Dog Dosing

Regular dog treatment is the most reliable and the most simple (and probably the cheapest) measure to implement. Dog dosing is absolutely imperative if you are going on or near sheep pasture.

Drugs Available

All dogs resident on farm should be treated on a monthly basis with cestocidal (tapeworm) drugs containing the ingredient Praziquantel which is a highly effective drug for killing tapeworms.  These should not cost more than $1.00 or $2.00 each (as opposed to All-Wormers which you can expect to pay significantly more for).

The drugs, usually in tablet form, can be administered orally or given in dog food.

Praziquantel drugs come in two forms:

  1. Straight Praziquantel tablets which target tapeworms and include Droncit and Wormicide Tape.
  2. There are also “all wormer” tablets such as Drontal Allwormer, Endogard, Milbemax, Milpro and Popantel F Allwormer. All wormers target roundworm, hookworms, whipworms plus tapeworms.

For the best advice on tapeworm treatments, consult your veterinarian or animal health advisor.

Dose Rate

Praziquantel can be administered to dogs at the rate of 25 mg per 10kg of dog body weight.

Droncit tablets contain 50 mg of Praziquantel. This allows one tablet per 20kg of dog body weight.

Note some Droncit tablets come foil wrapped showing 1 Tablet per 10kg of dog body weight, however these are for countries that have not yet got rid of Hydatids.  For New Zealand you can safely allow one tablet per 20kg.

Wormicide Tape tablets contain 100mg of Praziquantel so can be used at one tablet per 40kg of dog body weight.

  • Check package labelling to confirm the amount of Praziquantel in tablet
  • Under dosing will NOT kill the tapeworms in the dog’s intestine
If you are NOT frequently hunting, attending an event, or going near sheep pasture then the rule is:

Dose all dogs with a Praziquantel drug at least 48 hours prior or within one month of going onto the land. *

HOWEVER if you are a regular hunter, it is probably safest, easiest and cheapest to follow monthly dosing.

* Duck Shooters, if you are hunting throughout the season, and not just on Opening Weekend, then you are advised to dose monthly for the duration of the season.

Why monthly dosing is recommended

Dogs need to be dosed monthly to ensure no sheep measles tapeworms reach maturity. Why? …

All Wormer treatment three monthly/quarterly = 90 days

Sheep Measles tapeworm matures = 35 days

This leaves a 55 day window where dogs could be shedding eggs.

Let’s do the maths … If you were JUST to use an All Wormer, this means:

55 days x 4 times a year (quarterly All Wormer) = 220 unprotected days per dog per year!  Also remember that infected dogs may pass thousands of eggs onto your pasture!

Number of dogs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Unprotected days 220 440 660 880 1100 1320 1540 1760 1980 2200
Protected days 145 290 435 580 725 870 1015 1160 1305 1450

So, a combination of an All Wormer and straight Praziquantel tablets provides maximum protection.

Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
AW P P AW P P AW P P AW P P

AW = All wormer P = Praziquantel

Many vets offer a proactive service, whereby they keep a record of the number of, & weights of your dogs – they then proactively send you correct monthly dosages, taking another job off the long list of the farmer! If your vet does not offer this, have a chat to them about it, or contact us. We can speak with them on your behalf, or advise others that will offer this service.

Click here to find a vet.