There is no a ‘worm’ under your dog’s tongue

FOR many years there has been a belief in some cultures that there is a ‘worm’ that lives underneath the tongue of dogs.

It is believed that if this ‘worm’ is cut out the dog will grow strong, get better if it is sick, put on weight if it is thin and be a good hunter.

But is there a ‘worm’ underneath the dog’s tongue? No.

Kira Sparrow, the manager of Kempton Park SPCA, says the society has not come across this practice but had several queries about it.

The ‘worm’ story is not true and is an old myth – and it is the time that we stop hurting dogs by cutting their tongues unnecessarily, the National Council of SCPAs (NSPCA) says.

So what is under the tongue?

The ‘worm’ is, in fact, a band of tissue called a frenulum (pronounced fren–yuh–lum) that lies directly under the tongue to hold the tongue down.

People also have this piece of tissue under their tongues but it is not as well developed as in dogs. If you lift up your tongue it is very easy to feel this band of tissue with your finger.

The dog’s tongue is like a long muscle and is one of the most important parts of its body. Besides eating food and drinking water and responding to touch and pain, the tongue acts like a long fan to cool the dog down.

When dogs exercise, their tongues become larger and due to the extra blood flow, the tongue usually hangs out of the mouth.

So, when a dog pants, it is actually cooling down its entire body. The dog’s quick shallow breaths cause moisture on the tongue to evaporate, cooling the tongue which in turn cools the blood flow through the tongue and the respiratory system.

Providing your dog with cool air on hot or humid days is very important to help control the dog’s temperature.

This is why it is so dangerous to leave a dog in a closed car in warm or hot weather. The hot/warm air keeps the tongue from doing its job and can cause the dog to overheat and even die.

Just as we would not even consider cutting out the band of tissue (the frenulum) that holds our own tongue in place, so we must stop this terribly cruel practice of cutting out the band that does exactly the same thing in the dog’s mouth.

The ‘worm’ under the tongue of dogs is an outdated myth and not true, and the removal of this ‘worm’ is both cruel and causes extreme pain to the animal in question.

In many cases it can result in the animal’s death because without this band of tissue the dog’s tongue cannot work properly and the dog can starve, dehydrate as a result of not being able to drink properly or even bleed to death.