My puppy has tapeworms, watery poop, and red discharge. What to do?

Tapeworms are typically associated with fleas. There are over the counter deworming medications that can be used for tapeworms but if the fleas are not addressed as well the tapeworms will return. With a puppy that young most topical flea treatments are not appropriate but bathing with Dawn dish soap may help remove the fleas on your puppy currently.

These are tapeworms and should be ideally treated with an effective prescription product. Fleas should be ideally controlled as well as they cause the infection (the worm lives inside the flea during his life cycle). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. This worm looks like a tapeworm. Cassie should be treated with a deworming medication such as Panacar (fenbendazole) which treats roundworms, hookworms and tapeworms. This treatment is generally once daily for 3 days. Then, this same treatment should be repeated again in 3 weeks, and again in 3 months. This is done to ensure that all lifestages of the worms are treated by the medication. If there are any other pets in the household too, they need to be treated/dewormed too! I hope this is helpful!

If the white specks in his poo look like grains of rice or sesame seeds then it is likely your dog has tape worm. ask your vet to treat your puppy for the parasites he diagnosed via a fecal sample (if he has not done a fecal sample, take some fresh poop to your vet for a fecal exam). You may also want to start with flea prevention as tape worm is transmitted by fleas.

It is easy to catch tape worm. Even if your dogs are treated against fleas, there sometimes is a live infected flea hopping on and before it dies, your dog may eat it while grooming and so get infected. It is not a big problem for the dog but rather more for us, since it is gross when the proglottids crawl out. I suggest you worm your other dog as well (you need a wormer that has praziquantel as an ingredient). If the diarrhea does not go away within two days, feed boiled white rice and boiled white boneless chicken meat for a few days, then transition back into their regular food. If the diarrhea does not subside after the bland diet, then you should have your dogs seen by a vet.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Razor! Intestinal parasites are very common causes of diarrhea. The tapeworm medications are only specific for tapeworm while most 7-8 week old puppies also have roundworms. Also at almost 8 weeks old Razor should be starting his vaccinations. Parvo is a virus that causes diarrhea and can be life threatening. I would have Razor examined by your Vet and bring a stool sample to be tested for other intestinal parasites. He should be dewormed with a broad spectrum drug that gets more than just tapeworms. Other causes of diarrhea in puppies are: intestinal parasites like roundworms, whip and hook worm, coccidia, and giardia, food allergy/intolerance, dietary indiscretion, viral or bacterial infections and other intestinal diseases. Tapeworms are contracted from fleas so be sure that Razor doesn't have fleas and is on a good flea and tick medication. I hope this helps and I wish you and Razor the very best!

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.