How Do You Know You Have Roundworms

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Roundworms (Toxocara canis) are a common abdominal worm in dogs, especially in immature puppies.^[ane] A puppy can exist born infected if its mother has a roundworm infection, due to worm larvae (an early developmental stage) migrating through her placenta or ending upward in her milk.^[2] Some clinical signs are mutual with roundworms, but a veterinarian must ostend a roundworm diagnosis. Although roundworms tin make a dog feel and expect lousy, roundworm infections are easily treatable and preventable.

1. i

   Await at your domestic dog's appearance. Non all dogs bear witness outward signs of a roundworm infection. If you have a puppy that is showing clinical signs, he will accept a potbelly. In improver, your puppy's coat may await dull, and he may not be growing and putting on weight as he should. He will be smaller than what he should be for his age.

   • The potbelly advent is due to the large number of developed roundworms in your domestic dog'south belly.

2. 2

   Identify signs of digestive upset. When roundworms find their way to the intestine, they feed off of partially digested food. This robs your canis familiaris of vital nutrients and causes him to experience digestive upset, including vomiting and chronic diarrhea.^[3] You may be able to see worms in the vomit.^[four]

   • Puppies that are four to vi months sometime and have heavy roundworm infections may vomit large worms that are even so alive, which could be very distressing to you. The roundworms will be an off white color. With early diagnosis and proper handling, it is unlikely for your puppy to have such a severe infection.
   • The vomiting is due to the developed roundworms irritating the lining of your dog's stomach.
   • Phone call your veterinary if yous see live worms and are unsure how to dispose of them.
   • The chronic diarrhea may cause your dog to eliminate more oft in the firm, which would exit worm eggs in your dwelling house and potentially expose other pets, or re-betrayal him, to infection.
   • With the digestive upset, your dog volition swallow less.

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3. iii

   Await for signs of respiratory bug. In the complicated life cycle of roundworms, the larvae will drift up to your dog's lungs, which volition crusade him to cough. The coughing action moves the larvae into your dog'due south throat, causing your canis familiaris to swallow the larvae.^[5] If your domestic dog has a severe roundworm infestation, the larvae in the lungs could give your dog pneumonia.

   • Signs of pneumonia include difficulty breathing, a deep cough, and lethargy.^[6]

4. 4

   Examine your dog's feces. Looking at your dog's feces isn't exactly enjoyable, but it could assist you decide if your dog has roundworms. Adult roundworms are iii to 4 inches long and look like spaghetti.^[7] The larvae would likely be too minor for you to see with the naked eye, and the eggs would non be detectable at all.

   • If y'all see adult worms, you may desire to place a modest sample in a tightly sealed plastic pocketbook and take it with you when yous take your dog to the veterinary.
   • Habiliment gloves when you collect the sample and launder your hands thoroughly later.
   • Roundworms are unremarkably found in the carrion.^[eight]

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1. one

   Take your dog to your veterinarian. As soon as your canis familiaris is showing signs of a roundworm infestation, schedule an appointment with your veterinarian.^[9] A potbellied advent volition be the most obvious sign of roundworms, so schedule the appointment when you see the potbelly. Your veterinary will be able to confirm the diagnosis.

   • If your dog defecates outside of your veterinarian'southward part, pick up and discard the feces immediately to prevent infecting other dogs.

2. 2

   Bring a sample of your canis familiaris's feces. Your veterinarian will be able to definitively diagnose a roundworm infection by examining your dog's feces under a microscope. If y'all were not able to collect a fecal sample at home, your veterinarian will take a sample during the date. Since a single developed worm tin can produce up to 85,000 eggs per day, a modest sample of fecal material should exist sufficient to identify roundworms microscopically.

3. 3

   Allow your veterinarian to examine the fecal sample. Your veterinary will prepare a fecal solution (likewise called a 'fecal flotation') that will make information technology easier to detect the roundworm eggs. Under the microscope, roundworm eggs will exist big and stout looking. Roundworm eggs accept a very feature appearance, so information technology is unlikely to mistake them for another blazon of worm egg.

4. 4

   Acquire about the limitations of fecal examinations. Although fecal examinations are the primary way to discover roundworms, they are not foolproof. A canis familiaris with a roundworm infection does non continuously shed roundworm eggs, and so a single fecal sample may not contain whatsoever eggs. In addition, if the sample has but a pocket-size number eggs, those eggs may not be detectable. Even if no eggs are detected, your veterinarian may however diagnose a roundworm infection, especially if your dog is a puppy and is showing other clinical signs of infection.

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1. 1

   Treat your canis familiaris with a deworming agent. If your veterinarian diagnoses your domestic dog with roundworms, he or she will prescribe a medication to kill the roundworms. There are many available deworming agents (east.chiliad., fenbendazole, piperazine, ivermectin), so your veterinarian will choose the medication and dosage that will work best for your canis familiaris. If yous have a very young puppy, he will demand to be treated every two weeks until he is ii months one-time, and so monthly until he is six months old.^[ten]

   • Although unpleasant, you may see dead or dying roundworms in your puppy'due south feces.
   • If you lot take the puppy's mom at habitation, she will need to exist treated at the same time every bit the puppy. This volition kill any larvae that may drift to her milk and cause the puppy to be re-infected.
   • Follow the prescribing instructions carefully to ensure effective treatment.

2. 2

   Schedule follow up appointments with your veterinary. After your dog finishes the handling, your veterinary will probably desire to test his feces several more than times to ostend successful handling. Your veterinarian will determine when those follow upwardly appointments should accept place.

3. 3

   Understand how a deworming agent works. During the complicated life cycle of roundworms, the eggs will develop into larvae that essentially entomb themselves into different body tissues. Afterward a while, they emerge, migrate through the trunk, and develop into adult roundworms. The deworming amanuensis will kill the developed roundworms. All the same, since the larvae will be emerging and developing at dissimilar times, the medication needs to exist given every few weeks to impale all of the adult roundworms.^[11]

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1. 1

   Give your dog a monthly preventative. All dogs need a monthly roundworm preventative, specially those who take had roundworms. Roundworm preventatives are oft combined with heartworm preventatives to make information technology easy for dog owners to protect their dogs from disease. Since roundworm eggs are very hardy and tin remain in the surround for a long time, do not stop administering the preventative when information technology gets common cold outside.^[12]

   • Fifty-fifty with a monthly preventative, you lot should have your dog screened for roundworms once or twice a twelvemonth subsequently his starting time yr of life.

2. two

   Selection upwardly your dog's feces promptly. Roundworm eggs are resistant to disinfectants or any other products y'all may put in your grass to try to kill them. To keep the eggs from staying in the environment and possibly re-infecting your dog, pick up and throw away your dog's feces immediately. Children are especially susceptible to roundworm infections, so option upwardly your dog's feces if he goes to the bathroom in a playground or around sandboxes where children play.

   • Roundworm eggs become infective after i to three weeks of being in the environment.

3. 3

   Practice strict hygiene. Roundworms are a public health upshot since they can cause disease (visceral larval migrans and ocular larval migrans) in humans. These diseases are rare simply can exist serious. If you have children, make sure they wash their hands frequently and properly.^[13]

   • Wash your ain hands frequently and properly as well since you are most likely the one who is picking upward your domestic dog's feces.

4. four

   Go on your children abroad from your dog's feces. When your children play exterior, keep them from areas where your dog or other dogs unremarkably defecate.^[14] If they practise play in an expanse where dogs frequent, make sure they launder their easily when they come up back inside and before they handle nutrient.^[15] While they are outside, do not allow them put their hands past their mouths since this could cause them to swallow roundworm eggs.

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• Dogs can end upwardly ingesting roundworm eggs by licking or even sniffing feces.^[sixteen] Keep a close center on your dog to make certain he isn't eating feces that he sees during your walks.

• If you take a pregnant female, start giving her fenbendazole when she is six weeks pregnant to prevent roundworm larvae from inbound her milk or infecting her unborn puppies.^[17] Fenbendazole must be given daily to the pregnant female canis familiaris until the puppies are born.

• Roundworm infections in people commonly do not cause symptoms.^[18]

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• Roundworm infections in neonatal puppies can cause severe illness and may be fatal.

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Article Summary X

To diagnose roundworms in dogs, monitor your canis familiaris for mutual symptoms of roundworms, like airsickness, chronic diarrhea, coughing, and a irksome coat. Your dog might also take a potbelly from worms in its stomach. You lot should as well examine your dog's stool to meet if information technology has thin, iii-four inch long worms in it, which could be roundworms. If you retrieve your dog has roundworms, bring it to run across a vet so they can ostend the diagnosis and prescribe medication to kill the worms. For more tips from our Veterinary co-author, like how to prevent roundworms in dogs, read on!

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