I am getting mixed views from friends about worming in pregnancy. I have previously used Panacur liquid but a fellow breeder has said do not worm a pregnant bitch. Any thoughts/
Thanks

I have wormed all my bitches in pregnancy, and am now on my third homebred generation. The pups whose Mums were wormed while carrying them are now aged 2 years to 7 years.

The only problem I ever had was worming the puppies so young/often. My view is that as the Mum has been wormed in pregnancy thereby removing 98% of the worm burden from the pups, that they can wait an extra week for their own worming. I worm with Panacur 10% liquid at 3 1/2 weeks and 7 weeks.

I had horrendous problems with my third litter when I did them at 2 1/2, 5, and 8! They seemed off colour and had reduced appetites (less weight gain) on the first worming, and were violently ill when the worming was repeated at 5 weeks, gaining only half the expected weight that week. At 8 weeks I wormed them with great trepidation, and they were all loose to some extent, but not ill again.

The following year the same bitch had the same number of Pups, and I wormed as I had done until then and since, at 3 1/2, and 7 weeks, with instructions to new owners to continue monthly to 6 months, then every 3 months. All has been well with that and subsequent litters, including a litter of 9 from one of the bitches in the badly affected litter!

As Brainless knows, I nearly lost my whole litter worming at 2 1/2 weeks. My bitch was overdosed as a young puppy (I got the Panacur from the vets; they prescribed the adult dose rather than a puppy dose, and she nearly died). Her symptoms started an hour after she was given the wormer; I was told she must have eaten something in the garden, which was not true, as she never went out into the garden alone as a pup. "It couldn't be the wormer; even an overdose would be safe". The next time I wormed her I gave the correct dose of Panacur, and her symptoms returned. Thereafter she was given Drontal without problem.
In pregnancy, I decided not to worm her just in case. She had Drontal for the pups' first worming - I gave them Panacur. Pups fine, bitch fine for the first day. The next day she got sick with the old symptoms - projectile poo, a veritable fountain of yellow. I had forgotten she would clean up after the pups. By the fourth day, she had lost her milk, we had to start weaning them suddenly, so they got sick, they dehydrated and we had to rehydrate them by hand. A nightmare I never want to go through again. Tests showed no parasites such as giardia etc. etc. The vet (not my usual one) refused to comment on the possible connection to the wormer, but my usual vet had "Not to be given Panacur" put on her notes.
Hers was an extreme case, as she was obviously hypersensitive to the wormer because of the earlier incident, but with the current litter from a different bitch we have reverted back to our former practice. She was well wormed as she came into season, not during pregnancy. We'll use an early wormer the first time and then Drontal - we don't trust the other preparation any more.