A Guide to the Worms in Dogs Cycle
worms in dogs seem to be one of those dog health care problems that return. This is because their lifecycle is designed to be hard to break. Because worms in dogs can cause health problems, to humans as well as dogs in some cases, it is important that as dog owners we intervene and try to break the worms in dogs cycle and keep it broken.
The roundworm is the most common type of dog worm we see in the UK because most puppies are born infected. In puppies this infestation causes swollen bellies and may delay growth whilst in humans it may rarely cause blindness.
Like all types of worms in dogs, the life cycle of the dog roundworm (the Toxocara Canis) is not complex and can be controlled with care and patience. At the beginning of the cycle, a female puppy is infected by her mother, either before birth via the placenta or afterwards via her milk. In the infected puppy, some of the worm larvae will move out of the intestine and into the blood before forming indestructible cysts in the muscles. In the event of pregnancy in later life, the larvae will be reactivated and will move through the blood to infect the puppies.
Not all the larvae in the young puppy will form the cysts previously mentioned. Rather, some will stay in the intestine and become adults. Once mature, after feeding on the partly digested food in the intestine, the adult worm releases eggs which are passed from the dog with the faeces. In the environment, the eggs pose an infection risk to other dogs and even humans. The risk of infection for people does not arise from handling puppies, but from touching soil which has been contaminated by puppies’ faeces.
There you have the cycle: to break it adult dogs muct be treted every three months. Puppies, being much more likely to be infested should be wormed every fortnight from the age of two weeks to twelve months, then monthly until the age of six months. Dog owners must take responsibility for picking up after their dog and making sure their family practices good hand hygiene in order to reduce the risk of worms in dogs for other dogs and other people.