hook worms bummin' me out

[tex-cez]

so remus and i finally went to visit the semi-holistic vet yesterday. he was great. such a difference from the other vet we had visited before. he actually told me i *should* be supplementing remus' kibble with raw food, whereas the other dude laughed when i suggested it.
remus had a negative fecal test four weeks ago, but yesterday the vet said he has HOOK WORMS. :( i am very concerned. he gave remus a pill and a half of something called drontol. he had been on sentinel flavor tabs. i don't understand why he wasn't protected!!
i read in a previous post that the soil can become infested with these things. we have an enormous backyard, and i haven't always been picking up his poopers right away. it there any kind of treatment for the soil that i can spray around the area where he mostly poops??? i don't want remus to keep getting infected because they are living in the back yard. has anyone else successfully dealt with these nasties?? will supplementing his diet help him get rid of them??

also, i mentioned that remus sneezed often and seemed to have itchy face and eyes. the vet said that he suspects remus has mild reactions to his vaccinations. he gave me this stuff called thuja (pronounced thoo-yah) to give him everyday for three days and then twice a week until it was gone. anyone else ever used this stuff? it did seem to make the welt from his rabies shot go down. i'm just glad he's done with shots for the year.
any advice/words of support are much appreciated.

-c

 

[Draymia]

Sounds like you have a pretty good vet.

But, I would give some very serious thought to having titers done in the future and not doing routine vaccinations. You don't really have a choice when it comes to the rabies shot, but the others are probably not necessary yearly. My adults are only vaccinated every three years. I have a 2.5 year old that I am doing titers on. She has had two puppy shots and is maintaining a fine immunity.

As for the hook worms, they can be very tough to get rid of. Many times you will have negative fecals and then a positive. One of the reason could be that a hookworm can be dormant in the body tissues of your dog. A little bit of stress or sickness can set the whole works off again.

 

[tex-cez]

thanks for the reply
i plan to do titers in the future, but he is just a puppy so these are his first shots. parvo is so bad here in central texas that i was afraid not to vaccinate. i've been trying to make myself aware of the vaccination issue. i do think that this vet has a good handle on it, though. nothing like the last guy i went to. although i noticed today that this new vet has "ask about proheart 6..." on the bottom of his itemized reciepts (as an advertisement, not a warning). that worried me a bit. i plan to call his office tomorrow and refer him to the many warnings and links i've found about proheart here on BW if he's not already aware.
i spoke to the vet assistant today and she didn't seem to think that remus would have any trouble. i asked if he needed to come in for another fecal test to make sure he was clear. she said it wasn't neccesary. :confused:
i hope she's right about that. it seems strange, but i also don't want to pay for another unneccesary visit. but i am a big worrier so i may do it just for the peace of mind.
-c

 

[tingoddess]

shots

I agree with the spacing out of vaccinations and of doing titer tests, and you might also want to concider doing individual shots instead of the 7 in 1 or the 5 in 1. Talk to the vet about this and you can also do a search on vaccinations here or on the web.
Good luck

 

[myrocky]

Did he only get one dose of drontal? Usually its two doses spread three weeks apart.

You can also give ground pumpkin seeds or squash seeds to help clean out his digestive tract.

Sentinel does protect against hookworms but only in the early stages. If he had hookworms before you started giving the sentinel, then it won't get rid of the established adults. Hookworms are sometimes hard to detect and the dog can be infested for a while before anything gets noticed. It sounds like Remus is pretty young if he is just getting his first set of shots. Which leads me to believe he got the worms from the breeder's house. I would call the breeder and tell them what happened.


Andie

 

[tex-cez]

andie- remus is four months old. he had his first fecal at eight weeks and another at twelve weeks. both were negative, but i guess from what you say he could have had them even though they didn't show up.
it's funny. it feels like we've had him so long even though it's only been a little more than two months :p. it didn't occur to me that he could have had them from the beginning.
the vet only gave me only one dose of drontal. one and a half yellow pills. i don't know how many milligrams.
i will give him the pumpkin seeds. i was also thinking of putting some garlic in his food since i read that it was a natural dewormer.
i just hate the idea of nasty squirmies feeding off of remus' insides. too bad you can't kill worms with sweetness. he'd never have a problem then .
thanks for the advice,
c