December 2008
December 19, 2008
Here’s the scoop on pet poop!
What’s in Your Dog or Cat’s Poop Can Tell You a lot! You can learn much about your pets health from their poop! Intestinal Parasites. This article will be the first in a series.
Part One:
Intestinal parasites (including worms among other organisms) are a fact of life for animals even starting from birth. Some parasites are transferred directly from the mother to puppies or kittens. Others are acquired later because of contaminated environment or exposure to other animals (domestic and/or wild). Pets of all ages can be potentially infected. Nearly all puppies and kittens are infected with roundworms and/or hookworms. Adults can acquire these worms and whipworms as well.
Pregnancy hormones trigger migration of worm larvae in a female dog’s or cat’s body.
Roundworms are acquired from a mother before birth because larvae can migrate through the
placenta. After birth, puppies and kittens become infected when nursing because larvae migrate to the
Mammary glands and enter the milk. Worms reproduce and shed eggs in the stool (poop, feces). They become infective within a few weeks and can remain infective in the soil for YEARS. Secondary hosts, like rodents, can ingest eggs and infect their predators such as dogs and cats when eaten. Also, eggs can be ingested from soil or vegetation that is contaminated by feces. There are four types of roundworms. Their larvae migrate through body tissues causing damage to lungs, liver and intestines. The adults can be vomited up or expelled in stool. They look like coiled strands of spaghetti and are easy to see.
Hookworms are tiny in comparison to roundworms. They are less than one inch long. There
are several routes of infection. Larvae hatch out of eggs deposited on the ground in the stool in less
than one week. Infective larvae are ingested from contaminated soil or vegetation or through secondary hosts (small mammals). Alternatively, these larvae can penetrate animal or HUMAN skin and migrate through tissues causing damage. Adults reproduce in the intestinal tract and shed eggs within three weeks. Hookworms are bloodsuckers in the intestinal tract. They can cause significant blood loss in kittens, puppies and toy breeds.
The dog whipworm is another small worm that infects the cecum(like our appendix) and large
intestine and it feeds on blood. The eggs can live in the soil(even in cold climate) for YEARS. Pets can be
easily re-infected for this reason. Cats are rarely infected with whipworms. Unlike roundworms and
hookworms, whipworms have along pre-patent period( time from infection to shedding eggs in the
stool) of three months(vs. about 3 weeks for the other two worms). Immature whipworms can
survive dewormers which usually work against adults. Often whipworm infections do not show
symptoms. When they do, there is diarrhea, bloody stool, mucus, weight loss, and/or anemia.
Whipworm infection can be the hardest to diagnose on a fecal exam(looking at a slide with a
microscope) because eggs are infrequently shed. Also low numbers of eggs are shed. This commonly
leads to false negative fecal exams. The last main family of worms is the tapeworms. They have flat, tape-like bodies. They live is small intestines of hosts. Tapeworms consist of segments that are egg packets full of a lot of eggs. These segments are shed in stool, and then new ones are formed to replace the old. The most common tapeworm develops as larvae in fleas. When dogs and cats groom the fleas off of themselves and eat them, they become infected with the tapeworms. Therefore, if a pet has fleas, it is extremely likely to have tapeworms.
Tapeworms are often SEEN by owners. They look like white, rice shaped worms around the
anus or on the feces and can be found moving. Most adult tapeworm infections do not cause major
health problems unlike the other worms listed above. However, since it is a very visible parasite to
owners, it is perceived as more of a major threat. One of the major signs is itching around the anus
which a pet tries to relieve by scooting on the ground( sitting and dragging its bottom). A fecal exam consists of looking at stool with the naked eyes to check for blood, mucus, color of the stool, consistency, foreign objects (pieces of toys, plastic, fibers, or bone fragments) that have been
eaten. This gives clues to the veterinarian who often needs to be a detective to determine what has
been eaten. A microscopic exam then needs to be performed. This can be done directly from a smear
that has been wetted down on a glass slide or after a flotation in special solutions. Most worm eggs will float in this solution, but the tapeworms are an exception to this and will not be seen under the microscope. Their eggs (packets) are relatively heavy and sink in the flotation solution. A microscopic exam checks for oval (eggs) and parasites (larval stages or one-celled organisms like Coccidia and Giardia) which float to the top of a test tube. This can be done in the veterinarian’s office or at an outside laboratory. Another test that laboratories can do is an ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Antibody) test for expo-sure to Giardia( which is not a worm, but a one-celled parasite) which can affect dogs, cats, wildlife, and HUMANS. This can indicate previous or current exposure even if there are no organisms seen under the microscope. This parasite can be hard to find.
Next month, I will elaborate on Coccidia and Giardia, treatment and control of all of these parasites
above, and the zoonotic threats that they pose. Parasitic zoonoses are infections and diseases of
humans caused by parasites normally seen in animals.
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