a-bull wrote:I think I've said it before on the site where the pups apparently hail from, but be very careful with diarrhea in pups---they can dehydrate very quickly and you can indeed lose a healthy looking pup that has had diarrhea for too long.
Well momma Susie definitely has diarrhea, but I don't think the pups do?
In all the pups I've fostered and adopted, I've never had worm issues.
What's up with this? Have people on here who foster had this much trouble with worms??
What part of the country were your pups from? What season was it? Did they come from an animal shelter? In my research, I have found that these factors are very important in determining the odds that a dog will have worms.
Parasites are rampant in the southern states because the outside conditions are PERFECT for their survival (warm and moist). Heartworm is much more common because these are perfect conditions for mosquitoes, and worm eggs are quite happy in the environment too. And some types of eggs can survive and remain infective for YEARS. Cold winters and other environmental conditions up north will kill many worm eggs in the environment (you can bet that Alaska doesn't have much of a problem with worms...)
The cleaning and housing practices at the shelter also make a huge difference. Shelter dogs that are switched between kennels, don't have waterproof cement walls between the kennels, and have a common play area where they are allowed to defecate are much more likely to get worms while at the shelter, if they did not have them already.
(Mel, correct me if I say something wrong here): Susie came from down south (Georgia?), and from a bad shelter. Two strikes against her already. And even though she was vet checked before transport, a fecal or worming meds for her or the pups was not part of that visit.
Also, dogs often have worms, sometimes a horrendous number of them, and they will show no symptoms at all (no diarrhea, etc). Susie had an
extremely heavy hookworm infection, and her stool was not loose or anything until recently. But she easily could have become anemic from blood loss and died (especially as she is so so skinny), and no one would have been the wiser.
As for my personal experience, every animal I have adopted from an animal shelter or an animal rescue foster home has had worms. (Well, except for Aidan actually. But he had mange instead). One cat had coccidia, one cat had tapeworms and roundworms, and one dog had coccidia. I am in CT.
My parasitology research in North Haven CT has shown me that about half of the dogs in their shelter are infected at any given time, though closer to 80% of puppies and kittens are infected. I imagine that these rates are much higher in the southern shelters... (And North Haven's cleaning practices are very good).
~Lindsay~