My dog Madeline

Question
Madeline is 10 yrs old and has some kind of worms; my husband says that they are hook worms and we have treated her 3 times with over the counter medicine to no avail.
Early this morning I noticed that she has white pee and I am not sure what over the counter medicine I can get for her.

Can you please help us??

Thank you for you time and trouble.

Answer
Hi Diana-

At this point, I would suggest you visit the vet for a more powerful dewormer. At the very least, Panacur, which is available without an RX but through a vet, is available to you, but I would prefer Drontal in your case. Are you sure they are hook worms, and not tape worms? Tape worms look like small grains of rice, and are notoriously difficult to get rid of, and nearly impossible with over the counter medication. The only medication that works on tape worms is Drontal.

I do not understand what you mean by white urine- do you mean that her actual stream is white? Clear would be extremely diluted urine, perhaps because she is drinking a lot of water. It could also mean that she is having kidney problems which is not allowing her body to concentrate urine. But if you mean her urine is bright white, I've never seen or heard anything like that. Excessively cloudy urine, which usually is caused by white blood cells shedding into the urine, would still have an amber yellow tint, but would be very cloudy, but certainly not "white".

I would take her in for a urinalysis either way. If you are going in to the vets for wormer, you might as well have them do a urinalysis, so that they can prescribe something for her if there is a problem. With a dog her age, its important now to start watching for signs of aging, and regular 6 month vet visits are very important.

Also, for the record, there are very few over the counter medications that work for animals. When in doubt, its best to call your vet.

I hope Madeline feels better!