Wormcount and warm weather...

Over the past three days we've been collecting poo samples for Jasper's Wormcount parasite check. It's well overdue because of logistics while I have a gammy knee, but is much easier while OH is on holiday.

Only when I went to put the third and final poo sample in the little plastic box today, I found that because of the warm weather, what was already in there had gone fluffy... (I'd left it in a shady spot in the garden - you're not meant to refrigerate it.)

I rang the company to ask if I should start all over again when the weather was a bit cooler - oh no, absolutely fine, they said - they occasionally get samples that have been stuck in the post for over a week so are used to it all!

I'm sticking to my job - they can keep theirs

That would be a nasty job. But glad they are able to do it for sake of our pets.

These kinds of lab tech guys are the people who are least recognised in the medical world but their work is highly appreciated by patients (or patients owners)

Absolutely

Tell me more I've never heard of this practice? is something you do on a regular basis? or just when there's a problem? where do you send the poo to how much doe it cost? Thanks

Chadders said:

Tell me more I've never heard of this practice? is something you do on a regular basis? or just when there's a problem? where do you send the poo to how much doe it cost? Thanks

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This is the company I use, @Chadders: Worm Count | Wormcount.com It costs 24.83 + vat, plus £5 postage to check for both worms and lungworm. I do it regularly - they advise every three months, I do it more like every 5 or 6 months. You need to do it regularly really as your dog could have quite an infestation by the time you notice symptoms, same as you'd normally use a dewormer/lungworm treatment regularly.

They provide a small box, which goes in two more bags, that you fill with poo (collected over 3 days for the lungworm test) and return to them. They then examine them for worms, lungworm, and anything else. They once picked up that Jasper had coccidiosis which meant I could go straight to the vet to get the right treatment rather than trying to work out why he had a bit of a runny bum and wondering what I should do about it.

In the 6ish years I've been using it, I haven't had to worm him once, so it's saved on a lot of chemical treatments. If the test does find something, you can simply use a standard wormer (or whatever the treatment is for lungworm).

The best bit is when the post office ask you for security reasons what's in the package

Thanks JundyN so is it instead of conventional regular worming? A case of don't fix it if it's not broken? I raw feed my dog so is it something that's more useful when raw feeding Thanks

Chadders said:

Thanks JundyN so is it instead of conventional regular worming? A case of don't fix it if it's not broken?

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Yep, that's it exactly - if your dog hasn't got worms, why worm him?

I don't think it makes a difference whether you feed raw or not - it's unlikely a dog's going to pick up worms from carefully sourced meat. And even if he was, the bottom line is that there's no need to treat if you can check whether he does have them or not.

JudyN said:

Yep, that's it exactly - if your dog hasn't got worms, why worm him?

I don't think it makes a difference whether you feed raw or not - it's unlikely a dog's going to pick up worms from carefully sourced meat. And even if he was, the bottom line is that there's no need to treat if you can check whether he does have them or not.

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Thanks for that something to consider.