Lizards and tape worms

[BigD]

Anyone know if dogs can get tape worms from lizards/geckos?

 

Buddy has had tape worms now twice in the past 2 months. We have not seen fleas on him - we have Frontlined every 3 to 4 weeks with no baths. And we did get meds from the vet for the 1st round. Seemed to wipe them out, but saw again today in stool.

 

Buddy does "play" with the lizards. He will not purposly kill them, he just plays too rough. ha! We have a TON of lizards in Hawaii and there is nothing much I can do to get rid of them.

 

A search on google resulted in some info on lizards eating slugs which can carry worms. From there, cats eat lizards and get worms. The cats pass them off in their stools. I have not seen any kitty stool in our back yard recently either.

 

I've not seen an increase in the lizard population, but I have seen an increase in the number of half dead, overplayed with Lizards. They dogs are not left out to play unsupervised, but he's quick and can get them pretty fast.

 

Anyone know anything about this? My vet said he had heard of slugs carrying worms (and we have a TON of them). Is slug/snail bait harmful to dogs? The dogs don't bother the slugs, but obviously the lizards like em.

 

Thanks,

 

Denise

[Tassie]

Hi Denise. Yes, slug/snail bait - at least the common ones sold here in Oz - are absolutely LETHAL to dogs - and also very attractive to them. I never use it, and I try to remember to check with any house where my dogs are visiting whether there is any snail bait down. I'm paranoically anxious about snail bait.

 

I have heard that cats eating lizards (in our case, mostly small skinks) are likely to be thin, and I guess that's maybe because they've picked up some worms.

 

My Kirra actually used to eat snails - she'd bring them in like a real trophy. Now I think about it, I haven't seen her do it lately.

 

The worms should be picked up by your routine all-wormer, shouldn't they?

[CindyH]

Hi Denise,

 

Barb is right about your typical slug baits being lethal to dogs, cats, etc. There are newer products out that aren't harmful though. A couple of brand names are 'Sluggo' and 'Escargo'. They are iron phosphate and harmless to the environment also. They break down into the soil and add a bit of nutrition. I've never used slug bait before, but use this with success. I have two cats that lay around in the gardens and probably roll in the stuff, with no ill effect.

[jvw]

My mom always used to put out saucers of beer as snail/slug bait. Might not be great for the dog but I've never heard of beer killing a dog either.

[anngreenthumb]

OCDBC- you live only a few minutes from me. I raise organic vegetables for a living. Where did you find the Sluggo and the Escargo around here? I can't use anything on my vegies, so I resign myself to loss of produce, plus I don't want loss of cats and dogs either.

[Oreo's mom]

My mom used the beer bait all the time. Once when my kids were little, I stopped at a nearby liquor store to buy her some cans of beer for the slugs.

 

My son said, quite loudly, "Are you buying MORE beer for grandma?"

 

You can also crush egg shells and sprinkle them where ever you have slugs. It's supposed to slice them up when they crawl over it.

[BigD]

Aloha all -

 

Thanks for the info. I seem to remember my own grandma using beer in her garden. I'm sure my dogs would love it too - run outside to their very own liquor store!

 

I will look into the Sluggo/Escargo bait. If I had an exact location of where the slimy things were, I'd try the egg shells, but alas - they are all over the back yard when it's damp...not in one spot.

 

As far as a general wormer - I use Interceptor which only takes care of hook, whip and round worms. When Buddy had his first tape worm episode I looked into non-perscription wormers on the web. I found a few articles that said OTC wormers don't work as well as perscription wormers, so don't waste the money.

 

If this continues, I'll probably post something along the lines of "What's a good OTC wormer?"

 

Thanks again!

 

Denise

[Tassie]

Just thought I'd save you posting that question Denise. Here in Oz - well, in Tasmania at least, the wormer of choice is Bayer's Drontal - claims: "Drontal allwormer for dogs is a broad spectrum dewormer that controls and removes all 11 gastrointestinal worms including tapeworms, hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms." Active ingredients are PRAZIQUANTEL, PYRANTEL & FEBANTEL. One reason it's used is that it picks up the hydatids tapeworm. Tasmania used to have a bad problem with hydatids - they think it's eradicated now, but still exists on the mainland, so incoming dogs have to be wormed with a hydatids specific wormer.

 

I'm sure there are lots of other OTC all wormers - there are a couple more here, and probably lots more in US.

 

On the slug/snail thing - I'd forgotten the beer trick - at least they'd die happy! I think sawdust on top of mulch around plants can also slow them down considerably.