If you breed any number of years, have dogs come to your kennel, bring your dogs to public places such as parks and daycare/boarding facilities, or play with your dog outside (and pick up things in their mouths that they shouldn’t!), there are certain things you can never prevent … and that is parasites and worms. Although all of our puppies are raised indoors here at Seelenvoll, and the mother is dewormed and treated before she whelps, and then when the puppies are born, their puppy box is disinfected with disinfectant (the one used in veterinary hospitals!) every other day. Bedding is changed daily or more if needed. Pups are wormed starting at 2 weeks of age and are wormed every 2 weeks after that.
While we do a fecal analysis and deworm the puppies on a schedule, we still recommend that you have a fecal float done during your puppy wellcheck at 8 weeks of age. Puppies have weaker immune systems, so while older dogs all carry the DORMANT parasites/worms, puppies have not built up the antibodies to fight them, so are susceptible to reinfesting themselves even in the most sterile of environments. Puppies don’t exactly watch where they walk, or a visitor can walk into our home with eggs or spores on their shoes, and it can be transferred to the puppies. Some spores are airborne, some are in rainwater, some can be found in the puddles outside in the yard (like giardia). This is why we are very tight with our biosecurity, and ask that visitors spray down their shoes or use hand sanitizer when entering our home.
Certain bacteria, such as coccidia, may not even show up in a stool sample, and can lie dormant for year. When puppies become stressed, these bacteria replicate and can show up after your pup goes home. It is NOT due to neglect or unsanitary conditions on part of the breeder. Believe me, if there was a fix all, we would do it- these puppies are in our home!
We refuse to keep our puppies and dogs cooped up in kennels. This is not a natural environment for a dog to live in, and is detrimental to their health. We want them to be involved with our family, indoor life, and outdoor exercise on a daily basis. This means that they may drink from puddles while out hiking- we are dealing with living things in a world that is not free of germs or diseases, therefore cannot expect our dogs to be 100% free of anything.
With that said, let me also stress, that although we vaccinate our puppies, there are STILL viruses out there that do NOT have a vaccine available for them.
Facts: Surveys show that 100% of kennel dogs , 50% of pups, and 10% of other well-cared dogs carry giardia at some time in their life. This can be picked up from water, the air, or transmission from human to dog, or dog to dog.
Coccidia is in the intestinal lining of every dog, when under stress, it tends to replicate, and even when it does not show itself on a fecal float, it will appear suddenly after a pup goes home, due to puppy stress in the new environment.
Roundworms – are transferred through the mother, all pups are born with them…sometimes (very rarely) not…we treat starting at 2 weeks old!
Hookworms, whipworms – common intestinal worms, although my pups rarely, if ever, have them.
Just some things to be aware of, as we try to educate our clients as much as we can before bringing their new pup home! We wish you many years of health and happiness with your new Seelenvoll Family Member!
This is our take on an article written by Endless Mountain Labs.
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