Heartworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, and whipworms are the worst dog parasites your pet could ever get. As parasites, these nasty little things treat a dog as a host and feed off of its internal system – consuming important nutrients that a dog needs to survive, killing organ tissue and red blood cells, and spreading disease. Heartworms will kill a dog. Here’s how to treat and/or prevent internal parasites from destroying your dog’s health and putting its life at risk.

Roundworms

Most puppies are born with these dog parasites unless their mother was treated for them during and after giving birth. Because they’re so common, you’re advised to have your puppy dewormed every two weeks for a total of eight weeks whether you find symptoms or not. Your vet will prescribe preventative medication to ward off future infection, so if you’re tempted to use over-the-counter dewormers -- don’t – your dog’s prescription will work better.

The symptoms of a roundworm infection includes a thin appearance, vomiting, diarrhea, and a rough coat. Severe infestation will give dogs a cough or pneumonia.

What makes roundworm particularly dangerous is that it can infect people as well. When people fail to wash their hands after handling infected feces or cleaning themselves after rummaging around in an area frequented by an infected dog, they too will get roundworm.

Keep your dog healthy with a yearly fecal test and roundworm treatments whenever necessary.

Hookworms

Hookworms enter a dog’s body through its pads, through the milk of its mother, or via grass. They make their way to a dog’s small intestine, latch onto it, and proceed to suck the dog’s blood. Symptoms include diarrhea, weakness, and a loss of weight. In an extreme case, an infected dog will be anemic. A vet will test for hookworms with a fecal test and prescribe medication should any exist. Like roundworms, hookworms can infect people too. Keeping your yard poop free will minimize the transfer of hookworms to people.

Whipworms

Whipworms hang out in the large intestine and like the hookworm, they feed off dog blood. When a dog is heavily infested with these things, it can suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and a loss of weight. It isn’t easy to detect whipworm problems because dogs don’t pass whipworm eggs all the time. It could therefore, take several tries to detect a whipworm infestation. But it can fortunately be removed and treated with medication, and additionally prevented in the future via a poop free yard.

Tapeworms

Tapeworms are long flat parasites that live in a dog's intestins and are spread when a dog eats infected fleas. If you take a look at your dog’s anus, bedding, or stools and you see something that looks somewhat like white rice crawling around, your dog has tapeworms. Prescribed medication will kill them, and a dire commitment to flea control will keep them away.

Heartworms

These dog parasites are probably the most lethal of all. Larvae can enter a dog’s body through a simple mosquito bite and take up residence in a dog’s heart and blood vessels. Once grown, they reproduce inside the dog’s body in as little as 6 - 7 months.

When the infestation is heavy, a dog will become lethargic and thin. A heavily infected dog may also cough, pass out, or simply die from heart failure.

To identify heartworms, a vet will administer a blood-concentration test and x-ray. If any are found, the vet will first hospitalize the dog and then kill the adult worms with a safe drug like Immiticide. The dog has to remain hospitalized so that the vet can monitor the treatment since dead worms can obstruct arteries. After all the adult worms are dead, the baby worms are killed about 3 - 6 weeks later. This second procedure again requires hospitalization so that the vet can monitor and take care of adverse reactions.

Medication

As you can probably guess, it’s easier to prevent worms than it is to kill them. You vet may therefore recommend one of the following preventative treatments:

· Diethylcarbamazine - a daily medication effective against heartworms.

· Heartgaurd Plus and Interceptor - monthly medications effective against hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms.

· Sentinel - another monthly medication effective against heartworms and fleas.

· Proheart 6 - only the vet can administer this six-month effective medication.

· Revolution - a topical medication effective against ear mites, fleas, American dog ticks, and fleas.