cgs

Thanks. Pet Supply Express seems to have multiple websites. Last time I had trouble with checking out at petsupplyexpress.com. They told me to use bestdealpetsupply.com. Couldn't find Advocate there, so I emailed them and they told me to use http://www.petsuppliesnet.com/advantage-multi.htm.

This says antigens are secreted by adult worms. https://www.idexx.eu/globalassets/documents/education/petchek/1709060-1017-eu_petchek_research-update.pdf So he was previously clear of adult worms and eggs, but now has adult worms but currently no eggs? That doesn't make sense unless there were a couple stray eggs that weren't seen and have since hatched? And are the same sex (or not currently shedding)? I wonder if that makes sense. Unfortunately, it'll take some time for the Drontal to get here. I wish there were a way to test that didn't cost $40 a pop. I'd be testing every week.

His previous test was both antigen negative and egg negative. So I'm not sure how the antigen stuff works. Vet said egg-negative could be due to sporadic egg shedding or single sex worms, so no eggs. I didn't know Drontal only kills adults. I just ordered more, so I guess I'll give it in case it's the single sex thing. But why would it have been antigen negative before? So confusing.

Percy had finally gotten a negative hook result in late February. I just retested and the vet told me he is antigen positive, but egg negative. This counts as being positive and I have to re-treat. I had been treating every two weeks with drontal plus/advocate. After the Feb test result, I think I treated one more time at the end of Feb (because I had one more dose of Drontal), and then went to just using advocate monthly--so he got Advocate at the end of March and so far nothing in April. So I'm going to order more Drontal and test again after a few rounds. Has anyone else ever had this antigen positive/egg negative result? The vet said the lack of eggs could be due to intermittent shedding, or single sex worms. What I'm not sure about (and I should probably call back to clarify) is whether this is a different test than last time or whether he was antigen negative last time. I'm sure they would have said if he had been antigen positive. Also, I can't find Advocate on the petsupplyexpress.com site or the bestdealpetsupply.com site which is the same company and much cheaper than anywhere else. It's in England, but they don't seem to have Advocate right now.

Oh the iams green bag is what I meant, not purina. They changed the formula after we got our first bag, so the second bag was awful. I wonder how many here are still having good luck with it. For Percy, I *think* the culprit is fruit. It's like the last ingredient, but any food with blueberries or something like that tends to give him pudding poop.

Your girl is very new to you, so I would guess her poop situation has a lot to do with food and stress. Percy's poop was AWFUL when we first got him--pooped all the time and it was always runny or pudding at best. It took some time and food changes for it to settle down. Even now, it's sometimes soft. I swear every other bag of dog food I get (same brand) doesn't quite agree with him as well. I mix some new bag in with old bag before I start the new bag, but still, it seems there's enough variation in the bags that his poop will get a bit worse for the full duration of the bag sometimes. Anyway, lots of people here have good luck with Purina in the green bag (which worked for us until the changed the formula and added fruit) or Eukanuba large breed chicken, which is what we use now. I'd like to get him back on Costco (Kirkland brand) because it's way cheaper, but not ready to experiment again yet. Also, his poop hasn't really changed much or really at all since being worm free. There were times it was great and I was sure he was worm free and he wasn't. It's good now for the most part. We would sometimes notice a more mucousy poop after drontal, but nothing really dramatic. For us, firm poop was accomplished with food, olewo carrots and now we give him brown rice every night after dinner and I think that really helps. For you, I think a lot of it is time, as your girl is probably still a bit stressed and adjusting.

Good to know the vet confirmed my thinking. As for drontal vs panecur, all I can say is that in the end, it was Drontal. I don't know if that did the trick or if it took 11 months for the larval leak to be disrupted or what. But we had tried both early on, then did advantage multi only for quite a while, then went back to panacur and retested and he was still positive at the same level on Dec 5. Started drontal plus every 2 weeks in mid-Dec and he was negative 3 weeks into February. We're supposed to retest in 6 weeks, so I'm trying to decide what protocol to use between now and then, and then what to use afterwards. I'd like to just use Heartguard, but I'm leery of stopping the advantage multi. Heartgard has kept our little dog worm free though.

I'm not completely convinced they can really be reinfected from the yard. It's never been explained to me in a way that makes sense. Maybe someone here can try. If a dog is on medication and finally becomes hook free, they've become hook free because the larval leak cycle has been disrupted and the adult hooks have been killed off. That same medicine is keeping new hookworms from taking hold, isn't it? Our little dog has always been on heartworm plus, and in the year we've had Percy, always hook positive until a week ago, she has spent countless hours sniffing around the yard and lying in various places in the yard. She never got hooks. If they get clear of hooks, and you continue to have them on a preventative, doesn't it prevent reinfection? And not to burst your bubble, but I do think it's going to take a while to get rid of them. Even if you start out with a protocol that has worked for others (and I think you have to do Advantage Multi every 2 weeks, not monthly), it can take 6-12 months to finally get rid of them. I hope it doesn't take that long, but it might.

Percy is NEGATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got him one year ago tomorrow. We did drontal. We did panecur. We kept him on Advantage Multi only. We went back to panecur and advantage multi every two weeks. In December he was still moderate (11-30) for hooks, as he had been the entire time except once when he went down to low. So in mid-December, I went back to Drontal plus followed the next day be Advantage Multi and did this ever two weeks. After 5 rounds of that, he came back negative! Finally! I have one more dose of Drontal that I'll give him and I'll keep him on the Advantage Multi every two weeks I guess and then test again in a month? Or two months? When should I retest? I called the vet for the fecal results and the person who answered just so casually said everything was negative. I'm so used to "hold on, let me get the doctor." FWIW, I used Drontal Plus and Advocate from http://www.bestdealpetsupply.com/ AKA petsupplyexpress (but the petsupplyexpress.com shopping cart doesn't work well.) The Drontal plus is a different shape and just one tablet for 75 lbs, so it's even cheaper than it seems. And easier to give since just one tablet instead of 1.5. I used Paddy's dad butter butter method (smoosh pill in butter and follow immediately with another pat of butter.) Fingers crossed for another negative fecal and we've had below freezing temps on and off so hopefully the yard is clear (and I've picked up every day and our little dog lies in the yard all the time and has stayed hook free.) I think that along with the drontal prison protocol, it does just take a lot of time.

Good luck LaFlaca! And that's interesting about the food PaddysDad.

Just want to thank PaddysDad for the butter-coated Drontal with a butter chaser idea. That worked! Percy's had two doses of Drontal now (two weeks apart) followed by Advantage Multi. Fingers crossed. Will have him tested in a couple more months. I have 4 more doses, so two more months and then we'll see.

According to my vet, who spoke to a parasitologist, yes--the Advantage Multi alone should work eventually, but it could take 6-12 months. We're going on 9 months of giving it--sometimes with Drontal, sometimes with panacur, sometimes by itself--and he's still positive. We're now going back to Drontal and the prison protocol by the letter. When I'd tried Drontal earlier, I couldn't get it into him, but he's taking it better now. We'll do this for 3 months and see.

I ordered Drontal Plus from petsupplyexpress.com, which is listed on the prison protocol. It's a UK company and their pills are different, so it's only one pill, not 1.5. So I have 6 doses, not 4 like I thought. Six pills. I gave him half of one and was excited that he took it, but he wouldn't take up the little chunks that fell out of his mouth and I had to wrap them in something good. So I think he might be extra suspicious of the other half. I'm waiting a bit to see if he barfs. So far so good. These pills are oval, not bone-shaped. And Drontal Plus is just given one day right? Not 3 like panecur.

I ordered Drontal--enough for 4 doses. So I'll do that for 2 months (ever 2 weeks) and if i'm not having too much trouble getting it into him, maybe do another 2 months after that and test again.

Ok, sorry--I might be mixing this up with my horse insurance. I read all the policies carefully, but I can't find them all now. But I did see on Pets Best from a chat with them that there's no additional pre-existing conditions issue at renewal time. In other words, it matches what you guys are saying about your policies.

Where's a good place to get Drontal plus? Someplace I don't need a prescription would be easier. I see Chewy and 1800petmeds, but anywhere cheaper?

Most recent fecal test was 7 or 8 days after the last treatment. I think maybe once or twice I've maybe seen a touch of blood in the stool right after treatment. He may be eating poop sometimes--I try really hard to keep an eye on him in the yard and pick up immediately. He usually poops on walks, so not a problem, but sometimes he does go in the yard. I don't really understand why, if the medicine is killing off adult worms and larva and stopping larval leak, that a few more larva from eating poop would really be a problem. Seems to me meds should work on that as well. I've had Lulu tested twice since getting Percy and she was negative both times and she (in warmer weather) would lie around in the yard a lot, so it seems to me it would have been easy for her to be exposed, but she was clear. So hopefully the HG+ wards it off. Percy doesn't like to eat the Drontal and I've had a hard time even crushing it because it's so big. I'll try again though. I haven't given it to him in months and his eating habits and preferences have changed. He might like it now. I was using the goat panacur, which was easy to mix with some rice and he at that with no problem. But after treatment every 2 weeks for 3 months, no progress.

For what it's worth, I was going to get insurance through Pet's Best because they have plans where you can get a higher deductible and lower premium. We ended up not getting any insurance, so I can't say how they are (and we haven't had problems aside from hookworm anyway, *knock wood*), but they have more flexibility in how you can structure your plan. Just know this--with all these policies, once they pay out for some issue, then when you renew, that issue is now a pre-existing condition, so they won't cover it again.

I'm confused and also just kind of giving up. Since I have a lot of trouble getting Drontal into Percy, I thought I'd just try panacur and advocate together and see what that does. So I did that every 2 weeks for 3 months (Sept/Oct/Nov) and he's still infested at the same level (moderate 11-33). So maybe I'll just have to try the drontal again. But PaddysDad, the prison protocol uses Drontal Plus and Advantage Multi together every 2 weeks. But you did Drontal/Panecur/Drontal at 2 week intervals (along with Advantage Multi), so that's not following it to the letter. I'm glad it worked, but what led you to try that? I'm really wondering if the medicine is going to end up being worse than the hooks themselves and wondering if I should just start giving Advantage Multi monthly, which is the regular schedule) and forget all the rest. He seems healthy. But if I do go back to Dronal, is there any liquid form--for goats, horses, anything? The vet said Strongid is similar, but it only has one ingredient instead of 3.

Being a generally lazy person, I'm going with this method, lol.

I don't think he's itchy because it's not all the time. Just certain times of day. I'm more inclined to think it's boredom or just something he enjoys. I've tried to distract him with a toy. He's getting more interested in toys, but they still only hold his attention for literally a minute maybe. His last bath was in July maybe. We bathed him outside. I don't think we can get him in the tub, so he won't have another bath until summer unless I take him somewhere.

We've had Percy about 9 months now. He's always licked himself and early on was licking some spots raw on his legs. Someone here advised spraying bactine on the area, which I did, and that helped. What he tends to do now is lick himself in the evening as maybe a grooming thing before he goes to sleep. The problem is that it goes on and one and on, for like an hour. He licks at his crotch for a looooong time, then moves to his legs and sometimes his chest. Eventually, he'll stop and just relax and go to sleep--this is all happening before his last bedtime potty break. He used to sleep in our bedroom and the licking--either before going to sleep or sometimes in the middle of the night--drove me nuts. I would get up and tell him to stop. Now he doesn't sleep in our room, which is fine. Much quieter that way. Not sure if he left so he could lick in peace or if he doesn't like the new bed I got him. Anyway, should I do anything about this? It doesn't seem to do him any harm, but it drives me nuts. It's so loud, usually while we're watching tv at night. What can I do about it? And actually, he licks during the day too. Like right now, at 2:30pm. Going to town on his crotch. This is not new behavior, so I don't think it's anything medical.

I do the same route in the morning, usually only varied due to time or seeing a dog up ahead I don't want to deal with. But usually the same. The dogs could walk it themselves. In the afternoon I go different ways and they definitely get opinionated as to where they want to go.

I did a combination. I would place each foot, like others did, but he really seemed not to like having his paws lifted, especially his back feet. So I ended up standing behind him, placing his front paws up the step to start, and then kind of shoving his butt with my legs to get him to move. I also placed high value treats ever few steps. I rarely seem him go up the stairs because he'll come up after I'm already upstairs, but he does bound up. Going down he steps on each step.

I wonder if it would help to do the shorter loop you want to do and do that every single morning without variation, with the help of the extra treats and advice from others. If you never vary the morning route, I would think he'd come to know what to expect and he'll stop hoping for something more.