Parasites Infesting Pets and People

UCF Continuing Education "Becoming a Vet Assistant"

deworm

to remove worms from pet’s bodies

roundworm

worm the color and shape of spaghetti… thin, long, up to eight inches in length… can be vomited up from the stomach or shed from the intestines in stool

toxocara canis

(roundworm of the dog) live in the intestines of the adult dog, and receive nutrients from the intestinal fluid… roundworms lay eggs that are released into the stool… warmer temperatures mean they hatch faster than in cooler temperatures… transferred to the next dog through eating infested stool or grass… if a young puppy eats these worms, they will cough them up and keep sending them through the digestive system until the worms reach maturity and can live in the intestines which is called transtracheal migration… somatic migration is when an adult dog ingests the worms and they enclose themselves in cysts and remain dormant until breeding occurs… transplacental migration occurs when the worms go from the mother into the uterus and infect the fetus to that puppies as young as three weeks old have matured worms in their intestines… transmammary migration is when the worms go to the mother dogs mammary glands and infest puppies through milk

toxocara cati

(roundworm of the cat)… same pattern as dogs but gets into the digestive tract through intermediate hosts such as a cat eating a rodent or bird… can’t be transfered transplacentally

toxascaris leonina

(roundworm of both the dog and cat)… no complicated migration… they are ingested and stay in the intestines to mature

hookworms

(such as ancylostoma and uncinaria) (infects both dogs and cats) these worms suck blood, which can lead to the animal becoming severely anemic and dying… they can be ingested or penetrate the skin of the host animal

whipworm

(trichuris vulpis) (only dogs) worm feeds on blood and can trigger bloody stool and weight loss… lives and reproduces in the intestines, transferred through stool

fecal flotation

mixing stool with sugar water to separate worm eggs from stool… eggs will float to the top and taking some of the liquid under a microscope will test for eggs present

tapeworm

egg packets are eaten by an intermediate host… the tapeworm larvae migrate to muscle tissue and encyst themselves where they lay in wait… the intermediate host is then eaten, and they go through several molts before becoming adult tapeworms that segment themselves into egg packets

dipylidium caninum

species of tapeworm that affects both dogs and cats… it’s intermediate host is the flea

taenia tapeworm

dogs and cats can be affected by two types of this tapeworm… one’s host is rodents and the other is cattle, sheep, and deer

heartworm

(Dirofilaria immitis) (infests both dogs and cats)… can cause heart failure… transmitted from dog to dog through mosquitos… adult heartworms are long and thin, females reach up to 10 in, males reach half that… most reside in the pulmonary artery… worms release millions of microfilariae into the bloodstream which are taken by mosquitos and transferred to other animals… live up to 5 years… diagnosed with blood tests

zoonosis

An animal disease communicable to man (plural is zoonoses)

pinworms

live in the anus and lay their eggs in the surrounding skin which causes irritation… these worms are species specific… dogs and cat’s do not have pinworms

toxoplasmosis

a protozoan carried by cats that is a concern to pregnant women and people with compromised immune system… cats get this by eating toxo cysts in contaminated (usually undercooked) meat… humans can also contract this by eating undercooked meat, handling a cat, cleaning its litterbox…