Parasite Control:

TAPEWORMS
ROUND AND WHIP WORMS
HEARTWORMS

Generally, make the environment unhealthy for the worms. Constitutional homeopathic treatment, Chinese medicine, great diet, garlic, bran & pumpkinseed will all help. You may need to work with a holistic veterinarian to improve the energetic health so parasites do not like your animal. Call 866-4-VET NOW for help finding a holistic one near you. They may recommend using conventional dewormers.

TAPE WORMS

Conventional treatment often makes animals more ill, so it is best to first try one or more of the following treatments. Tapeworms rarely harm the animal and are not transmissible to people.

Dr. Pitcairn:

Zymex II (Standard Process)	1 caps/day (under 20#)	1cap twice a day (over 20# )
Wheat Germ Perles	1 perle/day	1 perle twice a day
Ground pumpkin seed	1/4 teasp twice daily	1 teaspoon twice a day
Use coffee grinder for seeds and then keep in freezer.
Give all mixed with meals (puncture caps) for 1 month.
90% are clear after 1 month.

Dr. Loops:

Homeopathic remedy Granatum low potency (6x or 6c) QID x 5 days. May still see segments for 1 month, but do not repeat. Do not do while on other homeopathic treatment.

Other herbal treatments are listed in the various healthy animal books.

ROUND AND WHIP WORMS

Chinese Herbal: Fast 12 hrs before tx and 6 hours after.
	Cats: 2 caps (9-13#), 1 caps for smaller, 3 for bigger.
	Dogs: 1 caps per 10#. Repeat in 3 weeks.
Give Diatomaceous Earth supplement daily in food between treatments.
	Cats: 1 tsp, 1/2 tsp for smaller and 1 1/2 for bigger.
	Dogs: > 15# = 1 tsp, 15-40# = 2 tsp, < 40# = 1 tablespoon.
And give Garlic to food daily along with diatomaceous earth.
	Cats: 1/2 clove, + or -. Or one caps. Kyolic.
	Dogs: >15# - 1/2 clove, 15-40# - 1 clove, < 40#

Para-2-L, available from Good Herbs (800-466-0095) can be effective against any parasite, even heartworms.

HEARTWORMS

There is a lot of controversy about heartworm preventative. The drugs adversely affect many dogs Any symptoms can become worse. I do not recommend giving Nux vomica routinely after the preventative (no homeopathic remedies should be given routinely).

Over the years at conferences, various veterinarians have reported problems with any of the preventatives. Most feel has the fewest problems is the once a day, DEC, but many dogs do fine on the monthly ones as well. Observing your dog will give you clues that you need to try one of the other preventatives or use none at all. The fewer drugs the better, so use ones just for heartworms, not other worms.

When giving the preventative, daily or monthly, give it less frequently that recommended. The Daily can be safely given every other day and the Monthly given every 6-8 weeks. In the Maryland area I would blood test in May or June and stop by October. Stopping for at least 3 - 5 months each year will let you evaluate any impact the preventative is having on the animal. It is important is to treat these as serious drugs, watch very carefully for side effects, even subtle ones, and then switch to another kind or treat the dog constitutionally.

There is a heartworm nosode, but we do not have sufficient information to tell if it is really protective. I sometimes use it when people are not going to use any preventative.

Theoretically, a healthy dog could become infected, have a few adult worms in the heart and baby heartworms in the bloodstream, yet not be ill from the infection at all. A healthy body should tolerate a low level of parasites. Therefore, some clients choose to use no preventative and I support them in that choice and recommend blood tests twice a year. They are also treating their dogs holistically in other ways and being careful in high mosquito season to stay in or use repellent. There are alternative treatments for adult heartworms that are 75% effective, but the dog's heart could still be stressed by getting them, so prevention is probably the best bet, unless the dog shows any negative side effects, even subtle.