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Best Dog Dewormers

Best Dog Dewormers.

Dogs are fantastic animals to own; they can bring you joy, love, and fulfillment in your life. What's not so fantastic, though, is expensive vet bills. As a dog owner, it's important to know that your dog could become ill at any time and could be subject to certain acute or chronic conditions throughout its life. One way of preventing vet bills from running up in price is by ensuring they're on top of their health and buying treatments before it gets out of hand.

A treatment you should consider giving your canine is dog dewormer. This helps remove any worms or parasites from your dog's body. If they remain in their body and are not removed, they could develop a serious infection. The infection could cause them to lose lots of weight, their appetite, vomit a lot, lethargy, dehydration, diarrhea, and more. In the worst case, worms could cause death. The truth is, your dog can easily get worms due to dirt, trash, poop, or anything else. Dogs love to lick and sniff anything, picking up unwanted bacteria that can travel through their body. If your dog has worms, it might show signs of eggs or worms in the feces. Their stomachs could become bloated and become very weak.

To know if your dog has worms, you should take it to a vet who will conduct a stool test to look for them. Often based on the results of their stool test, the vet will advise your dog to take a dewormer. To know which is the best dewormer for dogs, check out our table of top picks.

What is a dog dewormer?

Dog dewormer is a form of medicine that is given to a dog when they have worms or parasites in their body. Dog dewormer can come in tablet or liquid form, depending on what your vet recommends. On average, for all dogs, it's recommended that they're dewormed every 3 months. However, your vet might recommend your dog being dewormed sooner if your dog likes to bring things home or scavenge a lot. Once the medicine starts to become effective straight away, it can take up to 7 days to kill the worms inside your dog's body.

Different types

As a dog owner, it's important to know that there is a range of different dog dewormers you can buy. While the treatment and brands may vary to treat worms and parasites, you can usually find the following type of dog dewormer:

  1. Chewable: This is known as a broad-spectrum dewormer where you can chew tablets. Often these chewable tablets come in a meat flavor like beef to make your dog eat them. These types of dogs dewormers treat roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms, and whipworms. Chewable tablets tend to be given to dogs older than 3 weeks. This type of dewormer is easily available to buy over the counter; no prescription from your veterinarian is required.
  2. Liquid: Liquid dog dewormer involves you giving your dog medication through a syringe. This type of dewormer is often formulated to treat hookworms and roundworms. The liquid dose you give your dog can vary based on your dog's weight, so it's always best you check with the veterinarian first before giving.

How to choose a dog dewormer?

There's a huge range of dog dewormers out there, and knowing how to choose them can be tricky if you don't know. One of the most important things to help you select the right one for your pet is knowing the type of worm problem they have. Typically, they can get the following types of worms:

  • Roundworms: These are parasites that live in your dog's intestine. They tend to be the most common in young puppies and come in two types Toxocara canis and toxascaris leonina. These types of worms can cause potbelly, vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, and malnourishment.
  • Hookworms: This type of worm lives in your dog's digestive system and attaches to the lining of their intestines. It survives by eating your dog's blood and can cause a lot of health difficulties. Dogs can get this from sniffing feces or soil.
  • Whipworms: A prevalent parasite that occurs in dogs and can grow up to a quarter-inch in height. These types of worms tend to cause a lot of irritation to the colon and cause weight loss.
  • Tapeworms: Another type of worm that is long and lives in your dog's intestine, causing weight loss and vomiting. These are just a few of the worms mentioned above. To know which one your dog has and what needs to be treated, you must take your dog to see a veterinarian first.

What to consider when buying a dewormer?

When looking to buy a dog dewormer, you should consider the following:

  • Side effects of dog dewormer: If you give your dog dewormer, and it experiences the following, consult your veterinarian immediately.
    • Vomiting for 2-3 hours or more after the deworming;
    • Lack of appetite for a few days;
    • Feeling nauseous.
  • Age: Depending on the age your dog is, there are different deworming schedules you should go buy. Similarly, there are dewormers for puppies and different ones for adults. Always read the label before giving it to your dog to know which is best for them.
  • Dogs’ allergies: Dog dewormers are potent medication and sometimes contain a mixture of ingredients in tablet or liquid form. While they may help kill worms in your dog, they may also be harmful to your dog. Your dog may have particular sensitivities to the medication that could cause them to react to it in a bad way. Therefore, always speak to your vet before giving your dog it.

Final thoughts

If you own a dog, you will have to give them a dewormer at specific points in their life. Deworming your dog can help their health by stopping them from losing weight, vomiting, getting infections, becoming malnourished, and much more. There's a range of deworming medications out there that are used to treat certain types of worms. Some are in tablet form, the others are in liquid, and some have different effective periods depending on the type of medication. Most importantly, though you think your dog has worms, take it to the vet first. Your vet will run specific tests to check if it has worms and then advise the right medicine for you.

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