The night my heart dropped... #petchat

I had a "parenting moment" one night several months ago. Yes, parenting...to my fur babies. Baby Pom had been scooting...you know, dragging his bottom along the floor. It was adorable and I didn't think much of it except that it was ridiculously cute, especially since he had that goofy smile the whole time too! Then it continued happening and it bothered me. So I had looked it up and had learnt that most of the time, it's due to impaction of the anal glands and that the glands needed to expressed. This is not for those with weak stomachs. However, it could also be due to worms. God, I hoped that wasn't the case.

So yes, I you-tubed how to express anal sacs, watched multiple videos, got everything ready and then set him up for it. Mind you, this was already 2AM when I was doing this. When I was all set up, I took a peek and thought to myself, "Am I really going to express his anal sacs? Seriously?!" Then my heart dropped as I thought, "Oh sh*t! Tell me I didn't see what I just thought I saw." A wriggling thin strip writhing it's way out of Baby Pom's bottom. It was a proglottid...a segment of a tapeworm that was shed containing thousands of eggs. Great...my baby had worms and it just had to be the typical tapeworm, judging from what I had just seen. It made no sense, I thought. What happened!? Since I have had him, he has never had any ticks or fleas. We put monthly preventatives on both JR and Baby Pom. I grew increasingly upset as I realized that probably meant JR may have worms as well. Then began the calls to the emergency vet. I didn't know how long the worms were there or why they chose to finally manifest themselves at that time. I couldn't sleep that night. I was worried sick about how long the worms had been there, how I could clean my home to get rid of any eggs laying around, and most of all, how I could get them healthy again. The weird thing is my babies never showed any signs of illness, which was probably a good thing.

The worst part about this whole story is where he got the worms from. It was before I even got him. When I got him, he was already "healthy" and flea-free. However, it would appear that prior to that, he might have had fleas as a pup, wherever he was raised and he probably accidentally swallowed one during that time. Sure, they dewormed him before I got him. Where was the problem then? The problem lay in what they used to deworm him. The dewormer used does NOT take care of the common tapeworm. So, it had been hiding in him all along. 36 hours later, I was exhausted but happy. I was lucky that all they needed was a dewormer tablet and everything went back to normal. By the way, before you freak, tapeworms cannot be transmitted dog to dog or dog to humans unless there is a flea intermediate host. The dogs have to ingest a flea that's carrying tapeworm eggs in order to develop the tapeworm. So, it really can't be passed on unlike some other parasites.

Ever since then, I've been more vigilant in doing the monthly tick and flea preventative treatments. Pet Armor is one of these tick and flea monthly treatments, trusted by vet Dr. Karen Halligan. Pet Armor is the approved generic equivalent of Frontline meaning that it consists of the same ingredients but is cheaper on the wallet. If there's no fleas, there's no chance of the babies swallowing a flea and getting worms again. It serves to kill existing fleas, tick and lice and prevent new ones. My babies currently don't have fleas or ticks so I can't tell you how well it works to kill them. However, if it helps to prevent any new infestations, I'm happy.

Buy It: Shop online or in stores for Pet Armor products. Get $5 off any 2 packages with this coupon. Get educational materials at Petvocate.

Disclaimer: The product/s mentioned above have been provided for the purposes of this review. No other form of compensation was received. Opinions expressed belong to Whirlwind of Surprises and are NOT influenced in any way. Please view my full disclosure, TOS, and privacy policy. Please take the time to enter my other giveaways while you're here.

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