, especially since I just paid my credit card off and want to keep it that way for a while :/ Since she had a lapse in treatment, I wonder if it will be necessary to evaluate her? I don't know how they go about doing that for heart worm to be honest. Suggestions?

She needs blood work done here shortly to evaluate phenobarbital levels. I guess I'll go ahead and schedule it sooner and let the vet know about this situation. Do you guys know if there is other options for heart worm preventatives? Such as ones that are administered annually as opposed to monthly?

 

[toxiclight]

WE had to have our dog evaluated for heartworm before she was put on the preventative. It was a simple blood test that took maybe five minutes in the office? Maybe a little longer, but I know we weren't there long.

It wasn't precisely inexpensive, but it was far, far cheaper than treating heartworm.

 

[snakemom1961]

It's my understanding that the blood test they do for heartworm detects infection from 6 months back(I'm not sure how or why, but it was how the vet explained it to me). Which is why it is recommended to use year round treatment no matter what part of the country you live it.
As of right now there isn't a once a year pill or shot for heartworm. I too wish there was, but I just keep the schedule in my phone and it alarms me on the day I'm due to give Jett his topical which kills heartworm, hook worm, ear mites. fleas, ticks. Pretty much any bugs he could get.

 

[girlundertherainbow]

There used to be a shot for it that lasted 6mos, not sure if there still is though.. it was called Proheart 6 but that was awhile back.
And I used to work for a vet but it's been over ten years, but think how the test detects back to 6 mo's back is..
say if a dog was infected 6 mo's ago.. the stage of the worms will be much more advanced and therefore easier to detect.. I think at that point there's a protein or something they slough that shows in the blood test, so therefore it's easier to detect.
But if they were infected more recently, it would have to actually pick up on the very early stages which is even harder.

I do know the person I knew only lapsed for a month and her dog contracted heartworms.
So I would defiintely let your vet know so you can get a test done.. it's like a $15 test here, its the office visit that some vets require along with anything that's HIGH but if you're going in anyway you either already have an office visit tacked on or have a vet that doesn't charge that fee for every little thing they do.
And from what I remember, some preventatives are safer for dogs that happen to have heartworms somehow, like Heartguard.. but others like Interceptor can be bad for dogs that have existing heartworms.

 

[Susan]

I'm reading some good information and some that isn't exactly correct in this thread. Heartworm preventatives kill the L3 and L4 larval stages of the worm. Skipping a month or two theoretically is still going to prevent heartworms as it takes some time for the particular larval stages to reach the next stage so the preventative still can kill it. Unfortunately, not every heartworm larva reads the book and you can still get some that might be able to mature to the next stage before being killed. Besides, "once a month" does vary a bit for some people, myself included. For example, I give my dog it's heart worn pill on March 1st. The next dose is due in 31 days on April 1st. I forget to do it. The next scheduled dose is supposed to be May 1st, another 31 days later. I forget that one too but remember on the 10th of May and give it. Now it's been a total of 72 days since the last heartworm preventative, but a mosquito could have bitten my dog on march 2nd, infecting it with L3 larva, which mature to L4 in 3-4 days, and those L4 larva can mature to adults in 2-3 months. Now if it took the minimum of 2 months, say 62 days, plus the 3-4 of the L3 stage equals 65 days at the minimum. But my dog didn't get his pill until 72 days later, so he had adult worms for 1 week already. Also, there is a second heartworm strain that the preventions need more time to kill the larval stages, if at all.

There are only 2 heartworm preventatives approved for use in heartworm positive dogs...Revolution and Advantage Multi. Yes, some positive dogs are on other preventatives, but in most cases, it is because they got the heartworms in such an instance as described above or put on the preventative after testing negative but in actuality, the dog was positive but it was too early in the infection for the test to come up positive (It takes about 6 months from when the mosquito bites until the adult worms produce enough antigen to register on the tests). Some vets will put dogs on preventative such as HeartGard and call it "heartworm treatment". It is NOT a treatment and there is a risk of the dog having a reaction to the medication and dying. What the vet is doing is simply preventing further infection and the adult worms will eventually die off in a few years. This is usually done when the dog can't undergo the correct treatment due to one reason or another.

Heartworm preventions are prescription medications and your vet is required by law to perform a physical exam and do a heartworm test on the pet once a year. The charges for these exams and tests will vary from one hospital to another, from one area to another. The same with the cost of the prevention, which can also vary depending upon the prevention. Brand names like HeartGard and Interception will be more expensive than the "generics" such as Iverhart and TriHeart. The preventatives that also control fleas will be more costly than those that don't. And don't always believe the commercials that say the on-line pet pharmacies are less expensive than your vet's office. Yes, it can be sometimes, but please read this information provided by the FDA and actually compare the on-line prices with those of your vet. And remember, your vet's prices may be a dollar or two higher than the on-line company, but they are just warehouses and Drs. Foster & Smith will not be there for you when your pet is sick or injured.

And while most heartworm preventatives do not treat tapeworms, one does and it is called Iverhart Max. And the 6 month injectable preventative, ProHeart 6, is back on the market, but you need to find a vet that has decided to go through the classes and do the paperwork required by the FDA to use the product. And in other countries, ProHeart comes in a stronger dosage that will prevent heartworms for a full 12 months, but the FDA will not approve it's use in the United States because of the higher reaction and death rate in dogs that get that dosage versus the 6 month dosage.

And before you ask, there is not a single heartworm medication that will do everything . You have to make your choice to leave out something...certain species of roundworms or hookworms, whipworms, tapeworms, fleas or ticks.

 

[Em Wright]

Ugh that's really gross about the dog pooing in the water. :awcrap: But at least you know the tapeworms aren't transmittable that way, so it takes some of the stress away.

Since we moved into this new house we've been having a lot of problems with fleas. Two days ago we bombed the house, bathed the dogs with anti-flea shampoo, and put on their monthly Frontline... Today I found a flea on one of them. We're at wits end as to how to completely get rid of them. When we lived in NC we didn't have to use Frontline or give flea bathes or anything like that, but here we use it all religiously and there's very little reprieve!

Susan thanks for the great post of information. It's given me some things to think about.

 

[Susan]

The battle with fleas can only be won by continued treatments. Cocooned flea pupae can survive in the environment for over 2 years, waiting for the right moment to emerge. These are extremely difficult to kill, possible even impossible. Plus, stray animals and wildlife are a continued potential source, as well as one hitchhiking into your home on your socks or pant legs without you even knowing it. The topicals like Frontline and Advantage have been around for over a decade. With the rapid renewal of generations of fleas, it is easily possible for a population of resistant fleas to emerge in a particular area. Rotating flea products can help prevent resistance, and newer products (Comfortis/Trifexis and Assurity) are very effective in killing fleas. But you must be consistent, treating monthly, keeping wildlife out of your home (checking for access holes in attics and under trailers, etc), limiting the amount of time your pet is in an area where other pets are, and changing your clothes if you just came from an area where lots of pets are.

 

[Em Wright]

Thanks for the advice, Susan! Do you know anything I can give the dogs to help with the itching? Would Bag Balm be okay to put on them? Could I get something from my Vet?

 

[Susan]

Thanks for the advice, Susan! Do you know anything I can give the dogs to help with the itching? Would Bag Balm be okay to put on them? Could I get something from my Vet?

Depending upon the severity if the itching/scratching, you can try Benedryl (diphenhydramine) at a dose of 1 mg per pound of body weight up to twice a day. You can go a bit higher (up to 2 mg per pound) if your dogs are at a "funny" weight making dosing difficult. Topicals, unless for a specific smaller area such as a "hot spot", are not worth the effort or the mess. Medicated shampoos can help, but will only provide temporary relief that usually doesn't last a day unless it's in conjunction with other treatments and used to treat bacterial or fungal skin infections.

If that doesn't help, then you need to see your vet for something stronger in either an anti-histamine or an anti-inflammatory (steroid) in injection &/or tablet. The tablets are usually either prednisone, prednisolone, triamcinolone, dexamethasone or methylprednisolone, depending upon your vet's personal preference. Antibiotics &/or antifungals may also be needed depending upon the condition of the skin itself.

 

[Em Wright]

I'll try the Benadryl and see how that works. Then go from there. Thanks again Susan for the advice! Sorry to hijack the thread.