Puppy & Kitten Deworming Schedule in the Philippines (2026) — When, How Often, and What It Costs

Every litter of puppies we've ever helped a friend raise in the Philippines had the same unglamorous first health problem: worms.

It's not a sign of a dirty home or a bad breeder. Puppies and kittens are very often born with worms — larvae pass from the mother before they're even born, or through her milk. In a tropical country with year-round warmth, worms thrive, and a pot-bellied puppy with a dull coat and loose stool is one of the most common sights in any Filipino vet's waiting room.

The good news: deworming is cheap, simple, and one of the highest-impact things you can do for a young pet. The catch is that timing and repetition matter more than most first-time owners realize. So here's the actual deworming schedule that works in the Philippines in 2026 — for both puppies and kittens — with real costs and the part about your family's health that too few people mention.

This is one piece of a healthy start; the others are vaccinations and parasite (tick and flea) prevention, and they all come together at your pet's first vet visit.

Why deworming is a repeated cycle, not a one-time fix

Here's the thing that trips people up: a single dewormer only kills the worms present that day. It does nothing to eggs that haven't hatched yet, or to a fresh reinfection next week.

That's why deworming a young animal is a cycle, timed to catch each new wave of worms as it matures — you repeat the dose every couple of weeks so that each batch is killed before it can lay a new generation of eggs. Skip the repeats and the worms simply bounce back.

The common worms we're targeting in the Philippines are roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and tapeworms — the first three especially in puppies and kittens.

The deworming schedule

Here's the schedule most Philippine vets and welfare groups follow:

A few PH-specific notes:

• PAWS Philippines recommends deworming puppies starting at 2 weeks old, with vaccinations beginning at 8 weeks — the two run side by side.
• Deworming and vaccination are not the same thing, and one doesn't replace the other. A puppy heavy with worms shouldn't be vaccinated until it's dewormed and stable, because a body busy fighting a worm burden won't respond well to a vaccine.
• Pregnant and nursing mothers should be dewormed too, under vet guidance — it's the single best way to reduce what the litter is born with.
• Adults who roam or scavenge — very common for community dogs and free-roaming cats — sit firmly at the every-1-to-3-months end.

What it costs in the Philippines

This is the rare pet expense that's genuinely cheap:

• The dewormer itself: usually only tens to a couple hundred pesos per dose, depending on the product and your pet's weight. Common puppy dewormers like Drontal are widely available at pet stores and pharmacies.
• At a clinic with a consult: the visit is typically ₱300 to ₱500 (a Pet Express consult runs around ₱500), on top of the dewormer.

Most experienced owners get the first dose and the correct weight-based dosing from a vet, then continue at home once they know exactly how much to give.

🐾 A word of caution: get the dose right. Dewormers are dosed by body weight, and a puppy's weight changes fast. Underdosing does nothing; overdosing can harm a tiny animal. Never use a human dewormer on a pet, and re-weigh a growing puppy before each dose.

The part nobody mentions: it protects your family too

Here's the reason deworming matters beyond your pet's comfort. Several of these worms are zoonotic — they can infect people. Roundworm and hookworm larvae from dog and cat feces can be picked up by humans, and children are most at risk because they play on the floor and in the yard and put their hands in their mouths.

In a Filipino household — often multi-generational, frequently with young kids and a garden or a street the dog uses — keeping your pets on a proper deworming schedule is a form of family health, not just pet care. It's a small, cheap habit that quietly protects the whole household.

How to actually remember it

The reason deworming fails is almost never money or access — it's memory. The every-two-weeks puppy cycle is exactly the kind of thing that slips when life gets busy, and a missed repeat lets the worms rebound.

This is one of the things we built Pawdex to handle. You can log each deworming — date, product, next-due — in your pet's free digital passport, right alongside the vaccination record, so the whole health history for your puppy or kitten lives in one place instead of on scattered receipts. On the Pro plan, Pawdex also sends reminders before a due date, which is exactly what catches the next deworming before it's overdue rather than after.

Keep the cycle, get the dose right, and deworming becomes a non-event — which, for something this common in the Philippines, is exactly what you want.

If you're just starting out with a new puppy or kitten, read the first vet visit guide next — it ties deworming, vaccinations, and microchipping into one plan for the first few months.

Sources:

• Deworming + Vaccination — The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
• Drontal Puppy Dewormer — Pet Warehouse Philippines
• Veterinary services & consult fees — Pet Express Philippines