Author’s note: This post has affiliate links. If you click over to the Amazon from this site and purchase something, we might get a small commission. However, we only share items we ourselves uses.

True confession: I look at poop.  I look at my poop, and I look at my dog’s poop.  Thankfully, that’s where this obsession ends. I know, it’s gross, but how else can you tell if something just isn’t right?

WHAT is that white thing in my dog’s poop?

A couple of weeks back I noticed something white in Sampson’s poop.  The first time I noticed it, I thought it was rice. I didn’t think much of it, even though the dogs are on raw food, they sometimes do get people food, and they also tend to dismember toys, so it was possible Sampson had swallowed some rice or stuffing.

I filed it in the back of my mind, and continued on our walks.

A couple days later I noticed it again.

It was on a Friday evening walk, and Sampson had pooped on a plastic utility cover. I remember this because in all the snow we had, the poop made a thud, thud sound as it dropped. (Funny, the details you remember sometimes.)

As I bent to pick it up, I noticed the white thing again, and I knew he hadn’t had any rice, so I decided to take a closer look at it, and I saw it move.

So there I stood, feeling like Horton must have felt when he picked up that speck of dust, and heard that frickin’ Who.

Is it real, or have the voices in my head moved to my eyes?

Then, “Crap, you’ve got worms,” came out of my mouth.

Insert long drawn out EWWWW here. Because that is just gross.

I finished his walk, walked Delilah and then took a sample of each of their poops to the vet’s office.  FTR, I did not see anything unusual in Delilah’s stool, but I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry. When I dropped off the samples,  I told them what I saw, and asked them to test the samples for parasites.

The next morning the vet called and said both specimens were clean. I told her what I’d seen, and how the girls at the desk had assured me they would remove the item from Sampson’s poop and check it. Dr. Wang said she hadn’t personally examined the sample, but if I wanted to be safe, I could go ahead and treat the dogs for tapeworm, because IF Sampson had worms, that was more than likely the culprit.

How do you know what kind of worm it is?

Tapeworms and round worms are typically the only worm you can see with the naked eye. (File this away in things you never really wanted to know.) Because of my description (a grain of rice…actually it looked more like Orzo to me, but I’m not going to quibble) it was assumed IF Sampson had worm(s), it would be Tapeworm.

This is how I understand it. The Tapeworm attaches itself to the pet’s intestinal wall. The tapeworm starts growing as it’s stealing your pet’s nutrients. As it grows, it sort of looks like a brick walk, there is the head and then little segments. When the worm reaches a certain length (most tape worms are between four to six inches long) it begins shedding segments. That is the white bit you will see in your pet’s poops.

Roundworm is not segmented, it’s smoother and typically you will see it in your pet’s poops or vomit. It is typically two to four inches long.

How Does My Dog Get Tapeworm?

This is where it gets really dicey. Your dog can only get tapeworm from a flea/flea egg. Apparently, fleas love tapeworm eggs.

Shrug….Who knew? (I guess everyone/thing has their place on the food chain.)

Sampson had to have either eaten a flea, or eaten a flea egg.

But I have no evidence of fleas, nor have I seen the dogs scratching. Dr. Wang said sometimes the egg can be dormant in a dog, so it’s possible Sampson was exposed to it some time ago and it was just showing up now.

Two of my daughter’s cats have had fleas not too long ago, and it’s possible one of them brought a flea over, or Sampson who likes to lie in the dirt got a flea on him, and just ate it when he was scratching himself.

I was hesitant to treat the dogs for something if they didn’t really have it. So I asked her if they physically examined the thing I saw, and she didn’t know.

Since I like to be absolutely certain before treating my dogs for ANYTHING, I told her I’d much rather try and isolate the um…er…’specimen’ myself and bring it back in.

Dr. Wang said she would hunt down Sampson’s specimen (if they still had it,) and examine it herself.

After I hung up with Dr. Wang, my phone rang almost immediately, and it was Emily who is one of the vet techs at our practice, and she is also our dog walker for those times when I’m not around, and she absolutely adores Sampson.

Emily explained that she had examined the samples herself, and had really dug into it, and could find nothing in there that resembled a worm. She did find some hard white things, but they were not worms. (They turned out to be something in one of his supplements, but not worms!)

The next words out of my mouth were, “But Emily, it WAVED at me.”

I saw it move, and I’m not exaggerating. I. Saw. It. Move.

However, with no verification from the vet, I wasn’t inclined to treat the dogs.

STILL  I was determined to isolate what I’d seen.

I set out to catch me a culprit. I picked up a cuticle trimmer at my grocery store for $1.59. I wanted something I could use to dig in poop, but wouldn’t feel badly about tossing away. Since it was late Saturday morning, and the dogs had already had their morning walks, and the vet’s office was closing at 1:00, I knew I wouldn’t have a sample until Monday evening at the earliest.

Monday evening I grabbed a small snack bag, extra poop bags, and my cuticle trimmer and took Sampson for his walk.

Sure enough, I saw something similar in size to a grain of rice.  Thankfully, Sampson had chosen to walk in the park, so I dropped right down and using the cuticle trimmer, I picked two of those things out of his poop, (can you imagine if someone had seen me) and put them in the snack bag. Ugh. It was so disgusting, and it’s like a friggin’ train wreck, you know shit’s about to get real, you know it’s awful, but you just can’t stop looking. ALL THE WAY HOME. Like those little fuckers were going to have an epiphany and suddenly scream, “We’re sorry, we’ll stop now.”

SIGH

I didn’t want to bring the bag in the house, or leave it in the car while I walked Delilah, but it was kind of windy out, so I couldn’t just toss it next to the car. I mean, it’s just not acceptable having your dog’s poopy worms slapping someone upside the head. You may WANT to, but it’s not acceptable, at least not where I live.

I debated what to do as I needed somewhere to store them, where they wouldn’t blow away.

I thought about the gas tank cover on my car. You know, just opening it up and putting the top of the baggie in there, but decided that wouldn’t work, so instead I stuck it under a windshield wiper, where it could flap all it wanted, but not get anywhere. I mean, it wasn’t like I was going FORGET it was there, this had been weighing on my mind since Friday night, when that little pecker waved at me.

I thought to myself, you want to wave? Wave from my windshield, bitch. I told myself it was sort of like the ‘worms’ were waving the white flag of surrender.

You’re going down, worm.

My dog has tapeworm

A short time after I dropped it off, Dr. B. called to say, Sampson had tapeworm, and it was only from a flea, and while I might not have a flea problem NOW, I could be in deep trouble when the warmer weather hits.

“But he doesn’t have fleas,” I told Dr. B., “They sleep with me, I’d know if they had fleas.”

I wanted to be sure of my convictions though, so I took my flea comb and starting at the base of Sampson’s neck, I combed him all the way to the thick fur at the base of his tail. Then I checked the furs that came out of the comb for flea residue (if you’re looking you will see some brownish/grayish residue in the furs, that is flea poop. Yes, I know, it’s also disgusting.) Also, I found nothing.

It was recommended to treat both Sampson and Delilah with Vibrantel. I picked it up Tuesday night, and after conferring with Dr. Soutter, to insure it 1) wasn’t harmful to the dogs (or the issues they have like elevated liver, heart murmurs, adrenal masses, etc.) and 2) wouldn’t interfere with any of the meds/supplements they were taking, I was comfortable treating the dogs.

I was told to make sure they got their pills with food, so I threw them on their dinner. The pills were large, but chewable and both dogs took them without hesitation.

Is there a natural way to get fleas out of your house?

Since that time, I haven’t seen anything gross in either one of their poops. To be on the safe side though, I did the Google on how to eliminate fleas naturally. It is recommended to wash all bedding, or hot dryer for 20 minutes. You should also vacuum anything that can’t be washed, and you can also sprinkle baking soda on your rug, and using a broom push it into your carpet, let it sit for about 1/2 and then vacuum it up. The baking soda dehydrates the fleas and kills fleas and eggs.

Two important points:

1. Empty the vacuum as soon as you are done, put it in a plastic bag and bin it outside.
2. Watch your pets around the baking soda. Ingesting baking soda can be hazardous to your pets.

For other ways to treat your home naturally for fleas, click HERE.

Looking for more information on intestinal parasites? Check HERE.

Disclaimer, I am not a vet, nor do I play one on TV. I am sharing my experience with Tapeworm and how we and our vet treated it. If you suspect your pet has worms, please consult a licensed veterinarian.