I have a 5month old daschund. I have wormed him 4 times w/2 seperate wormers since I got him from the breeder who had already previously wormed him. One specifically for tapeworms. I was able to get rid of the tapeworm once but I noticed this morning that they have returned so I am going to have to retreat him. I have done some research and have found that dogs most commonly get tapeworm from fleas. We just don't have any flea infestations. I give my dog regular flea baths and also use flea collars. I have never seen a flea on my dog or in my home and trust me I am really paranoid about it so I would notice. I am not sure where he is getting the tapeworms. I always make sure to wash his bedding and anything he lays on so I can be sure he doesn't lick up the egg sacks.
He also doesn't eat any scraps or human food.. dog food only. Purina Puppy Chow and Kibbles and Bits.
My cat and my previous dog have NEVER had tapeworms.
Has anyone else ever had a problem with there dogs getting a tapeworm? How did you treat? Do you know anyway I can prevent this from happening again?

I also notice my dog dragging his butt across the ground even when I think he is worm free... is butt dragging normal or is it only a symptom of worm infestation?

Have you asked a vet or are you just using over the counter wormers?

Dragging their butt on the floor means that their anal glands need to be drained. I've had dogs do that before - even puppies. They need to go to the vet for that.

feed the dog a live fish and the fish will eat the worm....problem solved

I am using wormer from a farm supply store... I also got all of his shots there.

Ewwww... that doesn't sound good. Poor guy I guess i'll have to take him to the vet. I wish the holidays didn't totally mess up my cash flow, I wouldve taken him sooner. I was hoping I could just take care of him until after the first of the year.

They go inside and pop them. There are two glands - one on each side.

That is if the anal glands are the problem. That's always been the case with my dogs. I've had a few that seem to have had a problem with that but not all of them.

Being thrifty is good, but sometimes you need a vet. A fecal sample & worm meds should not be very expensive. I would not mess with this ,you can get it too!

impacted anal ducts is usually why a dog drags his butt along the floor...

as for the tape worms...get a second opinion...this should be easy to cure...remember...when you scratch a dogs head...you have a job for life...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOtqw_IEGh0

lol
I say that to my Mom everytime the dog drags his butt.

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

First of all don't use flea shampoos or collars. Get rid of them. They don't work. All they do is cause irritation. Sometimes depending on the size and age of the animal this can cause serious side effects as well. There is a pill or this gel like substance that you can give your animal to prevent kill and prevent fleas. It's not expensive. It's also NOT FRONTLINE! Don't get frontline! Frontline doesn't kill fleas! Frontline prevents fleas but does a really ****ty job at it. Depending on how much the dog weighs depends on if they're elligible for the pill or not. The pill is like a miracle. My parents live in an infested area of fleas. There's no killing them in their climate pretty much all year round fleas are there. This pill not only kills fleas but also keeps them off of the animals for about 24 days or so and then they might develop them on the animal during the last 6 days before you can return to giving them a new pill. *ALL FLEAS ON THE ANIMALS ARE DEAD WITHIN 24 HOURS* :) It's really good stuff. You can only get this from your vet.

Next you should only bathe your dog every 3-4 weeks. That's it. If you're doing it more than that you have a problem and can cause irritation. This may be the reason for the butt dragging.

As for the worms. You need to go to a vet to get the proper medication since over the counter stuff failed. Take a bag of poop to the vet when you do so. They will run diagnostics on the crap, and find out what to do about the infection of worms.

If you have a cat still alive and the dog has worms he's probably getting the worms from eating cat crap. You should if not must also get your cat done for worms. If one animals has it chances are extremely high that the other animal has it.

Now as for where worms come from... They come from the food you give them. It doesn't have to be human food. It can simply be cat food or dog food. Sometimes when you get stuff from stores, well this is what's in it. There is absolutely no real way to totally prevent it but I think if they're on heartworm medicine I think they may prevent this.

Worms in animals does not come from the pet food. They can pick it up from licking their paws after walking on the ground where fecal matter is present. Or eating fecal matter. Other animals (cats or dogs) that come in to the yard and do their business can leave the worms (tapeworms) behind. Heartworm medicine only prevents heartworms. It does not kill full grown heartworms. Those have to be killed by arsinic. Pets get heartworms from mosquitos.

Over the counter stuff is usually not as strong as what you can get from the vet.

Good advice!

Definately time for a vet (probally will require stool samples so ask when you set appt) also have other dogs and cats checked.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

The tapeworm has been taken care of and my little guy is in excellent health.

Now if I could just get him housebroken. I had no idea daschunds were so stuborn.

tape worms r tricky little devils.
anal glands r expressed, not popped.
get pads, so he can pee in corner instead of your rug.

Are you using a crate?

My brother has one (daschund), he always thought of the carpet as grass. So he would go on it. When my brother moved, his house has hardwood floors and then the dog started holding it to go outside. It was weird.

Who really knows what goes on in thier little minds? My rat terrier was confused when we were in the desert, she was looking for grass & seemed afraid to pee in the sand.

yup crate um. sometimes they will still pee and shift in the crate. put him on 4 hour schedule. he drinks, u go pee. he eats, u go ****. immediately.