Deworming (or Worming) is a very important procedure that every dog should receive regularly when it is brought into a new home and it should be continued throughout its lifetime. There are various types of worms and parasites in our environment that can be very harmful to our dogs' health such as intestinal worms (roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, tapeworms), heartworms et cetera and deworming allows us to eliminate these dangerous worms from our canine's body.
A dog may inadvertently become a host for these worms by various means like eating or licking the contaminated fecal matter of other animals, catching worm-carrying prey like rats and mice, consuming fleas, and puppies can even get these worms from their mother's milk or during pregnancy. And once these worms start infecting a dog or puppy, there are numerous signs and symptoms which an owner should recognize so that he/she could provide the required medical help to their pooch as soon as possible. Watery stools or diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite and weight, lethargy, loss of lusture in the dog's coat are some of the key symptoms of the worm infections in a canine.
And, If you suspect your dog is suffering from a worm infection, then you should immidiately take your furry friend to a vet. There are various ways by which your vet will identify what type of worm is affecting your canine's health. A test called fecal flotation is used to identify intestinal worms in the dogs and to diagnose some other dangerous parasites, a blood test can also be conducted by your vet as in the case of heartworms. And once the worm has been identified that has been causing distress in your pooch's body, your vet will provide the necessary dog deworming medicine to eliminate that harmful parasite.
If these worm infections are not treated at the right time or they are completely left untreated, then they can be extremely detrimental to various major organs that are present in a dog's body like its heart, lungs, intestines et cetera and it can even prove to be deadly for your dog/puppy. And as some of these infections also come under the umbrella of zoonotic diseases, they can be really harmful for human beings as well, especially to small kids. Hence understanding the basics of dog deworming is very important for every canine owner as it can be a matter of life and death for your pooch and may also prove to be highly injurious to your own well-being.