I have seen little white worms in my pets stool sample, what are they and what can I do about it?
The worms that you are seeing are more than likely tapeworms and pets get them from ingesting fleas or eating dead rodents. Tapeworms are parasitic flatworms that are in the class Cestoda. All tapeworms spend the adult phase of their lives as parasites in the gut of a vertebrate animal (called the primary host). Most tapeworms spend part of their life cycle in the tissues of one or more other animals (called intermediate hosts), which are usually fleas but can be other vertebrates. When your pet or your home has a flea problem the chances of your pet ingesting a flea become very great. If you see these worms, please bring in a fecal sample to your veterinarian so we can insure that the worms you are seeing are tapeworms and that your pet does not have any other intestinal parasites that we should be concerned about. The veterinarian does not need to see your pet for this, a fecal sample will suffice.
