[happygolucky]

Watched a programme about puppy farming and it was horrid, but it raised a question, in the wild, no one worms animals, so how do they survive full of worms or do they do something such as eat vegitation!!

[Bodger]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1304091/Toddler-lose-eye-catching-infection-dog-mess-park.html

[lachlanandmarcus]

Watched a programme about puppy farming and it was horrid, but it raised a question, in the wild, no one worms animals, so how do they survive full of worms or do they do something such as eat vegitation!!

Wild animals roam over large areas, over land also used by other species which mop up each others worms and can choose their diet to an extent. Pets have none of those characteristics in their lives. However it may also be the case that wild or semi wild animals do die of worm infestation, certainly the ex moors are gathered and wormed once a year and a friend who bought a well bred welsh cob youngster who had been brought up on the open mountain lost him after 2 years to complications of chronic worm damage.

[xnbacon]

Don't know about where the little girl lives, but in London its just as likely to be fox poo.  Schools are covered in it (ok, slight exaggeration) but no dogs allowed or in fact do enter.  Also seems to be the done thing to feed the wretched things (foxes!) rather than control them.

[jaykay]

Because we'd rather our domestic animals and pets didn't die at the rate of animals in the wild, because we keep them in more intensive conditions and because we'd rather not pick up avoidable zoonoses from them.

[happygolucky]

  I understand why we do worm them but just wondered how wild animals manage, I suppose, years ago, most  humans were also infested with fleas and worms.......

[Lesley Silvester]

Thanks, Sandy. I'm itching now.

[happygolucky]

  so am I

[Dans]

Humans are still infested with fleas and worms in developing countries. They get by, they are weaker, they are more likely to fall in from other things. Life span is shorter and harder. We love our pets so we take as many of the 'burdens' of living wild off of them, striving for shelter, having territory of their own, having to hunt for food and water and dealing with parasite burden.

Dans

[john and helen]

Worms!!!! not nice, many many many years ago when i was one of those teenage things..i went hitch hiking around Europe, pinching the odd bit of veg or fruit as i passed the fields.... on my return, i started to loose a bit of weight and eat like there was no tomorrow....a bit like your average teenager but twice as much... one day without getting into to much detail...i saw something wriggling in the toilet pan.... i knew it wasn't normal so fished it out .... no!!! not with bare hands...  or was it ! anyway... i put it in a small bottle and took it to the Doctors...

"you have a Tape worm John" ...... "Have"....."yep! " "you have about another 2ft inside you" 

anyway, he gave me a prescription , and low and behold, it was like a milk shake... not long after i started passing this bloody horrible worm...i can honestly say, not a nice feeling. but glad to have gotten rid of him...

i did name him.... Percy 

[happygolucky]

Not nice for Percy to evict him from his comfy home though
When I worked in an  upper school I loved to look in the Laboratories at the bottled tape and round worms...nasty little things...to think they use to sell tape worm eggs to help people diet...Yuck 

[john and helen]

I never knew that..i can say it worked...and as for Percy..he eat himself out of house and home 

[happygolucky]

My mum worked as a psychiatric nurse and a treatment in the old days for tape worm was.........starve the patient but give them a chunk of meat to swallow tied to some strong thread, then slowly pull it up, a little each day, in the end its pulled out of the mouth as its still attached to the meat........

[sabrina]

Are you lot trying to give me nightmares !!

[Bodger]

I never knew that..i can say it worked...and as for Percy..he eat himself out of house and home 

Surely you mean arse and home