I have a dog, Jake, he is about a year old, He was a pound puppy and at the end of Sept.. last year I made him part of our family. My question is, do I need to worm him? After reading many of the posts here I have begun to wonder. He is in excellent health, happy, good teeth, etc.... Do I need to worm him? That is my question, sorry if I had a hard time gettin around to it.

-- Tina (clia88@newmexico.com), July 22, 2000

Answers

Tina, Take a stool sample to the vet and have it analysed, then the vet will tell you if he has worms and what to worm him with. At a year old he might need booster immunization shots and maybe a rabies shot too. I worm my dog once a month but she loves to eat any kind of poop and I raise chickens, rabbits and goats! LOve your dogs name and good for you for giving him a loving home. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), July 23, 2000.

Tina, to keep Jake healthy for a life time yes if he were mine he would be wormed. I vaccinate pups and then vaccinate yearly, you can pick up you own vaccines at most feed stores or order them through Jeffers pet catalog 1800-Jeffers or jefferspet.com I also start them on heartworm prevention at 12 weeks. I "make" my own with cattle ivermectin, and give it monthly. I also worm my dogs monthly during flea season, for us March through November with Valbazen 1cc per 10 pounds and I also have had wonderful results using Bio spot for fleas and ticks, also starting in March and giving until November. Everyone has to manage their stock the way they feel comfortable with. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 23, 2000.

Thanks for the info ladies. He does have his rabies shot, and he had boosters about six months ago. Believe it or not I have never seen a flea on him! But he also likes to eat poop, yuk, and I have turkeys and chickens running around. Wish I had a microscope and centrifuge, I could do the stool myself, I am a lab tech. I will call the vet. again, thanks

-- Tina (clia88@newmexico.com), July 23, 2000.

Tina, I picked up a microscope for my fecal samples (goats and my dogs) at a pawn shop near a Universtiy in the Medical Center in Houston. There were so many and told the guy I was just looking for one to do my fecals. The only thing it truly has to have is it's own light source. You can easily buy the chambered slide from you vet, and fecals can be floated in a test tube, after shaking with your hand. The salt solution and all directions are on saanendoah.com 's excellent site. Tapes don't show up on fecal anyway, but they have excellent pictures of other worms and cocci from Karin Christensens site. http://www.cosmoaccess.net/~ivyacres/goat/parasites.html Have no idea if there is a worm site for dogs! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 23, 2000.