Revival Animal Health sends out a great flyer for a variety of dog health issues.  We received an article the other day that we thought was great to share with everyone, as we feel it is an important issue for a healthy Australian Labradoodle.  We recommend getting on their mailing list to keep yourself up to date.  Included is the Link to the site, as well as their link to get signed up for E-mails!

Strategic Deworming Guidelines

Intestinal parasites have been around forever and are not going away – which means you need to manage them out of your pet. Parasites don’t want to kill your kitten or puppy, they just want to use their resources for their next meal. However, they don’t mind dragging pets down, causing rough hair coats or anemia in the process!

We want to feed our pets – not the parasites – the best nutrition. That is why we deworm. Don’t wait until you are sure your pet has parasites – they have already caused damage at this point. Strategic deworming means getting your pet dewormed before they have tissue damage and start showing signs.

These recommendations are from the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists (AAVP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Puppies & Kittens: The goal is to clear the parasites during the growth phase of their life, when they are most susceptible.

• Deworm at 2-4-6-8 weeks of age, then again at 12-16 weeks of age.
• You can then move to 6 months and 1 year, then deworming as an adult.

Adult Dogs and Cats: We are recommending the standard here. If your pet is a big hunter they will need more frequent deworming – you must assess the risk for your pet.

• The general rule: twice a year for life.
• If your cat is 100% inside, you can deworm once a year. If your cat likes hunting outside, more will be necessary.
• Dogs put everything in their mouth and need twice a year deworming to eliminate the parasites they will pick up.

Newly Acquired Animals: No matter what the history or age, assume they have parasites!

• Deworm immediately and repeat in 2 weeks.
• Put on the above adult program.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Advice, Labradoodle Health, Labradoodle Puppies, Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.