should i give my dogs worm medication even though they are not sick?

Question

my two chihuahuas are 5 years old and have had them since 2 months old. they are very healthy, very energetic and not sick at all.

but i am worried that if they have heart worms or stomach worms that they might drop dead so i am paranoid. they have never been given any worm medication before.

should i just give them the medication even though they are healthy, just in case?

Answer 1

Go to your vet, get wormer from there. Do NOT buy over the counter worming products, they are ineffective at best.

For heartworm, you need to have your dog tested before the can be started the preventative. Giving a heartworm positive dog heartworm prevention meds can kill them.

Answer 2

Take them to the Vet where they can be checked for heartworm (a tiny bit of blood is drawn and that bloods is smeared on a slide and looked at under a microscope which shows if your dog has heartworms or not). This is VERY IMPORTANT. If you give your dog heartworm preventative medicine and they are positive for heartworms you can kill your dogs. Chances are they are negative and the Vet will give you the amount you need to prevent heartworms. It is important to give correct amounts for weight, too, so Vet check is best. At the same time they can do a fecal to determine if any other worms are present and if that is positive they can give worming medicine which they may do routinely anyway. If you see any white rice- like stuff in their stools just after going, tell the Vet you think your dog has tapeworms. They get these from fleas and it needs a different kind of medicine. Definitely go to a Vet and don't treat over the counter or from on line product. Get the exam. You'll feel better and so will your dogs. : )

Answer 3

If there is no reason to believe that your dog has intestinal parasites, then it is up to you if you want to treat them.
However, heartworm prevention is necessary, and most heartworm prevention meds kill most other worms as well.
Do not give heartworm preventative without first having the dogs tested because it can cause complications in a heartworm positive dog. The test only costs about $20 or less, and if they are positive, a different treatmemt is needed. Heartworm is an awful disease, and prevention is much better than treatement. All other worms are very easily treated, but heartworm is awful to treat and many dogs die during treatment. Speak to your vet about getting your dogs on heartworm preventative.

Answer 4

I'm not a vet but I have 5 dogs & am a trained dog obedience instructor.

Heartworm meds are different than intestinal worming meds.

If you dogs have never had heartworm medecine they need to be tested first, otherwise it's dangerous to give it to them. Just because they are not sick doesn't mean that they are not infected.

Intestinal worming meds are fine and should be given twice a year. Because dogs will eat anything there's a good chance that they either have intestinal worms or will get them.

Answer 5

Heart worm meds can only be prescribed by a vet and only after the dog has been tested negative for heart worms.

As for other worms, you need to take a stool sample to the vet to determine whether or not the dog has worms, then get the correct de-wormer from the vet. Over-the-counter dewormers aren't much good.

Answer 6

What you NEED to do is get these dogs into a vet and get a heartworm test done and also get a fecal test done...if the HW test is negative you need to get your dogs on to HW prevention..if the fecal is positive then you will need to get the appropriate dewormer from your vet for the type of worms they have.

Answer 7

Hi, dogs and cats should be wormed regularly, not just when they are sick. Speak to your vetanarian and ask them how often you should give them worming tablets.

Answer 8

You should have them at the vets, let them do their test to determine if they do or don't then your vet will recommend a pill that is preventive to keep them from getting them.

Answer 9

NO.. Commonsense says you get them diagnosed THEN treat.

Answer 10

ask your vet!