Worming

Dog and cats need to be regularly wormed to protect them and your family from the effects of internal parasites. Some intestinal worms can be passed onto humans (a zoonosis) and cause serious and even fatal disease in people.

The main intestinal worms are: tapeworms including hydatid, roundworm, hookworm and whipworm.

‘Allwormer’ are treatments that kill all of these intestinal worms. There is a large array of different worm products including tablets, chews, liquids and spot-ons to apply to the skin. Please talk to our staff who can advise you on the most suitable wormer to use for your pet.

Puppies and kittens are particularly susceptible to the effects of intestinal worms, they can be born with worms passed onto them from their mother or they can be infected at a very early age.

Signs of intestinal worms include a poor body weight, pot belly, poor hair coat, diarrhoea sometimes with straining and blood, pale gums and worms can sometimes be seen on droppings or around the pet’s anus.

Intestinal worms have complicated life cycles, with a period of time spent outside the body of pets, often involving other species of animals including fleas and prey animals.

Regular cleaning up of faeces and good hygiene i.e. washing hands regularly especially before eating with particular attention in young children and prevention of children playing in areas that could be contaminated (eg sandpits)are practices that should always be employed.

Puppies should be wormed with an allwormer very 2 weeks starting at 2 weeks of age until they are 12 weeks. They then should be wormed monthly until they are at least 6 months.

Adult dogs should be wormed with an allwormer at least every 3-4 months or if they have access to raw offal or are on a property they should be wormed every 6 weeks for hydatid tapeworm.

Kittens should be wormed at 6, 8 and 12 weeks of age then every 3 months.