DOES MY DOG HAVE WORMS?

[BIGINNER]

MY MALE WEIM. IS 2 YEARS OLD, HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIN,  NOT BONE THING,  BUT IN GOOD SHAPE RIPLING MUSCLES THIN,.. LOL   JUST LIKE MR (LOL  I WISH)..   ANYWAYS,  LATELY HE HAS BEEN GETTING VERY  VERY THIN.

ABOUT A  2 MONTHS AGO, I CUT THE AMOUNT I FEED HIM,  I USED WAY OVERFEED HIM,  BUT I'M PRETTY SURE HE ISN'T GETTING THIN BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF FOOD,  HE EATS 6 CUPS A DAY STILL,  AND HE HAS A VERY GOOD APETITE, I'M MIGHT DEWORM HIM EOTHER WAY JUST TO MAKE SURE. LAST TIME I DEWORMED HIM WAS ABOUT A YEAR AGO.   

I HAVEN'T NOTICED ANY CHANGE IN HOW ACTIVE HE IS OR ANYTHING,  JUST THAT HE IS GETTING VERY THIN.
WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR TO DIAGNOSE IF HE HAS WORMS?

THANKS.

[Heredoggydoggy]

Depending on the type of worm, sometimes you can see little white worms in the poop.  Other times you won't see anything.  Best to take a fecal sample to a vet for analysis as to the type of worm.  Then the cure can target the spcific worm.

[BIGINNER]

ONE THING I NOTICED IS THAT IN HIS POOP, THERE ARE LITTLE SPOTS,.. KINDOF LIKE SAWDUST... IS THIS SOME KIND OF SIGN?

[WAcoyotehunter]

he probably does have worms...dogs get them all the time from eating dead animals they find, eating crap, or just being outside.  Increase your worming schedule and make sure you're covering tapeworms- a lot of cheaper wormers only cover roundworms and hookworms.

If he doesn't have worms and is still having trouble keeping weight offer some corn oil or powder milk replacer on the food.  When I'm hunting a lot and the dogs are thin I buy beef scraps from the local butcher for $.15 a pound...pretty darn cheap and they pack weight on QUICK with beef fat.

No need to go to the vet yet- save your money.   

[Heredoggydoggy]

ONE THING I NOTICED IS THAT IN HIS POOP, THERE ARE LITTLE SPOTS,.. KINDOF LIKE SAWDUST... IS THIS SOME KIND OF SIGN?

Might be--one time I was babysitting a buddy's dog, and I could actually see little white critters moving in the poop.  Vets seldom see actual worms in the fecal sample.  what they see is the eggs that the worms are laying, and by identifying the eggs, they can tell what worms to treat for.  Any animal that goes thrrough life nose and mouth-first will get worms.

[Happy Gilmore]

probably has tape works.

[wildweeds]

Get yourself some Safeguard (Fenbendozole),they have it for dogs,according to the advertising schpeil it gets them all.Droncit gets the tapes but not the rounds,Nemex(parapalmonate) gets the rounds but not the tapes,Ivermec gets the rounds,prevents heartworm/is used to aide in the disapation of demodectic mange   and whacks the fleas.

  In order to do any good you will need to worm more than once in a one month period,the life cycle of the round worm is 14 days I believe(my hank the handyman vet manual is not handy at the moment) so when you kill the worms,you need to re dose the dog at day 14 to whack the ones that just hatched from the eggs laid by the previous kill.

 If you have access to ivermec injectable for swine/cattle the correct ORAL dosage for a canine is .01 cc per 7 pounds of dog flesh.And you really want to be careful to have that dose correct because it's hard on the liver if used improperly.

  I had a pointer that always looked wormy but the fact of the matter was his metabolism was all haywire and the feed was in direct correlation to his outward appearance,I fed him top notch food but it just didn't fit him right,he did better on junk food than percieved good food.In your situation I'd say at 6 cups per day your way overfeeding and if the dog still looks like potential HSUS handcuffs ...................... get to worming and do it 3 times just to be sure,nail him once every 2 weeks for 6 weeks.Use a wormer that will kill tapes,rounds and hooks

[Mike450r]

Dogs almost always have some type of worms,  they need to be de-wormed on a fairly regular basis if you want to consider them worm free.  The most common are round worms and are not a real serious health concern most of the time.  People that only deworm when they think their dog has worms , lets say once a year or even less often have a dog that has had worms the whole time.

[Happy Gilmore]

Dogs almost always have some type of worms,  they need to be de-wormed on a fairly regular basis if you want to consider them worm free.  The most common are round worms and are not a real serious health concern most of the time.  People that only deworm when they think their dog has worms , lets say once a year or even less often have a dog that has had worms the whole time.

I don't agree with that. My dogs are around lots of other dogs. I have about 100 dogs on either side of me. Neither has had worms in 2 years.

Don't worm unless your dog has symptoms. Some studies are starting to point cancers in dogs to some of the prescription drugs we're giving them...

[KFhunter]

what are you feeding him?
 
 

[madmack76]

can some one post pics of the different types of worms with names might be good to every one

[huntergreg]

Check out these two links. tells about worms.
http://www.waycooldogs.com/how-to-tell-what-type-of-worms-your-dog-has/

http://www.dog-health-guide.org/dogwormstypes.html

[lokidog]

Sounds like tapeworm egg cases, sometimes they'll even wiggle a bit when freshly pooped out.

Take a sample to your vet, it needs to be pretty fresh for them to do the best analysis.  Just scoop up in a ziploc and drop it off.  LET THE PROS DO THEIR JOB.

We only feed two cups a day to our golden, but she is over ten and not super active.

[Helix]

Get panacure it will fix him up.

[bearpaw]

Three things:

What brand of dog food? This makes a huge difference, too many dog foods will not hardly support an active dog.
How does his coat look? Does his hair shine or is it dull and dingy looking? A healthy dog shines!
Good idea to ask hound doggers or other dog owners in your area which vet is good with dogs and reasonable priced.