Helene4 January 10th, 2008, 01:09 PM Hi everyone,
My 2 cats, Kira and Jadzia, as well as my 2 dogs, Mickey and Arielle haven't been checked for worms for quite awhile. Every year they have an annual checkup and the vet never asks me to bring a stool sample.
I decided of my own accord to get a stool sample and have it analyzed for parasites. This week, I finally got one from 12 year old Mickey and made the half hour trip to the vet (a good thing I had to go to that town because of my job!) The samples have do be taken to the vet before 3:30 pm monday to friday and have to be less than 5 hours old. Since I work monday to friday and the vet is in another town, I was really happy Mickey provided a sample before I had to leave that day!
Anyway, the results are back; Mickey has 3 parasites: roundworm (toxocara), whipworm (trichuris) and isospora. The vet said I have to treat Arielle as well as Kira and Jadzia even if their stools were not tested. The dogs are getting Panacur (paste), S-250 (pill, I don't know the name, that's what it says on the bottle) and Pyran (pill to be given in 2 weeks). The cats are getting Panacur and Pyran because one of the worms doesn't affect cats. Mickey, Kira and Jadzia don't have any symptoms but Arielle does have diarrhea occasionally.
It worries me that I am pumping all these chemicals in Arielle, Kira and Jadzia without even knowing if they also have worms. I'm all for prevention but what about potential side effects? Am I just worrying for nothing?
Do you regularly deworm your cats ans dogs? If so, does your vet analyze a stool sample or just gives you the medication without testing? What medication does the vet prescribe? It seems each parasite requires a different medication.
Thanks for your comments.
luckypenny January 10th, 2008, 02:30 PM I don't understand why your vet would prescribe Panacur and Pyran. Panacur is usually given for three days, then after a 10 day period, given for another 3 days. It treats roundworm, hookworm, and whipworm. Pyran only treats roundworm and hookworm. Why would he prescribe 2 medications that are supposed to treat the same parasites? The 2 meds together would concern me. Sulfonamide (an antibiotic) treats isospora (or Coccidiosis). Confirm with your vet that you have the appropriate meds for this (perhaps the bottle you can't remember the name of?).
In certain cases when left untreated, intestinal parasites can cause a whole host of problems from dehydration, malnutrition, and even blindness and death. I would go ahead and treat all your pets but using the appropriate medication. For prevention, there are a number of things you can use and do. You can administer a topical ointment such as Advantage Multi monthly. Cleaning up after your pets immediately, and washing and disinfecting their crates, bedding, litter boxes frequently will help. Try to prevent them from eating rodents and other small prey if they do.
We use Advantage during the warmer months of the year and have stool samples examined for parasites twice a year. We nearly lost our Lucky to intestinal parasites when we first brought him home. Although I'm not crazy about using parasiticides either, I'd rather be safe than sorry.
hazelrunpack January 10th, 2008, 02:31 PM We deworm our dogs three times a year. We buy the Panacur in bulk and don't test stools--we have so much wildlife that it's a sure bet there will be worms. If there isn't much wildlife where you live, or if your cats are indoor only, I wouldn't deworm unless the stool was positive.
Typically, we've also found that if one of the dogs has worms, all of them do. They share the same environs. They get into the same stuff. :frustrated: After the first few stool samples all tested positive for the same stuff, we just stopped sending them in and started the worming schedule.
We deworm in June, September, and then after the frost. We do tapeworm as needed--we've only had one bout with tape worm. (Again, though we only found segments on one dog, we did all of them, figuring that at least some of them had tape worms, too.) I believe the med used for tapes was Drontal.
We've never had even diarrhea as a side-effect of the worming meds, but every animal is different. Make sure to follow the recommended dosage and watch for anything out of the ordinary. But we've had no problems with either the Panacur or the Drontal...or the Nemex when we've used that in the past. (:fingerscr because I'd hate to jinx us at this point :p not that I'm superstitious...much :D)
SARAH January 10th, 2008, 02:32 PM Honestly, in all my years as a pet owner (and growing up with pets) we have had outdoor cats (and the dogs of course go outside) who have chased, caught and eaten small cat-game (mice, birds, whatever). I have never once had a vet ask me for a stool sample (not until we got Spoutnik a month ago) and wouldn't even have thought of bringing one "just to see". We never vaccinated our cats when I grew up (guess it wasn't done on a normal basis back then) and all the cats were in top shape ... only died from car-encounters, and one from a crow-attack! ... other than natural causes (age).
When I had my own cats as an adult, I did vaccinate them once a year and also de-wormed them as well as flea-treated them in summer. This was in France. When we moved to Norway, quite frankly ... no one can afford the prices of a vet there! I skipped the vaccines and de-worming, and never saw a flea.
I don't know what to tell you. I know everyone here is very quick to run around with stool samples and urine samples and everything (and that's fine!! don't get me wrong) but I have more of a "why interfere when all is well" attitude.
No comparison really, but my brother and I never took extra vitamins or fish oil in the winter, didn't get the flu vaccine either. We had one cold per winter. Our two cousins were stuffed to the rim with vaccines, vitamins, fish oil (and I mean fish oil, liquid!!) and were constantly sniffling and sick. I guess that "cured" my idea of prevention being necessary in all things, and myabe it made me a little too laid back sometimes, but I'm also less stressed ;)
luckypenny January 10th, 2008, 02:46 PM I guess it would depend on our pets' individual experiences. Lucky had constant bloody diarrhea and vomiting, was 20lbs underweight, and had gone blind by the time the appropriate treatment was begun (he was already extremely ill when we adopted him). Penny had begun to lose weight and was excessively shedding and going bald in patches when she was diagnosed with roundworm and hookworm. I've seen what intestinal parasites can do to a beloved pet. I don't ever care to see it again.
As for hunting, Lucky's quicker than a rabbit and a squirrel :frustrated: and because his prey drive is so high, it's often impossible to call him off once he's begun a chase, no matter how well trained he may be. He's gotten tapeworm once before and considering the lack of alternatives, I had no problems having him treated.
Frenchy January 10th, 2008, 11:10 PM Helene4 , my gang got tapeworms and fleas 6 weeks ago, I had them all treated. And I had to this again this week , all the cats and dogs are ok , no side effects from the treatments. Better be safe than sorry. :shrug:
Helene4 January 11th, 2008, 01:01 PM Here's what the vet prescribed: Panacur is given to the dogs for 3 days in the evening (5 days for the cats). The dogs also get "S-250" in the morning for 10 days. The name S-250 is printed on the vet's bill and on the slip of paper glued on the plastic pill container. Maybe it's the brand name of sulfonamide? Pyran (1 pill each) will be given to everyone 14 days after the last treatment of Panacur. The doses of Panacur paste and S-250 pills have all been measured according to each animal's weight.
I live in the country surrounded by forest and my cats do go outside during summer and will catch and sometimes eat little critters. The dogs don't really hunt but of course they will drink water wherever they can find it even if I provide clean water. In winter they have a habit of eating "poopsicles", dog or other. I know I'm not the only one with that problem! The dogs and cat I had as a teenager/young adult in the 80's lived to a ripe old age of 16-18 years old and we never gave a thought to worms.
I tend to share Sarah's view of "if it's not broken, don't fix it". If I hadn't done the stool testing, I never would have known about the worms and frankly, I bet they had them for some time without any symptoms. I guess I was just curious. And I bet they will get them again as soon as the treatment is over. I do clean the litter every day, etc but the yard is harder to clean in winter: snow covers the stools in no time so I can't see them but that doesn't stop the dogs from digging to get to them. The dogs also to their thing in the bush so I don't always see everything. We also have a lot of wildlife here.
I appreciate your comments. To deworm regularly or not to deworm, that is the question!
want4rain January 11th, 2008, 01:11 PM for all of this talk of worms, it makes me wonder if we dont have them too. ive approached intestinal parasites with my doc(s) a few times and they only said 'you would be sick if you had worms'. i think thats a pretty poor way of diagnosing someone. then again, if im not having any health issues because of it... why worry?? (other than the gross factor!!!) i plan on taking my children in to get them tested for lead and parasites because they are so young and their bodies are still growing. if my dog says 'they arent sick' i think i will really push it. hopefully that will open the discussion with them. as for the pooches and the fuzzy butts, we use advantage(or whatever) for fleas 9 months out of the year because of how warm it is down here in the 'tropics'.
-ash
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