Round Worm Medication

[Stitch]

OK here's the thing - I routinely use Drontal All Wormer on my dogs and also monthly Heartguard Plus which has the added benefit of elimating roundworm however...........

I bought in a mature bitch and routinely wormed her as above, when she had her litter of pups they had roundworm. ;)

I have been over this with the manufacturers of Heartguard but I still can't understand why it is that when I breed a bitch that I have had since birth or puppyhood they do not pass roundworm on to their puppies but a mature bitch that I buy in will have puppies with roundworm even though she has been wormed routinely by me and also had monthly heartworm.

Luckily we don't have fleas or tapeworms but roundworm in puppies is something that I don't want also!

Can anyone satisfactorily explain why I can't eliminate roundworms in some bitches, or if there is a way of eliminating them completely???

[Staranais]

When roundworm (toxocara) eggs are ingested by a female dog, the eggs hatch inside her then the worm larvae lie dormant (encyst) in her tissues until she becomes pregnant, when they activate again & pass through the placenta and milk to the pups. Encysted larvae in bitches aren't killed by normal wormers, hence most puppies are born with Toxocara, since most bitches have encysted larvae which aren't removed by regular worming.

I don't know anything about the Heartguard product, but assume it only removes adult roundworms (not encysted larvae)?

[Stitch]

I guess so!

I knew that they lay dormant in the mother and then spread to the pups - it is just the bitches that I have raised from a pup don't have a problem with roundworm and the ones I buy in as mature bitches usually do have a problem.

So I presume what happens is that when I breed or buy in a pup and worm it then the round worms don't get a chance to progress to the stage where they migrate to the other internal organs (outside of the gut) and when I buy in a mature bitch that may not have had regular worming as a pup then the roundworms have migrated outside the gut area and are then passed on to the pups.

Is there no way of eliminating the encysted larvae?

Edited August 8, 2009 by STITCH

[Staranais]

So I presume what happens is that when I breed or buy in a pup and worm it then the round worms don't get a chance to progress to the stage where they migrate to the other internal organs (outside of the gut) and when I buy in a mature bitch that may not have had regular worming as a pup then the roundworms have migrated outside the gut area and are then passed on to the pups.

Is there no way of eliminating the encysted larvae?

Yup that's my guess too.

I don't think you can get rid of the encysted larvae, but I guess ask a vet would be the thing to do, they should know all the newest drugs?

[Kuntooki]

Frustrating isn't it. The only time I had pups with roundworm was when I bred an outside bitch that I hadn't had since a pup!

[Kirislin]

Worms are amazing creatures, so bloody resilient. I didn't know that's what roundworms do but I did wonder why it is that puppies have them even when the mother is wormed.

Interestingly, I've bred two litters and the first litter was bottle fed exclusively for the first week or two of their lives. I dont recall a problem with roundworm in them. The second litter was on mum from day one and they had roundworm, even though I regularly wormed the bitch before they were born and wormed the pups every two weeks afterwards.