Worms can last for as long as your dog has them, so they can be in there for years.

Worms are very common in dogs. They're more common in puppies, but we do see them in dogs of any age.

Most of the time, worms are not visible in the stool. They're microscopic eggs that we have to see under a microscope. However, in some cases, such as tapeworms, they'll come out looking like little grains of rice that are moving around.

Worms aren't painful to the dog, but they can cause them to be a little bit more uncomfortable.

Typically, dogs get worms through fecal oral transmission. This means that they either step in feces and then lick their paw, or sometimes they eat other dog's poop. In some cases such as tapeworms, they get worms by eating a flea.

Most of the time, nothing noticeable occurs. You might see a little bit of diarrhea as the worms are dying off and you may see a few of them dead coming out but other than that, you shouldn't see any other issues.

It depends. If they're on a heartworm preventative, a lot of times they already have the medication on board but if we're seeing them as puppies or brand new dogs, a lot of times we do have to start the deworming process beforehand.

We usually prefer to send home medication, so yes, you can deworm your dog at home but we typically use prescribed medications for you.

The medication used depends on the type of worm. Sometimes we'll use Pyrantel, sometimes Fenbendazole, sometimes Proziquantel. Depending on if they're resistant, there might be some other medications we have to use.

We test dogs for worms by using a fecal sample and we usually ask the pet owner to bring one in ahead of time.