Merry Xmas all!

I recently wormed Sox and within 24 hours he had the runs This was unconnected to being wormed but the vet said that the wormer may not have worked since it may have passed through his system too quickly to have taken effect. What I forgot to ask was when I should worm him again to make sure that he is covered. Can anyone offer any insight or is this a question for the vet? If the original wormer took effect and I worm him again within the 3 months, can it have any harmful effects?

I suspect he may need doing as he has been 'sledging' on the carpet this evening and he has never done this before, but just want to check this out before taking any action!

Thanks in advance :)

In my opinion :) most well kept dogs don't actually NEED worming very regularly, it's just a routine thing -more important in pups and breeding bitches. So personally I would not repeat it. Worms rarely bother dogs when they have them (i.e. they don't notice them, although obviously it affects their wellbeing) and scooting is far more likely to be anal glands that needs doing. :)

When I worm my dog it nearly always gives him the runs so the vet advised that we ignore the normal schedule and just worm twice a year using Panacur one time and Drontal (?) the next as it would seem that he reacts negatively to worming tablets/powder. He has a very strong constitution normally and it would seem that the worming is definitely the cause of his problem as he only gets this problem after worming.

I agree with Goldmali I wouldnt re- worm again ,unless you know he/she has a worm burden.

Oh ok thanks. Thats interesting!

He has 'sledged' a couple of times and hasnt done it since. He doesnt seem to be bothered in any other way. Would this indicate that he had managed to empty his glands on his own? I would be grateful for some advice on other symptoms that may indicate that his glands need emptying that I should be looking out for. Am I correct in thinking that if he doesnt do this again and shows no other symptoms, a vets visit is not necessary? I dont want to assume that all is ok and then cause him to have an infection or something if you feel that I should take some action now.

Thanks and apologies for the subject matter! :)

There was a recent thread that was very interesting, with regards to anal glands.  I can't remember who or the title I'm afraid, but they had noticed their dog scratching a lot, generally, all over their body.  This was an indicator of the glands being full.  Perhaps try a thread search?  My vet told me that as long as the dogs poo is firm, they should be able to emplty the glands by themselves, sometimes they have trouble (like mine do :rolleyes:) and they need them to be emptied for them (gross).  You only need to be concerned with anal glands if they are regularly scootching across the floor.  If they only scootch every now and again, they might just have an itch!  Obviously, any inflamation or soreneess should be dealt with as infections can get in. And of course, if you are at all worried, best get them checked anyway.

With regards to wormng, I think you'll probably be ok to skip it this time.  If you have been regularly worming, he is unlikely they have a problem.  Panacur is very good for worming as it is quite easy on the stomach, I find.  My dogs used it when they were babies and are now on drontal.

Don't know if that helped at all...

Thanks Jennyrose

Yes that was helpful. He hasnt scooted since those couple of times and still nothing out of the ordinary going on. I think perhaps as you said he had an itch and I just tied his behaviour to the fact that he may need worming again. I had a read about anal glands last night and lots of different sites explained what to look for and also said that if they are full you may be able to feel them under the skin and I couldnt feel anything. There are no nasty smells coming from him or anything so I think I was just being over cautious. Still....never mind! Im sure this is all information I wil need at some point anyway.

Thanks all! oh and Merry Xmas....

That was me :) Bramble had his glands emptied and the scratching was reduced for a while (he had already licked a large bare patch on his thigh :( ). Because he was still itching, we tried a food exclusion diet for a couple of weeks - the vet wanted to put him on Hill's or similar which I didn't want, so we cut out all wheat products. He is on a raw diet anyway, so didn't alter his diet much. Anyway the scratching has increased again, although not as much as before. I'm going to try to do his glands myself later today. I'm sure that he has a problem there although he has never had any problems in that region before (he is about 10) - Tara sniffs him there quite a lot more than she used to. After Christmas it will be back to the vets with him if my go at doing his glands doesn't work :(

Daisy

Itchy feet can be a sign of blocked anal glands, it that what you were thinking of jenny?