My dog is itching and I see worms in his poop. What should I do?

Submit a stool sample to your veterinarian to diagnose the exact intestinal parasites Juju may have. The appropriate dewormer can be dispensed afterwards and repeated in 2 weeks. You'll need to submit another stool sample to confirm resolution. Keep him away from areas with feces and pick up his stool immediately to prevent reinvention. A monthly preventative, such as HeartGard, will protect against heartworm disease as well as the 3 most common intestinal parasites of dogs (hookworm, roundworm and whipworm). For the itch, use a monthly flea preventative, such as Frontline, K9 Advantix or Revolution, for at least three consecutive months. Do this even if you don't see any fleas. In a sensitive dog, just one flea bite may cause severe itching. Vacuum everywhere and wash all bedding. Use an area treatment, such as Knockout ES or Indorex, to treat fleas that may be living in the environment. You may need to have your veterinarian perform skin scrapes to check for mites which can cause itching and hairless. Discuss allergy testing, hydrolyzed diets, antihistamine use and food elimination trials with your veterinarian in case there is an allergic component to the itching.

If you are seeing flea dirt on Bruce then it's likely with hair loss and based on those pictures that he has flea allergy dermatitis. However, There are other causes of these changes that include food and environmental allergies. I'd recommend taking Bruce to see your veterinarian as it is common to have secondary bacterial skin infections with flea allergy dermatitis. You will also need to use a quality flea preventative like Bravecto, Revolution, or Advantix. Flea preventative should be consistent as it can take as many as 6 months for fully eradicate a flea problem. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach and I hope Bruce's skin is better soon!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. These are tapeworms and they come from your pet ingesting a flea or eating another pets poop that has live tapeworms in it. It is contagious to other pets and people via ingestion of a live worm. You will need tapeworm specific dewormer such as Drontal or Praziquantel to rid this worm and a good flea preventative (Bravecto, Nexgard, Firstshield) is recommended. Usually tapeworms are gone after the first treatment as long as puppy doesn't get reinfected. I hope this is helpful! Take care now.

Tapeworms are often contracted from ingesting fleas so I would strongly recommend an oral flea medication such as bravecto as well as an oral tapeworm medication containing praziquantel. It would also be recommended to spray all bedding areas with an insecticidal household spray to inactivate any flea eggs etc. Cleansing the ears with a mild ear cleanser may help the head shaking but if persistent you should get this checked by your vet

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! It’s hard to see the bug in your picture. It is likely fleas. I would start a flea medication. I like the oral ones like Nexgard, Simparica or Bravecto and I also like the Setesto collar which lasts 8 months. With these you can bathe him as well. With the topical medications you can’t bathe until 2 days after application. And personally I do not think they work as well. I hope this helps!

Thanks for visiting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I think its perfectly feasible to assume that if you are seeing hair in Figlio's poop that this could be causing irritation of his rectum. Often-times the hair gets stuck between sections of the feces, causing them to string together. This causes the poop to kind of hang out a bit, and subsequent scooting. Check his back end to ensure there is no poop there that didn't quite make its way out. I would also recommend keeping hair ties out of his reach here moving forward to prevent this from continuing to be a problem. Another causes of scooting is an anal gland issue. If you are not seeing any hanging poop then its best to get his anal glands checked and squeezed if they are full. Some dogs have a problem expressing these themselves when they go #2, so they need to have them manually expressed once every 4-6 weeks. Worm prevention is the same for him as any other pet, so you can go with anything really such as Pyrantel Palmoate, Fenbendazole, etc. However, if he is on a monthly heartworm prevention, it already has an intestinal dewormer in it. And if his stools are otherwise solid, then there is a low chance he has worms. Best of luck with your fur baby Figlio and I hope that you get to the bottom of his mysterious butt scooting soon! Best wishes and take care. : )

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Yes! It does look like Brady is passing adult worms. If that is fresh stool and hasn't been sitting outside for hours. I recommend collecting a stool sample and having it tested by your Vet. The worms seem shorter and thicker than round worms so it is important to know if the is fresh stool or old stool since free living nematodes do come to eat stool. A stool sample (looking at the eggs) will help identify the exact parasite he is passing and then how to treat it. Dogs usually do acting normal when they have worms. He is only 6 months so intestinal parasites are common. I hope this helps and I wish Brady the best!