Worms!

Ann gave you good advice and she is right. You cannot use more than one product on him, especially since he is so young. Talk to your vet.

As far as the cats go, they will NOT starve to death if your mom does not feed them. Cats are very resourceful and excellent hunters, but strays can and do carry a lot of problem issues too like worms, fleas, and other diseases. If your mom is so worried about mice, why does she not get a cat of her own, that you know is clean and keep him around the house?
 
This is going to sound really stupid, but how do I tell if they are in the house? My Mom, Dad, sister, and I are all flea and worm free. Should I buy some flea spray/powder for the floor and vaccuum it up? Do I get a flea bomb at the vet's office?

Is there a way to treat the remaining cats without actually touching them? They scare me, and they run away anytime somebody gets near them, so it would be impossible for me to spray/catch them anyway.

Is it also true that mosquitos can give an animal worms? I keep hearing so many things from so many people on what can and can't cause worms. :dead:

I've learned about and experienced more worm related problems these last couple of days than I ever cared to. :razz:
 
Trust me, Jessica, you will know if fleas are in the house! They bite, and they bite humans as well as animals. You'd also see them...tiny black hopping things. So hopefully you are ahead of that problem if you haven't noticed any. But do check with your vet regarding what can be done to rid Smudge of them as soon as possible.

There are some natural flea repellants you can use in the house now though to make sure you don't get them there. Nature's Guardian makes one that won't hurt you, Smudge, or anyone else. You can Google it and find it online. Here's one site that has it in a spray along with a few other kinds:
http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Sentry-Natural-Defense-Flea-Tick-Household-Spray/207011.aspx

I have never heard of anyone getting worms from mosquitoes, although they do carry other diseases. I wouldn't worry too much about that one. Worms are a frequent problem in puppies though, so it's not unusual for Smudge to have gotten them. Once you get rid of them, he should be just fine.
 
Smudge said:
Is it also true that mosquitos can give an animal worms? I keep hearing so many things from so many people on what can and can't cause worms. :dead:

I've learned about and experienced more worm related problems these last couple of days than I ever cared to. :razz:
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Mosquitos carry the heartworm and it can be transmitted to your dog if he is not on heartworm medication. I'm not sure how old a pup has to be before they can be on heartworm medicine, I would ask your vet. If your dog is not on year round heartworm medicine, he will need to be tested ever year for heartworm disease. Then the vet will give you the meds for him to take after he is tested and is found negative. If you put him on year round heartworm medicine such as Inteceptor or Sentinal, he will only need to be tested every two years - as long as you keep him on it year round - 1 pill a month. I keep my girls on year round and it works great. Also, as someone mentioned below, the Inteceptor will help keep your boy free from other types of worms. Also, if you do not treat your dog for heartworm and he gets it, if caught it is a very costly, painful treatment that he will have to go through to get rid of them. If left untreated, he will die because they basically destroy the heart. Humans will not get heartworms from mosquitos. Hope that helps.
 
I just got through checking Smudge's neck, and there is no flea dirt there. Is it possible that he may be allergic to something, and that's why he is scratching? I don't know what it would be though. Maybe cats? :lol:

I'm really glad that he seems to have gotten rid of the worms. I was going to take him to get registered for puppy obedience classes, and I couldn't do that last week because of the worms. I don't want Smudge to infect any other animals, so if everything still looks good by the middle of the week then I'm going to go ahead and register him. :winkgrin:
 
Smudge said:
I'm back with an update on Smudge. As of this morning, it seems like he is worm free. I do have another problem though. His flea medicine is not working. It's Advantage? Advantix? Something like that. It's not killing the fleas at all. The worst of the worm problems may be over, but if his flea problem is not fixed then it will only get worse and the worms will come back. Can somebody suggest something? He is 10 weeks old and weighs 6.6 pounds, if this helps any.

Also, I think I may have given everybody the wrong impression about the stray cats. They are not nice stray cats at all. When I walk outside one of them runs to the fence and hisses at me, and then runs off. :uhoh: I don't want them to starve to death, but they are going to hurt somebody. I've talked my dad into getting rid of the kittens. I think he's going to take them to the animal shelter, as we don't know what else to do. That leave three adult cats.

I do want to thank everybody for the help they've given me. :yes: I don't know what I would do without this forum.
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I knew what you meant about the stray cats, they're ferral, meaning they're completely wild. It would probably be in everyone's best interest if the cats are trapped and brought to your local SPCA. They could be carrying other diseases as well as passing fleas on to Smudge and other local animals. If your Mother is that attached to them and wants to keep them around, she should at least bring them to the vet and have them spayed/neutered so they stop multiplying.

Unfortunately, as long as the flea infested cats are around, Smudge probably won't be free of fleas. As Ann said, their probably in your house too, your parents may need to treat the house to keep the fleas under control. Fleas love carpeting and will live in it like its grass.
 
You're sure having some challenges

First worms, then fleas... isn't dog ownership fun? :rolleyes2: Awfully sorry to hear that Smudge's scooting was caused by worms & not anal glands. Think I'd rather treat irritated glands! For all the years that I've worked with rescue dogs, I've never dealt with a worm infestation like you described. Guess I've just been lucky there. I completely understand you getting jumpy over such a yucky thing.

Unfortunately, I have dealt with fleas. We actually got fleas in our home once from a particularly infested rescue hound. It was my fault, as I know better than to bring a found dog inside before checking it over thoroughly. None of us in the home got fleas on us, but we saw fleas jumping up on the sunny windows above the dog's cage in the dining room. That caused an exodus of three dogs and two cats to the vet; only the rescue was infested. We also had an exterminator come in to deal with the fleas, since we wanted to be sure. $250 and a solid day of laundry later, we were sure that we never wanted to deal with that problem again... and we haven't.

Everybody's already pointed out that you have to be careful with fleas on a puppy. Many flea treatments are toxic & the vet will know what best to use on Smudge.

What's next?..... Locusts? :lol: Good luck!
 
Well, it's midweek and Smudge seems to be doing a lot better. He's back to stealing shoes and tugging on pants legs again. :lol: I'm taking him with me to the petstore tomorrow, and we're going to pick out some toys and see if we can't find the flea products that were listed in an earlier post. If not, then I'll order them online. My house and the peoplepets in it aren't infested with fleas (yet), and I'd like to keep it that way. Smudge is still scratching. I'm just a little bit paranoid, because the last time I thought I was over reacting I ended up with a bed full of worms. I'll be calling to make a vet appointment in a week or so anyway, and I will be sure to tell the vet that I'm almost positive the flea medicine is not working.


For anybody else having the same problem I did with worms, I found this site to be VERY helpful. The man who owns that website also has some other pages with good information. While it won't answer all of your questions, it's a good place to start. Before this happened, I had no clue that fleas could cause worms. Thanks to everybody that took the time to help me. :yes: The website:

http://www.dr-dan.com/tapeworm.htm
 
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