Tapeworms and their treatment

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Although they attempt to suck nutrients from food ingested by the host, they don�t generally do any harm to the host itself.

Tapeworms reside in the stomach and intestines of dogs, cats, humans and others animals.
The worm�s body can be several feet in length, if not more. Each segment of the body has the ability to reproduce and is passed in the animal's faeces, leaving the head still intact where it produces more segments.

Common symptoms include: digestive problems, excessive or decreased appetite, poor hair and skin, weight loss and vague signs of abdominal discomfort. The most common of all symptoms however is the 1/4 inch, white worms that may contract and expand in your pet's faeces. Or the seed-like dried segments in their pet's bedding area or attached to the hair around the pet�s anus.

As a general rule, tapeworm infection may not cause any noticeable signs in your pet, or it may only show some moderate signs of infection. An owner will take a pet for treatment, get vaccinations and tests for illness more serious than this parasite, but as soon as they see a segment or egg in the faeces, that pet can't get into the clinic soon enough!

However disgusting it may be to find one of these segments, it is the best form of diagnosis there is since the eggs may not be found upon microscopic examination of the faeces by your veterinarian.

There is some good news; tapeworms are not passed directly from pet to pet, instead they require an intermediate host in which to develop. They are not transmitted by direct contact but by ingestion of a host either while eating or grooming.