I had to take my dog to the vet today on another matter and the vet asked whether she had been treated for lungworm. She said they have had 3 dogs die from lungworm in the last few months at the practice . (in birmingham)
I thought it was caught from slug and snail eating which my dog does not do-but she was saying they don't have to eat snails etc to catch it.
what is the best and prefrebly more economical way of worming for lungworm please?
I have a 30kg weimaraner. mostly healthy.

>I thought it was caught from slug and snail eating which my dog does not do-but she was saying they don't have to eat snails etc to catch it.

She's right; it can be caught by the dog eating grass or mouthing a toy over which an infected slug or snail has crawled.

You can get a test kit to see if your dog has lung worm before treating unnecessarily, it may even be cheaper :-)

My rescue had lung worm, xrays showed damage to her lungs with dark patches that will never heal. She had high doses of Panacur wormer daily for 7 days and now has Advocate monthly as a preventative. ( I think it was Panacur as I was in a bit of a whirl with everything that was happening at the time and memory sometimes gets a bit flaky )
She is now clear however all damage already done will be with her for life and may affect her breathing as she gets older.
I had never taken very much notice of lung worm assuming it wouldn't happen to my dog, but it just goes to show it is everywhere. I am Norfolk.

Out of interest, what were your dogs symptoms? Would be good to be aware of them for future reference.

The dogs I have known that had it had exercise intolerance and coughed like mild kennel cough/throat clearing.

The first was 10 years ago with a puppy owner in the home counties who wondered how long her bitch would take to recover from spaying she wasn't up to running with her friends and coughed.

This was some weeks after the OP and I told her to seek vet advice as this was not normal, diagnosis Lung worm/French heartworm.

The second was a little JRT  about two years ago in Bristol, who was under the PDSA and was not right, similar symptoms, sadly she died before they diagnosed it, and it was found on PM.  We and the owner kept on to the vets that there was something wrong.

Thanks brainless

Local dog admitted with persistent nose bleed. Swift action saved him. He was infested.

I treat prophylacticaly with Advocate as I lived in a hot spot county within a walled garden.

(Please usual suspects.....don't lecture on giving 'dangerous chemicals' ...... I've made an informed judgement call and have a house full of long lived healthy dogs with no lung worm)

slug city here since i stopped pelleting to try and prevent danger of hedgehog/bird poisoning.  never seen so many.  so although I know my dog does not eat slugs/snails she certainly does walk through their mucus trails as it would be impossible not to. I am shocked they don't have to eat them to catch it.  got to go back to vet next week so will see what they offer

In Suffolk...............Zuma had lungworm - very mild- just noticed the 'clearing throat/huffy' noise, Vet started him on Advocate and -following Vets suggestion which she used with her own dog who had also had mild lungworm - I use Advocate every 2nd month as a preventative.
If you go down the Advocate route consider getting a prescription from you vet and buying from one of the online pharmacies Biiig difference in cost even when factoring the vets charge for a prescription.
Chris

I used Advocate on my puppy and she had sickness and diarrhoea, hoping she will grow out of that. Currently in Suffolk (have a holiday place here), home is the Cotswolds, all those stone walls also slug central. Also hadn't realised that they could pick lungworms up so easily, thought they had to eat snails.

My rescue had been abandoned and was living rough, so goodness knows what rubbish she ate. The RSPCA assumed she had slight kennel cough and advised that unless it got worse she should get over it quickly once rehomed. She had a throat clearing type cough when she ran or got excited, but then began having a coughing fit during the night that sounded very much like 'inverted breathing' ( not sure if that is what it is called ) She also had a runny nose.
I had taken her for a check up when I first got her home and my vet found nothing wrong with her breathing with a normal examination ( thank goodness because this examination cleared her for insurance purposes so that 17 days after the policy began I was ok to claim, otherwise it would have been  counted as an existing illness ) and as mentioned 17 days into the policy she was far worse and underwent X-rays where the lung worm showed up quite badly in her lungs. She also had 2 bacterial infections, one of these she is still on meds for, possibly another couple of months.
The lung worm was really a shock as I really thought it was kennel cough. The RSPCA said that it will make them double check all suspected KC in future and maybe it will save another little dog from this parasite.

She is a bit of a poo eater ( fox, rabbit, horse), and of course this usually has slug trails over it when she finds one, so this is another way of getting this worm, also grass eating is another very easy way.

Refusal to eat can be an early symptom.  It was in my puppy, no cough or anything at that stage, the only real symptom was anorexia.  Lucky for me the vets ran stool samples!

Keep free range chickens, slugs and snails are an endangered species in my garden since I got hens.