Worms In Dogs: Breaking The Cycle

Worms in dogs seem to be one of those dog health care problems that return. This is because of how their life cycle works. Given that worms in dogs can cause health problems in both dogs and humans, owners have a responsibility to interrupt the cycle and try to keep it broken.

Because most puppies are born with an infestation of roundworm, this is the most common type of dog worm in the UK. In puppies this infestation causes swollen bellies and may delay growth whilst in humans it may rarely cause blindness.

Like other types of worms in dogs, the cycle can be broken with a little understanding. The cycle begins when a female puppy is infected from her own mother, either in the womb or as a pup through the mother’s milk. Inside the infected puppy, some worm larvae will migrate via the bloodstream to the muscles where they will lie dormant in indestructible cysts. In the event of pregnancy in later life, the larvae will be reactivated and will move through the blood to infect the puppies.

In young puppies, some of the larvae will not form the above mentioned cysts. Instead, some will remain in the intestine and grow into adults. Once mature, after feeding on the partly digested food in the intestine, the adult worm releases eggs which are passed from the dog with the faeces. Once in the environment, the eggs become a risk to other dogs and people. For people it is the touching of contaminated soil rather than the handling of puppies which poses an infection risk.

There you have the cycle: to break it adult dogs muct be treted every three months. Because of puppies’ predisposition to this type of worms in dogs, they should be treated every two weeks between the ages of two and twelve weeks and once a month thereafter until they are six months old. Dog owners must take responsibility for picking up after their dog and making sure their family practices good hand hygiene in order to reduce the risk of worms in dogs for other dogs and other people.