Many people do not realize that puppies should be given a puppy wormer starting at 2 weeks of age.
The reason that worming puppies start so young, is because puppy worms are actually passed by the mother to her litter during pregnancy and nursing.
If your dog had worms when she was a puppy herself, she will pass them onto her litter even if she is shown to be free of worms when she is bred!
It seems that the worms in her system lay dormant until pregnancy and nursing and then they become re-activated to start the vicious cycle all over again.
These parasites can be extremely hard to get rid of if you wait too long to treat them.
Even putting off treatment for just a week or two, will cause the pups trouble and they will have a longer battle of dealing with and getting rid of worms.
The proper newborn worming schedule is at 2, 3, 4, and 6 weeks of age and every 2 weeks after that until the pups are 10 to 12 weeks old.
Usually by this time, they will then be on a monthly heartworm preventative, which will kill most types of dog worms along with it.
Do not just put the medicine into the dog dish and try to worm them all at once. This is dangerous as some pups will get too much medicine and others will not get enough.
There are 2 good brands that I use.
One is Nemex 2 and the other is ProWormer-2 which is a product made by Drs. Foster and Smith, a company that I have used for many years now.
Both of these products are safe and effective and I have never had any adverse side effects on my puppies from using either one.
If the momma is not on a monthly heartworm preventative, which also kills other worms, then she will need to be treated for worms at the same time that her puppies are.
If she is on a monthly preventative, then I do not give her any additional worming medications.