Tapeworms And Dogs

Simply put, tapeworms are an intestinal parasite, and the best way to diagnosis tapeworms and dogs is simply to look at your pet's stool or anus. Other clinical signs are few, but on occasion your dog will show signs like weight loss, diarrhea or itching.

Tapeworms and dogs are not overly problematic, although they are disgusting. Major health problems are few in adult pets, but in puppies a big infestation can be more serious.

The most common tapeworm found is scientifically called Dipylidium canium. And another common tapeworm is called Taenia spp. In all cases, the only way your pet can become infected is by ingesting a host. Things like fleas, rabbits, mice and other creatures your dog may decide to nibble on are the most common carriers.

Tapeworms are somewhat different than other parasites in that they typically don't live free in the intestines. Instead they use a small hook like mouth to attach themselves to the small intestine wall. The part that dies the attaching is the scolex. The more the tapeworm matures, the larger it gets and the more segments it will produce.

As this happens the oldest section of the tapeworm splits and exits through the stool. These proglottids, as they are called, are easily visible and make diagnosing the problem easy. This is good because even under a microscope an tapeworm eggs can be difficult to identify.

Dog Tapeworm Medicine

There are several effective over the counter medicines for tapeworms. One of those is Praziquantel, available at Dog.com. But most OTC's are only partially effective. They will kill the proglottids and therefore keep them from reproducing, however they do nothing to the scolex. That means it will reproduce more, thus generating new proglottids which you will notice and begin to give you pet the over the counter medication again. Much more effective is a prescription med which you can get from your vet.

However the best medicine is prevention, and that means you need to control the hosts, most specifically fleas and mice. Too many pet owners think tapeworm medication is not effective because shortly after treatment ends, more tapeworms appear. But the problem is not the medication but more often simply a new infection. It takes as little as two weeks for your pet to become re-infected, so if you really want to control tapeworm infections, you need to control the hosts.

As far as humans are concerned, they are not very likely to get tapeworms from their dogs. That means like your dog, you would have to ingest the host. A few cases in children have been reported but this is rare.