Hi,

We wormed & flea treated our bitch just before she was due to come into season although as seems to be the trend this year she was extremely late (by the way i have worked out the perfect way to bring them into season after months of waiting i gave up and registered her for a show -so naturally she came straight in as she did when i had decided she would be the girl i took on my dog grooming course to be my model!). 

My worry is that she will now need treating whilst she couldbe preg - we mated her 2 weeks ago, my mum who half owns her is very worried about the idea of doing either of these treatments whilst she's preg.  She herself wouldn;t have taken medication when she was pregnant particularly drugs designed to kill parasites.

I've read a lot about panucur and what i'm wondering is would it be better to let her be and de-flea if she has an issue with them and worm the pups when their born?  I'm really not sure what to do and have had a lot of different advice from people - I've learnt through this process that as great as my vet is he doesn't have a clue about breeding it appears his degree consisted of  don't Breed - spay it!

Any advice would be very appreciated

thanks

Hi susiebell the only safe tretment now is the spray whitch you use on pups it the front line spay ,can get it on line ,and worm your girl from day 40 with panicur 10% ,ive never had had to flea before but i have wormed my in whelp girl with no worries what so every.x

I worm with Panacur from day 40 until 2 days post whelping. I then worm the puppies at 3.5 and 7 weeks I also worm the bitch at this time. I was advised by my vet to use Frontline spot on, on my bitch but I refused after some adivce on here. I now just get the odd flea out with a comp until she has had the pups. If she was wormed a couple of weeks ago you can worm her again with the panacur at day 40 and she will only be a couple of weeks late. I doubt she is going to have a massive worm burden in that small amount of time.

p.s I am fairly new to breeding so always take the more experienced posters advice over mine.

so sorry about my post my spelling is so bad in it(lack of sleep)!

I use to use Frontline on my dogs then someone told me 2years plus ago to give them a human garlic tablet a day or powder dependng on size.  Cheaper than frontline natural and  good for their heatrs etc.....Touchwood none of them have ever had flees whilst using Garlic.....I also heard a rumour recently that Panacur where being sued by a GSD breeder as their wormer states its safe for preg bitches and she lost the lot. Don't know how true it is?

I have used panacur in 6 generations of Pregnant bitches with no worries.

I would not routinely treat for external parasites, so unless she actually has fleas there is no issue there.

I do believe it really important to worm, and I use Panacur, and am very happy to do so, as other posters have said. My pups I wormed with Drontal Puppy - have used Panacur but I find the graduations on the syringes really difficult to use so went for the easier option of Drontal! I wormed my girl again when the pups were 4 weeks old (just used Drontal tablet).

I don't use Spot-on treatments, ever and would certainly never consider applying a spot-on to a pregnant bitch - no matter what a vet may advise. If you don't have fleas, then don't worry about treating for them! I normally use CSJ's Billy No Mates for flea/tick prevention, this is a completely natural herbal product. Even they advise not to use this during pregnancy.

> .....I also heard a rumour recently that Panacur where being sued by a GSD breeder as their wormer states its safe for preg bitches

It is the ONLY wormer recommended, and licensed for use on pregnant bitches, and all my bitches start on Panacur 10% suspension on day 40 of gestation.  As it is pregnancy hormones that cause the worms, using Panacur during pregnancy ensures that pups are 98% worm free.  Not having a heavy worm burden when born, means all pups have to do is thrive!  :-)

I never use spot ons, and rarely use flea treatments.  If they don't have fleas, why would I?  However, a few summers ago I found a flea on a pregnant bitch.  I keep the Frontline spray in (just in case), and it is safe on pregnant bitches.  Never, never use spot on with a pregnant bitch.  The pregnant bitch that I used it on, was a very tiny breed.  She came to no harm, and whelped just fine.  I would definitely use it again on a pregnant bitch if I found a flea.

Thanks,

I'm not going to flea treat unless there is an issue i'll try garlic I use it on my horses to keep mosquittos off them and they had a fairly bite free summer.  My other bitch has a serious allergic reaction to fleas (she caught them once from a hedgehog we had in the garden a few years ago and went completely bald within 3 days apart from her head and legs - the treatment the vet gave her made it worse and my poor girl was just a red head and legs with a bald scabby body and tail) so obviously i'll continue to treat her as normal.

I will worm with panucur 10% from 40 days - is this done daily I didn't realise that being pregnant actually encourages worms.

Thanks for all your help I  don't know what i'd do without all your  help and support on here

YES daily make sure you read the bottle it gives you a guild of how much for pergnent dogs ,you dont give the same amount has you would normaly... from day day 40 to 2 days past whelping x

The dosage is a quarter of the adult dose, so 5ml daily for a 20kg bitch.

The life cycle of the canine roundworm means that Larva in a bitch puppy encyst in her tissues (they do in males of course too) and it is the pregnancy hormones that awaken them, and they transfer to the new hosts (puppies) via the placenta, and through the milk.

Worming at this stage of pregnancy reduces the transference of worms larva into the puppies so when they re born they only have a minimal worm burden about 2% of what they would have had. 

These of course develop in the puppies, but won't cause such an issue as a heavy worm burden would have,a dn the pups are then treated to remove these.

The better puppies are wormed, especially bitches the lower the amount of worm larva there will be to encyst in the bitch to pass onto the next generation.