My dog has lungworm. How to tell if treatment worked & what caused it?

What you saw is not a lungworm, you saw a snail/slug that could potentially carry a lungworm. it takes several months for this worm to develop so even if he got infested it can still be treated with Ivermectin or Advocate spot on for example.

Poor guy. Prognosis for lung worms can be favorable if treated early and if there are no other complications such as a thromboembolism, severe allergic reaction to the worms as they die off, or other underlying condition occurring simultaneously. Therefore if you notice your pet ever getting worse (breathing gets worse, not eating, vomiting, etc) then you should have him re-evaluated by your vet right away. Lung worms are not transferable to people. A full recovery is possible if all goes well with the medication and no other complications arise. Best of luck with your pet and I hope he gets well soon.

Lungworm larvae do not live in the slime of a slug. Your dog would need to eat the slug to get infected with lungworm (angiostrongylus spp) and the slug would need to be infected as well. I would not worry about it.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Ziggy loves the snails and slugs huh? Advocate is labeled to treat lungworms outside of the US. We have Advantage Multi and if I'm correct I don't think it's labeled for that here. So it appears that one of the active ingredients (imidacloprid or moxidectin) treats lungworms. Other than being a gross habit hopefully you won't see any problems with his odd taste in treats. It is possible that the medicine doesn't kill 100% of anything that it is labeled for so keep a close eye on him for coughing or other signs related to vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Good luck with Ziggy. Maybe he will grow out of this.

I am sorry to hear that your dog is coughing. There are so many reasons for chronic cough such as allergic bronchitis, pulmonary hypertension, heartworm disease, enlarged heart, fungal infection, parasites, and cancer. To answer your question heartworm is transmitted by mosquitoes only and can not pass through people. Also, there is no answer to how long it takes for a cough to resolve. It completely depends on what is causing the cough. I would highly encourage you to consider a follow up appointment with your veterinarian soon. X-rays, bloodwork, and a fecal exam may be recommended to help determine the diagnosis and best treatment plan. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Coughing can occur from the damage the worms are doing to the lungs. It could also be caused by the worms dying off and causing inflammation, although I'm not sure how likely that is with the slow kill method. I would recommend keeping him crated and resting (no walks, no running, no excitement -- basically no getting his heart rate up) until he can get to the vet for evaluation, which will likely include chest x-rays and a discussion of if he needs anti-inflammatory medication and cage rest to get through this treatment. Wishing you and Bug (love his name!) the best of luck.

If you took a stool sample five days after Bronx was given the deworming treatment and then the sample showed no signs of worms, it likely means that the deworming treatment was effective and killed all the worms. The deworming treatment starts working within hours of administration to kill the worms present.