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My dog still has worms after two deworming pills. What's next?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Border Collie | Female | spayed | 4 years and 4 months old

Can a dog still have worms after giving them 2 doses of pills not even a week apart?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Destini R. Holloway, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on February 28th, 2016

Yes she sure can. It can take up to 1 week to rid the first round of worms in her system. Then as the worms in her system go through their 2 week life cycle (from baby worms to adult worms that you see in the poop) they should be treated again as a re-emergence of worms is seen. So the deworming schedule that I follow to ensure all worms (baby's and adults) are gone is as follows: 1) Deworm today 2) Deworm again in 3 days 3) Deworm again in 2 weeks But technically and most of the time you can get away with just doing #'s 1, and 3. Hope this helps!

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on August 28th, 2019

    Due to the life cycle of worms, it takes at least two deworming treatments given two weeks apart to kill all the worms. The first treatment kills the adults present while the second treats the worms that had no yet hatched from eggs during the first treatment. I would give Marshall a deworming treatment now, then another in two weeks. That should hopefully kill all the worms.

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