HOW TO DEAL WITH INTERNAL INTERNAL PARASITES

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And—just in case you haven't heard enough equine afflictions—another horse worm you can sometimes see is the Oxyur s, or pinworm. These lower intestine burrowers may actually crawl out of your steed's backside. If your horse has a ratty tail (because the animal's been scratching its southbound end a lot), this pointy parasite may be the reason.

HOGS

Since animals that have contact with their own manure are most likely to get worms, pigs—which are renowned for living the "sty life"—get plenty of parasites. I've filled a quart mason jar with the worms removed from just one sow! To keep your swine fine and healthy, you'll have to worm the creatures on a regular basis. And—because the porky "garbage disposals" will consume almost anything—the simplest way to get an anthelmintic into a pig's stomach is just to add the medicine to its food.

DOGS

Almost all puppies are born with some kind—and often lots of kinds—of worms. So be sure to treat your canine babiesand your expectant dog mothers—conscienously. Piperazine is a common roundworm medicine that works well (remember, it only kills mature roundworms, so you have to use it repeatedly). But piperazine is a specific—not a broadspectrum—anthelmintic and won't affect any other worms your pups may be harboring.

Hookworms are a very severe example of those "other'' dog botherers. These "vampires" enter by penetrating the skin and can drain enough blood to make the pups anemic ... or even kill them. Check young dogs—at four to six weeks of age—for this intestinal parasite (or even sooner after birth if you've had hookworm troubles in the past).

Another common canine parasite—found in dogs of all ages—is the tapeworm. Dogs catch these well-named (they may be five feet long) scoundrels in two ways. The Taenia tapeworm larvae inhabit the body of a rabbit or rodent, so—if your hound likes to eat wild critters out back—it may well already be hosting this pest. And Dipylidium tapeworm eggs use fleas as their "pass card" for intestinal entrance. When your canine chews-and accidentally swallows—an aggravating skin-biter, the pooch's aggravation may have just begun.

You can tell if Fido has either variety of tapeworm by looking for white, rice like worm segments in your dog's feces. If you see these egg-harboring body pieces, medicate your dog immediately. However, don't use one of the older tapeworm remedies. Those outmoded anthel mintics knock off most of the tape
worm's body (the segments will dramatically appear in the dog's waste ), but the parasite's many-hooked head remains embedded in your suffering pooch's intestinal wall ... to grow and strike again. The newer remedies "go for the jugular" and kill the tapeworm's head (some even dissolve the whole "measure" so you won't see any segments passed in the animal's feces at all). Niclosamide is a very effective and safe example of the more modern drugs available (this medicine is a specific anthelmintic against the flea-spread Dipylidium tapeworm.)

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