Intestinal Parasites And Deworming In American Bulldog

By Author: Ricardo Limbardo
Total Articles: 1135
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The Causes and Dangers of Intestinal Parasites

Intestinal parasites unquestionably harm the health of your beloved pet. Intestinal worms can cause severe health problems in your dog, and can even kill it. Aside from that, your dog also becomes a carrier of intestinal worms, which can be passed on to people as well. This is enough reason to pay much attention if your dog has an intestinal parasite problem. It is a bit hard to prevent intestinal parasite problems because the sources are plenty. You cannot possibly control everything that your licks and swallows. Thus, it is very important to know how to eradicate the intestinal parasites when they do come.

The Different Kinds of Intestinal Parasites

There are many different kinds of dog parasites, and each kind can affect your dog differently. However, intestinal parasites are perhaps the most dangerous of all since these dwell on the internal organs. The only way to detect intestinal parasites is by inspecting the waste of your pet through a miscroscope. The worst thing is that there are several different types of intestinal parasites that your dog is ...
... in danger of. These are coccidia, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, and whipworms. The first kind, coccidia, is not actually a worm, but just as dangerous beause it can cause severe diarrhea that can eventually lead to death. Hookworms are one of the fatal parasite problems a dog can have. This is because hookworms reside in the dog's intestines and suck blood, thereby causing anemia, continuous bleeding in the intestines, and can also result to death. Roundworms are very common among animals. Roundworms, being around 2-4 inches long, can be vomited or defecated by the dog. An infection of roundworms can be easily detected because they tend to affect a dog's outward appearance. Roundworms can also be passed on to humans. Tapeworms, unlike hookworms and like roundworms, can be easily seen. Tapeworms can also be released along with a dog's wastes, and can be seen after a dog defecates or even where the dog sleeps. Tapeworms are not transferrable to human beings. Lastly, whipworms are less common than the other kinds of intestinal worms. However, they can be just as dangerous because they are not visible to the human eye. Because of this, whipworms cannot be easily removed from the dog's system.

Shooing Intestinal Parasites Away

If your dog is showing signs of being infected with intestinal parasites, the most important thing you should do is find out what kind of dog worms are present in its intestinal tract. Worm problems can be solved in different ways, depending on the type of worm that is present. Coccidia can be eradicated with an antimicrobial agent. Hookworm and roundworm infections can be treated by medications such as fenbendazole and pyrantel pamoate. Tapeworms can be removed by praziquantel and epsiprantel, which are antiparasitic agents. Whipworms, on the other hand, can also be fought off with fenbendazole. The important thing to remember is that, not because you got rid of a worm problem means that it won't come back. It still can, and the best way to prevent that from happening is to give medications every month to keep the infection from coming back.

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