Hi everyone,
So I've never had a dog that had worms before. Tonight one of my dogs had an accident in the house, she is 2 1/2 and hasn't had an accident in the house since she was a puppy.

So I put her outside and went to clean it up and there were a few (about 6) white flat worms in her poop.

So is this worms?

Can my family get it from her licking us?

Can my other cats and dogs get it?

The vet clinic is not open until Monday and there is a $100 call out fee plus the appt fee and then any medication so I would prefer not to call if I don't have to until Monday.

Thanks.

Okay so I'm pretty sure she has got a tapeworm. Anyone have any experience with these?

How contagious to us, other pets?

I will be taking the other 2 dogs out seperately tomorrow to see if I can see any segments in their stool.

Any tips for management?

What causes them?

More than likely the dog ate a flea.

It can wait until Monday.

Breathe.

This really isn't a big deal. Happens all the time. Easy and cheap to treat.

As far as management, try to keep fleas off your dog.

Personally, I don't even think about tapeworms until I see signs of them. That's how much they should worry you.

Even then, don't worry. Just treat 'em.:wink:

Thank you!

I have never had to deal with fleas because they are not that common where I live.

So what about transfering it to the rest of the dogs or us? Like how possible is it to be transfered?

Can fleas live on a dog at -40?

Didn't see where you were from before.

That cold makes fleas scarce, but I don't know about nonexistent.

I've killed deer in the teen temps that still had fleas and ticks on their under bellies.

I don't know all the details about them, but some wild game meat can carry tapeworms. Do you feed wild game that hasn't been frozen?

All of our game is usually butchered in the woods so it is frozen in large chunks then thawed and re cut once it is brought back from the hunt.

My family has owned dogs here (Whitehorse, Yukon) and not once have any of my dogs had fleas or worms, so that's why I'm a little confused as to where this one came from.

Oh well not much I can do now but just make sure the other dogs don't have them too.

Cats are way easier because you can just check the box!

From your description it sounds like round worms rather than tapeworm segments. You can read up about identifying which or just take a stool sample in to the vet. Both are super common in dogs, and both are really easy to get rid of. Before I used DE regularly with my dogs I just used Nemex 2 for roundworm, it's really effective, widely available w/o a vet. If it's tapeworms though your vet will likely treat for both tape and roundworms because usually your dog will be infected by both. There isn't an effective over the counter tapeworm targeter so you'd need a Rx for praziquantel or epsiprantel.

Really worms can come from just about anything, dirt, poop from mice, rabbits, or deer, or anything else a wild animal pooed on in the great outdoors. It's also possible your dogs have been infected for months so if you think back to summer if there were cottontails in the yard, a squirrel nest, or anything else bounding through your yard that's likely where your worms came from. Here my usual issue is feral cats or owl pellets.

It is possible that your dog can give you worms the same way your dog got worms in the beginning. But if you wash your hands, avoid licking your dog, etc the risk is pretty small.