I would appreciate breeders own experiences with worming puppies. What you recommend, what you would not use and why and your worming regime.

Drontal every time as have had very bad experiences with panacur. However do worm bitch from day 40 with panacur just not the babies

I only ever use Drontal Puppy Suspension and I never worm the bitch with Panacur as I detest the thought of using chemicals in a pregnant bitch for so long or even at all. I worm her at time of mating and when her pups are wormed and then use Drontal or Cestem tablets. The only time I have had worms in puppies was when I HAD wormed the bitch with Panacur for my very first litter.

I worm the bitch before mating, then worm from day 42 to two days post-whelping with Panacur. Then I worm the pups with a three-day course of Panacur at 2 weeks and 5 weeks, worming the bitch with a single dose on the third day each time. Then I worm the bitch and pups with Drontal at 8 weeks. Never had a problem.

I do exactly the same as Jeangenie and have done for many years.  I would always worry about encysted worms in a pregnant bitch otherwise.  And the dose from day 42 is a very much reduced dose.

All pups stay on Panacur until adults when I change to Drontal.

I have also always followed the Panacur routine for bitch and  pups changing with the pups from the liquid to the paste when a little older. Last litter 2,5 and 7 and from day 40 for the bitch. Had a strong healthy litter.

We always wormed our bitches (and made sure boosters were utd) before the mating.

Puppies were wormed at 2 weeks, using Sherleys worming syrup and every 2 weeks on, to the time the puppies went home - with a full worming history for their vets to see.   Mum was wormed again when the puppies were given their first worming meds.

Sherleys only hits roundworm btw - it's Piperazine Citrate.  But as mum was fully wormed before being mated, the risk of a puppy being born with anything other than roundworm, if at all, would be remote.   None of mine was at least and in fact, rarely did I see anything coming through, dead or otherwise, on being wormed.

As a natural breeder I do not blindly worm dogs/puppies for the sake of it instead use  www.wormcount.com
you can send a poo sample to them when your bitch is around 8 weeks pregnant if she has no eggs then neither will the puppies!! the pups as an extra measure can have a pooled egg count done at 2 weeks we had this done with our last litter and it was a fantastic service our puppies had no eggs so why worm them? I find it quite upsetting when people sell puppies at 8 weeks saying they have had their first jab, been wormed and flea treated as though its all a bonus nothing would put me off more than buying a puppy that has been subjected to all of this before its 8 weeks old? I had our pups done again just before they left at 8 weeks and again they were clear. This service also does lungworm tests as well, its cheaper and less harmful than buying chemical wormers and just giving them blindly without question like everything else to do with our pets these days everything is just overkill. Most of the Wormer's on the market dont work anyway because if a dog has parasites then chances are if they are a dog that has been over wormed the parasites build up immunity to these wormers. Raw fed naturally reared dogs that are not over vaccinated will have a strong healthy immune system so do not have parasites. Only dogs that are fed on commercial pet food and wormed & vaccinated within an inch of their life will be suceptable to parasites this has been proven as fact. There are plenty of natural effective wormers out there such as Diatomaceous Earth that can be used instead.

Moomins, thanks so much for this information. I am planning to mate my bitch shortly and am concerned about the impact of various vaccinations (she is travelling abroad), wormers, flea treatments etc, and am trying to keep them to a minimum.

Can I ask where you buy and how you use diatomaceous earth on your dogs and a regime for a bitch prior to and through pregnancy, and how you use this on puppies? I would be grateful for any advice!

Hi Jay15

Here is the link http://www.imbaliridgebacks.co.uk/diatomaceous_earth.htm if you have a problem with the link just Google  Diatomaceous Earth and you should find it this website is based in the UK, You sprinkle it on their food. I have yet not needed to use it myself as our dogs are always free of any parasites so why give it? we raw feed, do not use any chemical wormers or flea treatments and no longer vaccinate either after loosing two dogs to cancer caused by a booster the cancer started a few weeks after the booster and the other less than a month. 80% of vaccine damage occurs within 3 months of a booster. we lost 4 puppies in a litter of 10 because 'our vet' recommended we give our bitch her booster before she was mated at the time I questioned this and voiced my concern but as usual vets assure you there is 'no risk' I later discovered vaccination before or after a bitch is mated can cause  feotal death, our eldest is on medication for life after a booster. she started having seizures 2 weeks after the booster she is now a shadow of the dog she used to be, we have another now suffering from auto immune problems after a booster but like so many people we trusted our vet to tell us the truth and didnt make the connection as things happened  weeks/months after the event. But when I started looking into it I realized the shocking truth about how boosters are nothing but a big con introduced in 1978 by the greedy vaccine makers and vets who saw it as a way of getting people in the door tying in a booster with a yearly check up because people didnt always come for check ups so they thought if they included a booster and lead people to believe it was necessary with some bogus information people would fall for it and boy did they, ourselves included!! there has never ever been ANY scientific evidence to prove yearly boosters are necessary if a puppy is vaccinated at 14 weeks ONCE after the mothers anti bodies start to subside that one vaccination will cover that puppy for life at the very minimum 7-9 years. Dr Ronald Schulz and Dr Jean Dodd's have dedicated their life over 40 years and have proven time and time again with solid science and research that immunity if life long you simply cannot booster immunity by having yearly boosters!    I recommend you look up a website called Canine Health Concern http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk/ look on the books and DVD's section you can buy a book Called 'Vaccinations and what vets dont tell you'   also http://www.petwelfarealliance.org/campaign-to-end-over-vaccination.html.  Sadly if you are going to be taking your bitch abroad she will have :( The hell we have been through these last 5 years all because of vaccine damage its just not worth it. I will never ever vaccinate a dog again I have to manage the damage that has been done to our older hounds by trying to boost their immune system with a spieces appropriate diet i.e raw and avoid all chemcials. Our youngest dogs I am hoping I have saved from this living nightmare and our newest pup we bred has never had a single chemical in her body no vaccinations, no wormers nothing!! instead we gave her homeopathic Nosodes the safer alternative to vaccination and she is the most healthiest puppy we have ever bred the whole litter was amazing. The mother who is raw fed had such rich milk the pups doubled their birth weight in 6 days. If I was you personally, I wouldnt take your bitch abroad to avoid her having to go through any kind of vaccination. Vaccine damage isnt a myth its very, very common out of 10 dogs 5 of ours are damaged and this story you will hear again and again from people who have lived through it and 'actually made the connection' 99% of vaccine damage isnt reported by vets. I think for me the final straw that broke the camels back was when our own vet who all these years had been pushing for boosters decided to come clean when I presented him with 'evidence' he stated that actually he doesnt vaccinate his own dogs because he knows the damage it does but is happy to vaccinate  other peoples dogs and make them sick as after all its a business and we have to make a profit!! his exact words. I didnt appreciate his honesty when at the time we had one of our dogs dying at home from cancer that he had basically caused. Sorry to waffle on but this is all still very raw for me. Going back to the worming I just did a worm count test on our bitch at 7/8 weeks into her pregnancy you can do an egg and lungworm count if there are no eggs dont worm her, simple? We dont take cough mixutre 'in case' we get a cough do we or take an Asprin 'in case' we get a headache? Yet when it comes to our pets all reason and common sense go out the window the whole worming, flea treatment and vaccination obsession is just madness total overkill.      

Well  I feel for you as you have been very unlucky BUT

I have 6 pretty fit and healthy dogs from 4 months to 13 years. They rarely have been to the vet ( mostly for pregnancy reasons). They are fed a complete food with some meat to go down with it. I have never ventured into raw feeding ( personal preference).

Mine are vaccinated and boosted from puppies and while they are still likely to have a litter as a preventative for the puppies. Since the 3 year advice I don't do yearly boosters.

I worm with Panacur the Mum in pregnancy and then the pups and used to be Drontal, now Milbemax for older pups.

I do use flea treatments, usually Frontline as I run a grooming parlour and want to protect them and my home from fleas brought in my others.

Perhaps I have been lucky.

Moomins I Found your post extremely interesting as I also feed raw. My dogs are given nosodes instead of annual vaccines. Touch wood none of them have been to the vets for anything except a torn pad.
Reading some of these worming regimes does sound to me like overkill. However each to their own but I will certainly be looking into having my bitches worm counted.

Hi Moomins, thanks so much--this link comes up a page not found? http://www.imbaliridgebacks.co.uk/diatomaceous_earth.htm

More later once I have read your post through :-)

Try this- you'd lost the "l" at the end :)
http://www.imbaliridgebacks.co.uk/diatomaceous_earth.html

That's great ridgielover, thank you!

I've just had my bitch vaccinated for her pet passport, but am reluctant to give  a booster on top of this even though it is due (assuming annual vaccination as the basis for this). I asked the vet nurse about the potential impact of multiple vaccines being given to a bitch that may be mated in the next 6-8 weeks and was told that there was no evidence of any adverse effect, but am not convinced.

Couldn't agree more Moomin!