Vet issues fatal warning for dog owners to look out for this summer
A vet has issued a stark warning for things dog owners need to look out for in the upcoming months.
On a recent episode of ITV's This Morning, Dr Scott Miller explained to co-hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary that there are some dangers your dog may face as the heat ramps up this summer.
The Brisbane-born vet, 47, first warned of a parasite - called Lungworm - that can badly infect pets.
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It can cause fatal damage to their lungs and other major organs, the vet said.
"Lungworm is spread with an intermediate host of slugs and snails, and during the summer months it increases because the amount of slugs and snails increase," Dr Miller explained.
"Now they don't even have to eat them, although puppies eat them all the time, but even if they slither over a ball they have outside or even a blade of grass that they swallow, this parasite gets into their system.
"Once swallowed it goes into the gastrointestinal tract, into the bloodstream, then goes around, pops out into the lungs, then goes around gets swallowed and goes into the poo again and during that life cycle of course there is a lot of damage done, particular to the lungs."
A key warning sign that pet owners need to look out for is when dogs 'start coughing'.
"What we see with dogs is then they start coughing, but you can imagine they have an adult worm that's breaking its way out like an alien, it can cause a huge amount of damage," he said.
Although Dr Miller admitted that 'there are some treatments', he stressed that prevention is better than the cure.
He added that there are 'monthly chewable tablets' dogs can munch on to prevent such things from happening.
As the weather heats up ever so slightly in the UK, Dr Scott also warned that getting stung by a wasp or a bee is not what you want for your pooch.
Providing a couple of solutions, he said: "You really want to try and flick the poison sacks because if you try to grab to pull it out you are actually squeezing the poison into your dog further.
"Cold compresses are the way to go and an old wives tale that works actually is Bicarbonate soda for bees and vinegar for wasps."
Another thing to look out for is letting your dog swim in green algae infested waters.
"It looks like pea soup but actually it's produced by a bacteria called cyanobacteria and it's incredibly toxic," he explained.
"Some people allow their dogs to swim in it and they die every year, these dogs ingest some of it while swimming, it can have a major impact of their liver, they can have seizures and they can die.
"If you see something that looks anything like that not only should you not let your dogs go near it but your kids shouldn't go near it either because it is toxic to humans as well."
Anish Vij