My Puppy Has Worms :(

[BeachGirl]

So last night I took my puppy outside to do his business. I noticed that what came out of him looked very strange (sorry to be so gross), so I went up to get a closer look at it and I saw three long worms crawling around. One of them was about three inches long and they were all alive!!! I got so grossed out and scared for my puppy. This is my first dog so I don't know that much about worms.

When I first got him two months ago, I had him tested for worms and the vet said he didn't have them. He has been acting completely normal otherwise, so I would have never known if I hadn't checked his stool last night.

I took him to the vet this morning, and they gave him a deworming treatment which I am supposed to do again in three weeks.

Does anyone have experience with worms in puppies? I was told by the vet that this is fairly common and nothing to worry about, but it seems so scary to me to have live things living in my puppy's body! Do worms cause them any type of pain or discomfort? I am very concerned about him.

I'm also a little concerned because I have heard that the worms can be transmitted to humans. My puppy is a big licker so he constantly licks me all over the face when I greet him. The vet said I shouldn't worry about contracting the worms. Have any of you ever heard of anyone getting worms from dogs?

[Mickey&B]

My puppy had worms when we brought him home, the vet gave him a treatment and we never had any problems. We also have a larger dog and I was more concerned that she would get them, not us. We were careful to pick up poop when ever she did her business and as far as I can remember never did anything else and never had any other issues.

[brenda]

Just make sure you pick up and properly dispose of his poop. Otherwise you could have a recurring problem. If I recall correctly, he'll pass the live worms first, then the eggs, which could get into the soil and reinfect him (or something along those lines).

[working_mom]

Hi..

All puppies have worms and worms have a cyclical (sp?) life cycle.... so when your puppy was wormed all the adults died, however the eggs were still waiting to hatch.

Just have your vet retest the stool every three months or so until you have 2 in a row that comes back neg.

Good luck!

[Anathea]

You can also get them on antiflea medication such as revoluation that has a deworming agent in it. That's we did for the cat...