be upset too. So how do you prevent him from getting them again? Is there some medicine you can
give him monthly, like the one we give ours for heart worms? I sure hope mine doesn't get those !

Both Interceptor and Sentinal include whipworm prevention as well as heartworm and some other wormies.... Sentinal is like three times as expensive though even on the discount sites. Unfortunately, both are unavailable nationwide for the next 3 - 4 months since there's some kind of distribution problem. Even the vet has been unable to find either of them anywhere.

There's also another worm preventer called Advantage Multi but it's more expensive (though I don't care about that) because it's also a flea preventer but not a tick preventer, and I can't seem to find a separate tick preventer and can't give him a double dose of a flea preventer just to be able to also prevent ticks. I might still have to go with Advantage Multi anyway though because he does need more of the heartworm preventer which Advantage multi has and I definitely want the whipworm preventer in it which I definitely want despite it not being ironclad for the short term and try to figure out what to add to the mix that's just for ticks.

Just my luck that the one time I really need the Interceptor it can't be had. Ugh.

Here's what the vet said about whip worms: Always pick up the poop in the yard as fast as you can get to it. It's leaving it there that gives the eggs a chance to leach into the soil especially if it rains. Never walk your dog anywhere that there is a lot of other dogs pooping and especially if it's not being picked up (which was exactly my mistake). Since the eggs can last for nearly five years in the soil, the dog doesn't need to step in poop that's infected with the eggs since poop that isn't picked up eventually disintegrates leaving the eggs behind in the soil and can even move around somewhat with a hard rain and especially rainwater that can run off downhill. So, just the dog stepping in a spot where the eggs were deposited by infected poop at some time in the distant past and then the dog grooming his feet can infect the dog.

I guess the best way to avoid infection is to walk the dog while he wears dog boots. Yoshi absolutely hates his dog boots though and can still manage to get out of them even though they're supposed to be the best ones for dogs that want to take them off. I've yet to get all four boots on him where he hasn't already torn one of them off (and I swear he's willing to tear off his own feet to get rid of them he hates them so much).

It's crazy what has to be done to disinfect an area that has any eggs in it, and even if the dog poops on cement the only way to kill the eggs is to drown the area in bleech... and sometimes THAT isn't even good enough since even gravel usually has to be removed to get rid of them and replaced with new gravel.

Well, he's had his third and last treatment so he should be wormy free now and I just have to worry about reinfection and pray the super indestructible eggs aren't in the yard.

Sounds like your Yoshi was still fit and healthy. At least now you know that this is something you will always have to watch for. But it sounds like a never-ending cycle now because it seems impossible to eradicate them. I am sorry you will have this problem, and even removing all that soil and replacing it probably would not keep this from recurring at some point. There is a reason that these little buggers have survived for eons.

And I agree....ewwwwwwwwwwww!

The vet said that since I always pick up his doodies every day and try to always look for one that needs picking up when I go out there with him there's still a pretty good chance that no eggs are in the yard... it's letting poop hang around and start disintegrating and especially getting rained on that makes the eggs able to travel out of the poop and into the soil. Thankfully, in that respect at least, they lay very few eggs when they lay them compared to other parasites, so the odds are pretty good that there won't be any eggs that had a chance to get into the soil just from a fresh poop dropped on the ground. Mostly I'm worried about that one day he got sick at both ends from gobbling up whatever that gross thing was he found on the ground because I don't know if he was infected at that time and if he was if he had been long enough for any of the female worms to become adults and start laying eggs because it's just impossible to get all of a drippy poop off the ground.

THe vet isn't as concerned about the yard as I am and thinks that the odds are good that there aren't any eggs in the yard or enough eggs to reinfect him especially if I get him on a whipworm preventer. The preventers aren't a guarantee that a dog won't get whipworm, but they do really improve the odds that he won't get reinfected. Had he been infected for long enough to be showing the symptoms (none of which he has) then he'd be a lot more worried about the state of the yard... the longer the infection the more time for the dog to be dropping poop with eggs in the yard.

Yoshi also doesn't do most of his pooping in the yard anyway since he prefers to do that on our walks, so I'm also hoping that less pooping in the yard also betters the odds.

If it turns out that he's gets reinfected then I'll just have to not let him in the backyard anymore. I hate to do that because he's an outdoor kind of guy and likes just hanging out in the yard. I'm used to walking him all the time though since the yard is really small and he needs lots of exercise and he doesn't usually bother doing much exercising in the yard. It's also damned convenient to just let him out in the fenced yard just to do his business while not having to do anything other than open and close the door for him. It would suck to have to put on my boots and coat and everything just to take him out because he needs to pee. I'd do it though just to make sure he gets rid of the worm problem. His health is far more important to me than whether or not he can use the yard.

Just to be on the safe side I'll probably dig out his poopy area in the yard (it's a very small area in an alcove formed by the side of my house and the fence I share with my neighbor) and fill it in with new dirt (I doubt it would take more than a couple dozen bags of dirt and maybe not even that much). I'll just have to hope that we keep the above freezing temperatures to do that or keep getting warm spells so I don't have to wait till spring, but then again freezing temps do kill off a lot of worms. Last winter was strangely warm for the most part, and so far this one is even more so. I'm actually kind of bummed we didn't get any snow to speak of last year since Yoshi doesn't know that snow comes out of the sky and coats everything. All he knows of snow is that it's in a big pile behind the skating rink and comes out of a machine in one big lump and it's there all year round though of course in the summer the pile isn't like the huge mountain it is in the winter. It's sooo cool though to walk the dog in shorts and a t-shirt in July or August and go flop into a pile of snow!

Gads, I almost wish I didn't read so much about these creepy wormies... the more I find out about them the more they totally gross me out. At least now he's wormy free since last night he had his last dose of the meds that kill them and now it's reinfection I have to fret about.

I hope all goes well. I know just what you mean about reading too much.....information can be very great, but sometimes is just freaks you out over the most minute things. It is obvious that you will do all that you need to do to protect Yoshi.

It will be ok. Follow your vet's lead on this one and don't get so worried.

The reason I ask is because maybe your dog picked them up on a walk or somewhere else other than your backyard.

I had a dog (briefly ... ) and she had hookworms which are not at all common where I live. I found out about it and was like you, totally freaked out having my cats all checked for them too.

Hookworms like whipworms live in the soil in your backyard as well; same breeding scenario too.

However, where I live, it is far too cold and the climate is not a place where they can live easily.

That said, it seems said the dog I mention had them when I got her and luckily they were not transmitted to any of my other pets.

I had a bad parasite infection in one of my cats several years ago and the drug "PANACUR" was administered and it killed the parasites quickly but said parasite returned and the Panacur was administered again and that batch of parasites was killed off once and for all thank god for that!

Try not to freak out. Maybe the dog picked them up somewhere else perhaps or has had them for some time and they were not caught. I know hookworms are not easy to detect. You learn with age and experience eh?

You're doing the right thing to get on this ASAP however.

Lets hope you have a cold winter where you live as they don't do well in the freezing ground. It is heat in the soil that begins in the spring that allows them to start reproducing again and as you state they live in the feces.

Also, does your dog dig in the yard at all? If so, this could be where they are from.

Hang in there and try to stay sane in an insane world!



CountAllVotes

I only ever started doing that recently because I usually walk him when it's dark and only started doing walks while it was still light out because it's so much warmer during the day than it's gotten at night, and I hate the cold. And I never walked him in the dark in that area because I've known for years that it's poop bomb city... it's a strip of public land so I guess people think it doesn't matter if they leave the poop there or not. The vet had to have caught this really soon after he got them because he hasn't displayed a single symptom, and it was just sheer luck that he just happened to have been due for his annual vet visit so they caught it since doing a doodie inspection is part of the annual visit.

My concern about the yard is that since he's been infected before I knew about it he had to have been pooping egg infected poop himself in the yard thereby possibly infecting the yard. The vet isn't all that concerned about my yard though since I pick up his poop as soon as I notice he's done one and always check when he's been out there to see if he's done any poops that need picking up. The vet says that's the best thing to do before the eggs have a chance to get into the soil from disintegrating poop and will most likely all be contained in the poop. But he also had a day where he was sick at both ends from eating something gross he found on the ground, and since I don't know if he was infected enough then that there were any female worms that were laying eggs I don't know if his diarrhea would have had eggs in it or not, and it's just impossible to totally pick up drippy poop. I actually don't know if he was infected at all at that time but he certainly could have been.

If they did get in the yard they'd likely be just in that area that is his poopy place, so if I had to replace the dirt it wouldn't be such a big deal. I just have to keep him away from that grassy public area and hope that he doesn't get re-infected because if he does it means there ARE eggs in the yard.

Whipworms aren't common for this area... until recently. When the vet called the day after Yoshi's appt. to tell me they discovered the eggs in his doodie sample he told me that recently he's been seeing several dogs that have the infection and after all the years he's practiced here he'd never had a whipworm case until about a year or two ago. I'm betting that this more recent growth of whipworm cases he's been seeing is because those dogs get walked in that same grassy public area, too... EVERYONE around here walks their dogs there, and aside from me and one nice lady with that cute little white fluffy doggie (I forgot about her when I wrote the OP) I don't think anyone picks up after their dog there.

By the way, Panacur is the medicine that my beastie was given for his wormies. We have to do another three day round in three weeks to make sure he didn't get reinfected and then check his poop again and then check it again in another month after that. After all that if he's clear of worms than I can relax about the yard. And never never never again am I letting Yoshi anywhere near that infected area.

I already told the neighbors here that I know walk their dogs there to have their dogs checked out just in case they might have also gotten infected and to never walk their dog there again. There's only two of them that I know about that walk their dogs there, and we decided that if either of them turns out to have an infected dog we're going to the township to demand something be done about it. I'd be perfectly happy if they just put a big fence around that area especially since I know of another way down into the gully that isn't very steep so we can still get to the creek without having to go through the poop bomb area.

Oh yes, Yoshi is a massive crater digger in the yard and always has been. He's turned over the dirt in the yard probably several times over since all the grass died soon after I first got him, but after a year and a half of having him he's never gotten infected with any kind of parasite until this whipworm nightmare. Next spring I'm cutting that damn huge tree nearly bald of branches since it is responsible for keeping all the sun out of the yard and grass refusing to grow. It was cut down to practically nothing but a single stick a few years ago but now the branches have reached all the way across the yard and want to invade the windows upstairs already. He also doesn't seem interested in digging anywhere where there's grass. When I first got him patches were already dead and gone and he only did his crater digging in those bald spots. The only bald spot he refuses to dig in is his poopy area... he doesn't like pooping anywhere that the dirt has been disturbed whether it's in our yard or somewhere else. I never could figure out the reason for that. I guess it's just some weird personal trait of his.

Thanks for the encouragement. The fact that he got a wormy parasite freaks me out enough but finding out that these crazy magic worms make super duper indestructible eggs REALLY freaks me out. Holy cow, I feel like I'm dealing with radioactive waste.

You are obviously on top on this problem and the dog shows no symptoms. This is good news!

I know with the hookworm thing I was told to sprinkle borax in the yard and that would kill them. I recall having something like this done just in case as the dog I had dug big pits in the yard and they could have come from that perhaps.

However, like whipworms, hookworms don't like the cold either and thrive in the heat.

In the case of the dog I had, I noted blood on her rear and took a sample of this to the vet. That is how the hookworms showed up.

I would not worry too much as I said being it sounds like you are on top of this. I would not walk my dog back to that place anymore -- good idea! Also, I would have the dog tested every couple of months for awhile just to be sure and that is an inexpensive test to have done.

Hang in there and be glad you care about your dog and don't let the worm thing freak you out. I do know what it is like and I too had that gut wrenching fear not that long ago.

Take care of yourself and your dog is lucky to have such a competent and loving owner!

Beulah had whipworms when we rescued her. I was so afraid that Quincy would pick them up as well so we picked up every time they pooped in the back yard!

She was a sick little baby when we first got her, she had giardia AND whipworms! What a nightmare!

Glad you are on top of it with precious Yoshi... those nasty worms can be bad if you let them fester. I too get pissy when people don't pick up their dog shit. I have been known to be VOCAL if you know what I mean.

Glad to hear he is being treated. Hopefully the worms will die off with cold weather in the back yard. Keep us posted?

Now we just have to wait till the three weeks are up and do the meds a second time in case he got reinfected then the poopy sample checks. I'll probably to more poopy sample checks throughout the year just to make sure he's not getting reinfected since they're pretty inexpensive to do anyway.

Don't ya know that though I've been avoiding that poop infested grassy area where I'm sure he picked up these icky worms yesterday I somehow stepped in dog crap anyway from somewhere! It had to be on the corner of someone's lawn while I was out walking with him since we tend to cut corners a bit rather than strictly following the sidewalk... or at least he tends to, but sometimes I walk a few feet at the corner on someone's lawn. Dammit, if there is dog poop anywhere I'm sure to step in it, and it's ALWAYS my right foot! I can't believe some asshole let their dog make a big crap on someone's LAWN and didn't bother to pick it up leaving it there for me to step in! Bad enough that people don't pick up after their dog on public land but for heaven's sake, how can you just walk away from a big crap your dog did on someone's lawn???

Dog poop is nearly impossible to get off the bottom of your shoe. Mud is pretty easy, but dog poop is nearly impervious to even blasting at it with the garden hose. GROSS!!!

I'm pretty much silent about what other people are doing with their dogs and just stew about it inwardly, but after this worm business I've had it. Next time I see someone walking away from their dog's poop I'm reading them the riot act.

I've calmed down a bit about they yard. I'm still nervous about it, but at least I'm not paranoid anymore that there are worm eggs in my carpet or on the toilet seat or in the bathtub or my bed or in my shoes or underpants... man, at first I had an almost constant gross feeling that little invisible wormy eggs were just EVERYWHERE. LOL!

Yes, I know it's irrational, but the worms and the eggs had me so freaked out at first I just had the constant crazy feeling that they were everywhere like that creepy feeling that a snake is going to slither up through your potty and bite your bum while you're sitting on it, or just as you crack an egg into a pan that icky feeling that an embryo chicken is going to plop out.

Did you get them to go away? What did you end up doing about the soil? Did any people in the house get them from the dog? Thanks.

Were you able to get rid of them? We are dealing with this in our dog we just acquired and it's making me a nervous wreck. Will the lawn ever be safe for the dog or the kids again? Thanks.

Turned out fine. Scared the hell out of me though. Yoshi got some medicine that was like a white powder (tasteless and odorless) to mix in with something damp and mushy for him to eat. I mixed it in with some tuna fish with the water from the can. He had no idea the medicine was in there. From what I remember it was one packet once a day for three days and again same thing a few weeks later to kill any larvae or eggs.

The yard scared the hell out of me. I lucked out though. Could be because he got it during the colder months though I don't think it was actually winter yet. And because I have no grass which makes picking up after him easier. I also always pick up his doodles in the yard as fast as I can get to them all the time anyway. Leaving poop in the yard attracts all kinds of nasty things to plant eggs in it that can get into the soil. But since I have no grass, it also makes any creepies in poop that much easier to get into the soil, so it might even be better to have grass. Also, he didn't have the whipworms long because he never had any symptoms at all. The vet just discovered it because Yoshi had his yearly exam, and they saw them in the poop sample, and I just happen to know how and where he got them... that grassy area where everyone lets their dogs go to the bathroom and they NEVER pick up after them (it's seriously a poop bomb island).

The faster you have your dog take the medicine to get rid of the whipworms the second you find out about them the better because if they poop or walk around the yard they can pick them up again. Always pick up doodles as soon as you possibly can. Do it every day. It's so much easier to do it that way anyway. You can also train you dog to use one certain area of the yard to do their business in. Yoshi does that anyway just because Akitas happen to be the most tidy dogs when it comes to doing their business. He chose the same corner of the yard to do his business that my previous Akita, Boo, used. Well, except for that one time he peed through the chain link fence on L__ next door while she was leaning on the fence talking on her phone... God, that was so embarrassing! He adored her after that though - weird. Also, if you walk your dog on the leash just be very careful where he walks. Maybe try to keep him on pavement though in warm weather it would really need to be where the pavement is cool. Dogs regulate their temperature mostly through the pads of their feet, so they should never be made to have their feet on warm/hot pavement for long. If you ever suspect your dog may be overheated, put their feet in cool water and make sure they can drink as much cool water (though not cold) as they want to bring their temperature down.

Other than that, you just have to wait and see. If you're careful with picking up after your dog and keep them from areas that other dogs use to go to the bathroom you'll probably be ok, but you might want to have their poop tested again to make sure they're clear and keep an eye out for symptoms. I was just lucky that I know exactly where and when Yoshi got the whipworms. That one time I did let him walk a little way in that poop infested area just a few days before his annual vet visit. Never again! He still wants to go there, but I have to keep telling him that it's the "toxic waste" area, so not happenin'.

I think you'll probably be ok in the end. Scary as hell going through it though.