MANY pet owners will be aware of the need to worm their pets on a regular basis because of the risk of round worms and tape worms.

Both round worms and tape worms can cause serious debilitating effects to their animal host but are also a serious health hazard to humans, particularly small children.

Traditional recommendation for worming pets such as every six months or so have now been superseded by a much more tailored approach which looks at the individual pet:owner circumstances and the associated potential risks.

Health professionals now recommend a minimum worming frequency of every three months for households with either very young children or elderly debilitated adults. In many cases with either multipet households or where cats are prolific hunters, this worming interval should be brought down to monthly.

All of us can remember July last year and the misery that the wet weather brought to the region and the UK as a whole. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the wet weather also brought dangers from most unexpected quarters.

Angiostrongylus vasorum ("lungworm") is a parasite that lives in the tissue and blood vessels on the lungs. Baby worm larvae are coughed up by the infected animal, swallowed in sputum and shed in faeces. These worm larvae are ingested by slugs and snails, the intermediate host, where they undergo development to an infectious stage. The slugs and snails may be ingested directly by pets, or by small rodents that have eaten slugs/snails which are then eaten by a cat or dog. The very wet weather last July lead to large numbers of slugs and snails and as a consequence unprecedented numbers of lungworm infections.

As well as causing damage to lung tissues and blocking blood vessels in and around the lungs and heart, lung worms also interfere with blood clotting. Very often the affected animal will first present with signs of bruising or bleeding rather than signs attributable to lung disease such as a cough.

Whilst if caught early enough, lungworm is treatable. However many pets are diagnosed too late and die from lungworm infection.

The pre-patent period (time from an animal becoming infected to adult worms being present) is only six to seven weeks under optimum conditions. With this in mind current worming recommendations are that pets are wormed at least every eight weeks in the summer months.

When choosing a worming preparation to use, please ensure that it is effective against lungworm. There is considerable variation, especially with some over the counter' wormers found in retail outlets.

Some veterinary practices offer a free screening process at time of vaccination for worm infections. Ask your practice for more details.

Jon Slattery