Tape worm

When Lily arrived at the rescue she was riddled with fleas, so she was deflead and wormed with Drontal. This would have been about 5 weeks ago.
However Lily has intermittent runs and her appetite is up and down, often ravenous but then eats a bit an walks away. She is also quite bony and losing condition.
I have noticed rice like stuff in her poo but was putting it down to her food, until yesterday when I gave her a really thourough groom and found all these rice like bits stuck round her bottom and in the surrounding hair. Immeadietly I knew this was tapeworm, but wondered if they were old bits so cleaned them all off. Today she is covered again, so I am presuming she must still have them despite being wormed.
I have this last week been feeding her raw as she won't touch complete but that wouldn't have caused it would it?
Would it be safe to worm her again so soon? Is it normal after worming for them still to have a problem?
I have honestly never come across this before in any of my dogs, so not sure what to do.

I worm mine monthly with Drontal, Im pretty sure it is safe to do it montly

A heavily infested dog may need more regular worming to begin with, speak to your vet but many people in high risk areas worm their dogs monthly.

If you are feeding domestic farm animals, then the dog will not have worms from this as these are wormed etc regularly in any case.

Fleas are your main target.

Don't you just hate fleas, ticks and worms

As already advised, I would keep worming on a monthly basis until all trace of the tape worm has gone. For you to be able to see so much evidence probably indicates a very heavy infestation indeed, and this would also explain Lily's loss of weight and condition. You will get there in the end, once all the parasites have been sent packing.

Just a thought regarding yourself and any others in the house.........with so many worm segments dropping off onto the floor and who knows where, hygiene is going to have to be super important for a little while - unless you want to lose weight quickly that is!!

I do want to lose weight desperatly but not that way . I will be worming us too to make sure and be on the safe side.

By time you notice the segments the dog will have had them for a while I think. Not very common now, thank heaven.

I have wormed her again today so hopefully that will get rid of them once and for all.
I've never had a dog that has shown signs of worms before apart from very young pups when they get thier first dose of wormer as they always have roundworm.

I had the experience last year of only noticing immature tape worms in my dog's poo - no rice grains at all - possibly a different species of tape? Wormed immediately (lucky I always have something on hand just in case, and this WAS The Case!!!), the mother of all tapeworms was expelled (yuck beyond belief), and I flea treated, as well as worming & fleaing my cat at the same time. I now worm more often as we are in a more rural area.

All this talk of tapeworms has brought back a rather disgusting memory of my vet nurse days several decades ago.

The vet that I worked for loved keeping specimens in formaldehyde in order to illustrate points when talking to clients. We did a post mortem on a sheep once, and the cause of death was a monumental tape worm.

He asked me to get a long test tube, and we carefully wrapped this worm around the tube.........it went on and on and on. Eventually we ran out of tube and the worm broke.

I was sent off to put this tube and it's revolting burden into a jar for preservation.........I did do with one finger inserted into the open end of the tube. Bear in mind that the test tube was very very long, and I therefore was some time choosing a suitable container that was tall enough. I eventually located one, but at that very same moment felt something tickling my finger Yes. The wretched thing was actually moving, albeit very slowly. I have never moved so fast in my life............that test tube plus worm was in the bottle and covered with formaldehyde quicker than the blink of an eye!!!!

Worms............yeuch

I have not been able to eat any form of long pasta for several months.....