The new puppy, now named Merlin, is keeping things busy around here. (Note to self: avoid getting a new puppy during miserable weather.  Standing in pouring, driving rain at 4 AM is not fun. Okay, enough whining.)

Yesterday, I wrote about the new puppy’s deworming plan. One thing I forgot to mention was the rest of the "herd." By that, I mean Meg, our 11-year-old Lab. Herd health gets a lot of attention in food animals and to a lesser degree in horses, but many concepts remain important for pets. Specifically, when you introduce a new member into the herd, you might change disease risks or required preventive measures for other members of the herd.

Meg lives a pretty cat-like existence. She sleeps, eats, walks far enough to go outside to pee and, well, that’s about it. As an older dog who has very rare contact with other dogs, her risk of exposure to many microorganisms, such as parasites, is limited. However, since we brought a new little furry vector into the house, Meg might be exposed to some things that haven’t been much of a concern in the past. Her habit of eating whatever she can find (including poop), increases that risk further. So, what’s the herd health plan?

It’s not too detailed, actually.

• One thing is making sure that we deworm Meg and we don’t just focus on the puppy. She might be exposed to anything the puppy is/was shedding. We’re usually pretty lax on deworming her in the winter months, but she’ll get a couple of doses of dewormer alongside the puppy. 
• Poop removal. Since Meg’s a notorious poop-eater, we’ll want to remove Merlin’s waste promptly. That’s pretty straightforward. If she can’t find it, she can’t eat it. It’s also important to make sure that old feces aren’t left around, because some parasites require time in the environment to become infectious, so regular feces removal prevents accumulation of infective forms of some. The current temperature is at the lower limit of where Toxocara eggs are able to develop into infectious larvae, and the risk will probably be pretty minimal as the temperature drops over the next few days, but it’s not hard to make sure the yard gets cleaned up.
• If we find something in the puppy, then we’ll have to consider whether Meg might be exposed or at risk too, and decide whether she needs to be tested or treated.

The other aspect of the herd is the non-canine component of the household (i.e. the kids). The key points for that, in terms of zoonotic parasites, are cleaning up feces from the yard, avoiding fecal contact, hand washing, treating the dogs appropriately to reduce parasite shedding and other basic feces-avoidance measures.