What came first the worm, or the egg?

Why worming your pets regularly is important as a preventative and not just a treatment.
I’d like to tell you about a friend of mine and her little dog, we’ll call her dog Daisy for this story. When Daisy’s owners went on holiday, their daughter, my friend was looking after her when she noticed kept shuffling her bottom along the floor. She contacted her parents to find out when Daisy was last wormed but as they were on a long-haul flight she didn’t hear back straight away. After we had a chat about Daisy, she decided to give to give Daisy a one does wormer and soon after Daisy’s poo revealed a rather large worm burden. Unfortunately, Daisy was still fussing around her back end and seemed uncomfortable. So, having still not heard back from her parents, my friend decided to take Daisy to the vet. Upon examining her the vet found that during her bum shuffling episodes Daisy had caused cuts and grazes to her genitals and anal area. She had been licking them and making them even worse. In addition, she also needed to have her anal glands expressed, antibiotics and a cream which had to be applied twice a day. When the parents were able to get in contact, they simply said that they only gave Daisy a worming treatment when they saw that she was itching her bottom.

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Unfortunately, this treating worms, once symptoms become noticeable, rather than preventing them seems to be quite common. A lot of owners seem unsure about how often they should be worming their pets or why it’s so important.
The most common parasitic worms are round worms and tape worms. All dogs and cats are susceptible to worms through out their life and they can pass them on to other animals and even people!

There are three main reasons that pet owners must treat their dogs and cats against worms regularly:

1. Protect the pet – Keeping pets healthy, roundworms are especially dangerous for young animals, when an infestation can cause weight loss, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, anemia and dehydration and even death. In older animals, the symptoms are often not noticeable, so owners my not even realize their pet has worms but it doesn’t mean they’re not there. Although older pets only need to be treated every 3 months their treatment cannot be neglected.
   
2. Protect the environment – Treating pets reduces the risk of re-contamination of an area and the infection of other animals.
3. Protect People – regular worming helps avoid risk of human infection.