I gave my 12 week old lab puppy Milbemax worm tab yesterday and within hours noticed spaghetti-type worms in his poo.  Also some of the poos are a bit messy.  I assume these spaghetti things are the worms coming out and it's the worm tab that's causing the messy poo?  My vet told me to give him one tab per month and gave me a box of four tabs.  My question is two-fold: 1. How long will the worms keep coming out?  2. Should I be giving him the worm tabs more often or will one a month do the job?  Actually, another aspect of the question occurs to me: Will that kill all different types of worms?  After his first shots two weeks ago I also put the liquid thing on the back of his neck (don't know the name!) for worms and the vet said that that would do the fleas and tics as well but there were no worms in the poo after that dose of whatever it was.  It was like a tiny tube (about 2 cms) which I squeezed onto the skin on the back of his neck.  I hadn't even considered worms up until yesterday and now I'm freaking out cos of these horrible things in his poos!

Hi,

My first comment is that you are shoving an awful lot of chemical into a very young pup! Worm yes, although personally I wouldn't use Milbemax, but then it can be fatal for some collies :-( But to worm and to use a spot-on designed to worm is too much. But again, I don't use spot-ons either - in approx 5% of applications the chemical gets into the bloodstream :-( :-(

Personally I would only worm using tablet/liquid such as Drontal or Panacur, and my regime is once monthly from 3-6 months then every 3 months.

The 'spaghetti' is the worms, so the tablet did it's job. I assume they were dead? Do not worm more frequently than once a month, it is completely unecessary to do so and can be harmful to the gut system. You probably will only get this one appearance of worms, depending on the worm burden you may get more next tablet, but chances are this'll be it. The messy poo is most likely to be the result of the Milbemax tablet. In my experience, on the couple of occasions of using it (before I realised the problem with the MDR-1 gene) it has produced explosive diarrhea each time.

What was the puppy wormed with at the breeders.

Modern wormers kill the larval stages of the worm so it is very unusual to see actual worms unless then puppy was not wormed during rearing, or had a very heavy worm burden.

I have never seen actual worms in any of my pups or dogs, only in a rescue litter when they were wormed at 6 weeks, as they had never been wormed at all, nor had their mother (who would have passed them onto the pups in the womb and through the milk).

These pups were very ill due to the heavy worm burden.  Worming is very important not only for the pups/dogs health but for human health too, due to the rare chance of the larva getting into the optic nerve of a person(most often a child) where ti can cause loss of vision.

Whew!  Thanks, Trialist & Brainless.  Didn't realise the Milbemax was such a chemical baddy.  Not sure if the vet has a record of instructing me to give the spot-on a fortnight before.  Yes, the worms appeared to be dead.  (They weren't moving in any case!)  The last couple of stools have been clear and Cisco is his usual perky self.  He didn't come from a professional breeder, just somebody looking for good homes for an accidential litter of lab x puppies.  I wouldn't imagine any worming or the like was done.  I'll change the Milbemax for Drontal or Panacur for the next dose.  Thanks for your advice!

> He didn't come from a professional breeder, just somebody looking for good homes for an accidential litter of lab x puppies.  I wouldn't imagine any worming or the like was done. 

That is no excuse really, if they had consulted their vet they would have been told the correct worming regime for the puppies.

I know nothing of Milbemax myself, but if there is any chance the other part of his parentage has collie probably better to avoid it.

Mother was a labrador and father a pointer.  Not aware of any collie in the lineage on either side but as you say better safe than sorry and avoid the Milbemax in future, especially since there seems to be a number of better alternatives.

Actually Milbemax is one of the better, most effective, wormers, and the one I use by choice, rather than Drontal. For the huge majority of dogs it's perfectly safe, and certainly less harmful than having worms.

From your description your puppy had an enormous worm burden when you got him, so the Milbemax did a very good job in ridding him of them; however any worming is a shock to the gut, and loose stools often result for a day or so.

Your puppy should be wormed monthly until he's 6 months old, and then every three months.

i use milbemax for my dogs,i like the fact it covers all worms including the worm called my slugs,so far so good on my pug and newfie,i dont like spot on treatments at all,my newf has not been flea treated yest as he dont have them and my pug has not had them for years(too smelly lol)
jo

The problem with Milbemax occurs if your dog carries the MDR-1 gene - sadly few in the veterinary profession seem to be aware of this problem with collie breeds. I avoid it like the plague, and would any other product that contains milbemycin as I have not had my dogs DNA tested to see if they carry this gene. You would need to research it to see if it is a problem with lab/pointers. There will be many collie owners out there who use it and don't have a problem, I for one am not prepared to risk. :-)

I'd definitely say the breeder was remiss in their worming schedule.... it's not often pups carry such a heap of worms if they have been reared conscientiously. I know this, as years ago my family took on a pup from a Labrador breeder who was disgusted as her show lab had escaped and bred with a farm collie. Long story.... but we paid for the pup and it was delivered, but the next morning she vomited up what can only be described as spaghetti. Yuck!

That was years ago though, and with modern wormers and better accessibility (you can buy decent wormers such as Drontal and Panacur at local pharmacies, feed merchants and pet store chains over the counter these days) I feel there's no excuse. I guess though, with so many people regarding puppies as a cash crop, proper welfare is bound to take a dip now & then.

>I'd definitely say the breeder was remiss in their worming schedule.... it's not often pups carry such a heap of worms if they have been reared conscientiously.

Agree absolutely.

>> I'd definitely say the breeder was remiss in their worming schedule.... it's not often pups carry such a heap of worms if they have been reared conscientiously.
> Agree absolutely.

Right on Jean..... 25 years ago the less than conscientious could get Bob Martin's or Sherley's wormers at the pet shop (still as ineffective) or go see the vet (money money).

I don't see the problem now wormers are so much more available... To borrow a phrase, "We've never had it so good"....

It was an accidental litter, so the bitch wouldn't have been wormed through pregnancy, and it seems the puppies weren't properly wormed during rearing (to be so riddled with the parasites) so it's not surprising that proper worming was a shock to its system.

>The problem with Milbemax occurs if your dog carries the MDR-1 gene - sadly few in the veterinary profession seem to be aware of this problem with collie breeds.

But this puppy has no collie in it, and those are the only type that have been proven to have a potential problem with it. For all other breeds or crosses (as a whole; obviously random individuals will react differently, as with any medication) it's one of the safest wormers.

>Didn't realise the Milbemax was such a chemical baddy.

It is if you're a parasitic worm!

Milbemax is also my wormer of choice as well and I wouldn't use anything else.  Drontol has induced vomitting in a high percentage of my dogs, and then what do you do?  Hope enough has got into their system, reworm?  I have never had side affects with Milbemax. and if you do take your dog abroad many vets consider it to have better coverage.  I dont know about anybody else but my garden was well and truely invaded by snails and slugs this year, so I certainly wanted cover for lung worm.
I have done my research on the brand, and it is only even likely to have adverse affects on collie types with the affected gene if given at 10 times the recommended dose.  I am very happy with it!

I took one of my dogs to new vets today for his vaccinations and the vet asked about his worming regime as he was trying to sell me milbemax and i said he was regularly wormed with panacur and the older dogs at home were wormed with drontal and he informed me that apparently panacur doesnt always worth effectively and neither does frontline for fleas ( was bit annoyed as I have never had any problems using any of these products) and just thought the vet was trying to get me to buy products that were hiked in price that I wouldnt normally have used.

As I said I only use milbemax because Drontol upsets my dogs.  Have to agree with your vet about Frontline though.  Alot of people in the south have been complaining about flea resilience to Frontline recently. I have found the same, and so have had to change brands.

I too use Milbemax for choice. It is the best routine treatment for Lung worm as well as the other little wrigglers. My bitches get it through pregnancy and pups at 3/5/7 weeks. I have never had a reaction to it from either full grown dogs or Pups. I do realize though it is a good bit dodgy in the collie breeds. My pups are done (the ones I keep after the first 8 weeks) at 3/4/5/6 months then 9 months and then 12 months and 3 monthly after. I am pleased to say I have never yet seen a worm in any of my pups or adults.
Aileen
PS I have never used any spot on treatments...nor flea treatments and as luck would have it have never seen a flea!!

French heart worm (also known as lung worm) is becomming very common throughout the Uk and especially in the south. This has caused deaths in young dogs who have ingested the worms from eating or playing with something that a slug or snail has crawled over. It can be a toy in the garden, eating grass or a water bowl that slugs or snails have been on. It is far better to be safe than sorry and Milbemax is one of only 2 wormers effective against this fatal parasite. (Can't be sure which is the other wormer for heart worm.) My "puppy" of 21 months is still being wormed monthly with Milbemax, just in case.

> (Can't be sure which is the other wormer for heart worm.)

It is probably Panacur as that is what was prescribed for the bitch of my breeding that was affected in surrey some 7 years ago (she was a snail eater).

The regime was different though it was half dose daily for 7 days.