I first got Piper almost 2 months ago. When I first got her she had both rice worms and spaghetti worms. The shelter that I rescued her from provided us with Panacur, and the worms went away. 3 weeks ago she got them again, but this time it was just rice worms, so we gave her the same treatment and they went away. Now this morning I saw little dried up worms in my bed where she was sleeping, but I looked in her poop this morning and there were none. Should I be concerned with how often she is getting worms? I know that the rice worms (tapeworms) are caused from flea larvae, but she doesn't have fleas. She was just given a 3 month flea treatment pill 2 weeks ago. Can giving her 3 worm treatments in such a short period of time be bad for her? Should I even worm her since there were none in her poop? Help!!
I would go to the vet and bring a stool sample - they will be able to help with type of worm(s) and correct wormer and dosage. It sounds to me like she probably never got rid of the original worms.
When Snowie had a tapeworm infestation at 1.5 years he had to be dewormed over a period of time. I forget how often, but it was to take into account the tapeworm lifecycle. If memory serves me correct, the dewormer only kills the worms, not the eggs. So you have to wait till the eggs hatch and then kill those worms. So Snowie got an immediate dose and then one (or two -- I wish I could remember!) doses at specific intervals thereafter to coincide with the tapeworm lifecycle. From what you describe it sounds like Piper still has tapeworm. And if you're not quick, you won't see the tapeworm "rice" in her poo because they wriggle really quickly into the poo and are gone in a matter of seconds. The reason we never picked up that Snowie had tapeworm was because it was winter and I was walking him very early in the morning when it was still dark. I'd pick up his poos in the semi-dark and by the time I got home and it was light, the worms had obviously wriggled away from the light and air and into the poo and I never noticed them. During the day he pooed in the garden and, when I picked up the poos later, I obviously never saw the worms. Then one Sunday morning we happened to sleep in (very unusual because Snowie was an early riser, but clearly he was not well) and on that morning I saw these rice-like things on his poo. My immediate thought was that it was something from the pavement. And then they disappeared before my eyes! When I got home I immediately Googled what I saw and was horrified he might have tapeworm, but a poo sample to the vet confirmed it. I felt awful because he was looking very slim in the winter and we just thought it was the cold, so we fed him more. Within a week of being dewormed he put on a kilo!
They can get tapeworms from other animals faecal matter and from carrion and from live game if they are quick enough to catch mice and birds and squirrels. We've had cats who seemed predisposed to harbouring them while others didn't. Maybe the ones who got them over and over were more successful hunters.
The dog gets tapeworms from an intermediate host as you say @Snowshoe, but not from faecal matter. They also get tapeworms from ingesting fleas. I haven't heard of rice worms or sphagetti worms, perhaps they are tapeworm segments and roundworms?
The faecal matter has to be infected with tapeworms, but yes, they can get it from that. Just think of a dog who raids the kitty litter. Found this on several sites. http://www.livescience.com/53598-tapeworms.html
Quinn had roundworm a few months ago...had 3 doses of dewormer over almost 2 months if I recall correctly. As @MF says, the dewormer won't kill the eggs that may remain, causing worms to re-occur if you only give one dose. We didn't even suspect worms until her first dose of monthly heartworm meds must have killed them and we saw them in her poop (like spaghetti!). Vet did fecal test, and we had to get another test following all the doses to make sure they were gone.
Panacur (fenbendazole) is a very good roundworm treatment. Roundworms are the long thin worms that look like spaghetti or threads of cotton if they are small. We tend to use panacur for puppies. Or sometimes for giardia in older dogs. But as far as I know, it doesn't treat all types of tapeworm. Tapeworms are the segmented worms and when they shed segments, it's those that look a bit like grains of rice. But you won't see segments all the time, even in dogs that are infested with tapeworm. The only way to be sure is with a laboratory test. That's why we mostly worm dogs on a regular basis. It sounds as though your dog has not yet been effectively treated for tapeworm. So if your dog has tapeworm you need to us a treatment designed for that. Here in the UK drontal is a popular choice for worming adult dogs. If you are in the US there is probably a different brand. Most tapeworm treatments can be given quite frequently. They don't have a lasting effect, and just kill the worm infestation that is there in the dog at the time when the medication is given
Milbemax is another good wormer. The anti-tapeworm ingredient is praziquantel. It's a good idea to talk to your vet about doing a a worm egg count on a poo sample, like Quinn did, to work out a good worming regime for your doggie.
