Canine Roundworms (Toxocara Canis) Symptoms and Treatments

Canine Roundworms are of particular concern not only because they can seriously affect your dog's health but because they can also affect human beings through contact with infected canine stools. They can affect new born puppies as well as older dogs, and even in the uterus they can take up residence in the liver and lungs plus the bones once the pup has been born.

Roundworms are pale brown or beige in colour and look like thin string. Diagnosis is made upon faecal examination or by the dog vomiting them up if the worms are populating his stomach in increasing number. He may also have a tense pot-bellied stomach if he is young which may show that he has a bad infestation and may also cause an intestinal blockage if their numbers grow sufficiently to fill the stomach and block off the pyloric opening into the intestine..

Your dog will have an enormous appetite if he has worms. He will always want to be eating and will never seem to be satisfied. He may also start losing a lot of weight despite eating so much and he may start to lose energy and become listless if he's not getting enough nutrients from the food he's eating.

Treatment involves proprietary treatment from your vet who will be able to recommend medication that is far more effective in dealing with worms than many other shop bought brands. You could use a medication that deals with roundworm, tapeworm and hookworm at the same time so that you're treating him with three different medications at different times. The main point to remember is that careful attention should be paid to any environment that the dog uses or plays or investigates in. It's very easy for him to pick up worms just by sniffing and investigating his neighbourhood.

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