Hookworms With No Side Effects?

[TXRedbo]

Hi all, so we took Redbo for his check up, and his fecal turned up positive for hookworms. It's a little bizarre to me because:

1.) We de-wormed him with Drontal when we first adopted

2.) He's been on Heartguard Plus since we got him

3.) He has shown absolutely no symptoms since his initial deworming. His poops are solid (except maybe his last of the day), he gains weight normally, and there hasn't been any unusual gas or tummy sounds.

 

I'm a little sad because I thought we would be on top of something like this, and I'm afraid he's had them since we got him last year.

 

Have any of you had a positive fecal with no symptoms at all?

[Remolacha]

The experts will no doubt weigh in, but I know from experience that hooks can be a b*tch to get rid of, so even though he has been wormed, it may not have gotten them all. What did your vet say? I'd probably go ahead and worm him again.

[tbhounds]

That's why we run annual fecal checks ;-)

[TXRedbo]

That's why we run annual fecal checks ;-)

 

So true!

 

Vet gave him a dose of Drontal because he also has roundworms. I'm a little anxious because the vet was completely giving my husband the third degree about whether or not we've been giving him the Heartguard Plus. She was basically insinuating that we weren't really giving him his monthly doses because if we were, he wouldn't have gotten worms. It is a little frustrating knowing that he still has worms with the HG Plus.

[Remolacha]

The HG plus is probably why he has worms with no obvious symptoms, keeping it to a mild case.

[NeylasMom]

The HG Plus won't eradicate an existing infestation, it kills new adults and keeps them from settling in in the intestines. As others have mentioned, hookworms are notoriously difficult to completely eradicate. I suspect many of these guys come from the tracks with a serious enough case of them, but they get wormed upon arrival and put on preventatives so people don't always realize the dog has or had them. If you read up on the life cycle of hooks, cysts can enter other organs like the lungs and be coughed up then swallowed way down the road.Certain species of roundworms encyst like this as well. What I would do if I knew my dog had hooks is Panacur for 3 days, then 2 more doses of 3 days each at 3 weeks and 3 months from the first day of the original treatment.

Edited May 16, 2016 by NeylasMom

[GreyTzu]

The HG Plus won't eradicate an existing infestation, it kills new adults and keeps them from settling in in the intestines. As others have mentioned, hookworms are notoriously difficult to completely eradicate. I suspect many of these guys come from the tracks with a serious enough case of them, but they get wormed upon arrival and put on preventatives so people don't always realize the dog has or had them. If you read up on the life cycle of hooks, cysts can enter other organs like the lungs and be coughed up then swallowed way down the road.Certain species of roundworms encyst like this as well. What I would do if I knew my dog had hooks is Panacur for 3 days, then 2 more doses of 3 days each at 3 weeks and 3 months from the first day of the original treatment.

 

Yup, this works.