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:
- Straight Praziquantel tablets which target tapeworms and include Droncit and Wormicide Tape.
- 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
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