Warning: Poop and Worms Ahead

As most probably know, in real life I am a professor at the University of Montana. But Life with Dogs is also my real life, and there is much overlap. Next month, for example, a chapter I co-authored will be published in a book about college students and dogs.

Harper B for Bethany — when Bethany was one of my students and not my daughter-in-law; hanging out in my office is how she met my son. CUTE!

In one of my classes (via Zoom) I educate students about the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs); my knowledge of what bad experiences do to the developing brain informs how I raise puppies. I also know what an adult considers an unfortunate experience is insignificant — what matters is how the puppy (or child) perceives an experience.

Did you know that one way baby lab rats are stressed in experiments is simply restraint? Consider how many trainers have taught people to restrain their puppies until the puppy stops struggling. That restraint can result in a puppy brain being flooded with stress hormones — not cool. When we know better, we do better.

Note — no claws (they are trimmed anyway) and Ariel initiated the play.

The job of a human raising puppies is to know, learn, and assess constantly. When you are a professor raising puppies you add to that: Be a thoughtful skeptic and do your own research. Life with Dogs is filled with crazy ideas, recommendations, suggestions, and misinformation.

And to be clear — some of those ill-informed ideas are from professionals. Remember — professionals are just human beings, and that means they are wonderful, well-intentioned, and imperfect.

The imperfection of humans is why the best care — medical and veterinary — happens when we use a team approach.

I wrote last June about worming puppies, and this post is based on the literature review I did at that time.

Some will tell you, “all puppies have worms” and so routine worming of very young puppies is done.

The professional literature does not support the idea that all puppies have worms. SOME puppies are born with worms and last I checked, some does not equal all.

SOME Bright Stars does not equal ALL Bright Stars

Why would I give wormer to puppies who do not need it?! That makes no sense to me.

So, my vet and I worked out a plan. We do stool samples on the mom when the puppies are about four weeks old. If there is any evidence mom has worms, the puppies get wormed.

If there is no evidence of worms in the mom, the puppies are not wormed and we plan/do follow-up stool samples on puppies at 7 - 8 weeks.

Moonshadows watching the Bright Star channel

There are two ways to check stool samples — veterinary clinics can do an in-house test, and samples can also be sent off to an outside lab. I like validated results — our samples are processed both by the veterinary clinic and the outside lab.

None of this seems like rocket science to me but yes, when the puppies head off to new homes there will be veterinarians who will be put off by this blasphemy and tell the new owners, “All puppies have worms” and imply that I am a terrible breeder — clearly a Montana puppy mill. #truestory

Bright Star Zaniah balancing at our Montana Puppy Mill, located in our home and run by a person with a UC Berkeley Ph.D. (insert eye roll) — Bright Star Zaniah balancing at our Montana Puppy Mill, located in our home and run by a person with a UC Berkeley Ph.D. (**insert eye roll**)

My response is to get a better-educated (or at least more curious and open-minded) veterinarian — it is THEIR professional literature that contradicts the assertion that all puppies have worms, after all.

And again — this process was guided by our veterinarian, who is very experienced and wicked smart, and the professional veterinary literature; I am not going rogue on this stuff.

Claire’s stool sample, processed in two ways, showed no evidence of internal parasites; her puppies will not, therefore, be burdened by a medication they do not need.

If a veterinarian were to say — and some likely will — that clear stool samples do not matter and all puppies have worms, one could reasonably respond: Why, then, do you ever conduct and charge for stool sample testing (for internal parasites) if the results cannot be trusted?

Riddle me that, Batman.

Life with Dogs allows us to practice important skills in teaming, critical thinking, and advocacy that I promise will come in handy in other life situations.

And that concludes our conversation about poop and worms — please continue with your meal now and have a grand day.