Whipworm, Hookworm and Heartworm
This small thread-like 6mm worm lives in the large intestine of dogs and causes local irritation in this area. Clinical signs are of blood in the stools, watery/gooey diarrhoea, straining to defaecate and weight loss.
Diagnosis can be challenging as the female worms only produce eggs periodically, so they can be missed in a standard faecal floatation test. Also, the clinical signs of whipworm infection mimic many other syndromes.
Many wormers on the market will not kill whipworms so it’s important to purchase a veterinary quality all-worming treatment and to repeat treatment at 2-3 month intervals.
Whipworm eggs are very resilient in the environment, so reinfection is common. This is one of the main reasons we recommend giving your pet an all-wormer every 3 months.
Hookworm Infection – Ancylostoma and Uncinaria
These little worms live in the small intestines of cats and dogs, hooking onto the intestinal lining with their sharp teeth and feeding from the animal’s blood. In adult dogs and cats, they rarely cause clinical disease but in young animals they can lead to severe illness – lethargy, anaemia, diarrhoea and failure to grow and thrive.
Puppies and kittens can be born with the infection of pick it up through ingesting the eggs or immature larvae from the environment. The larvae may also enter an animal by burrowing through the skin, often causing irritation of the feet or face (THEY CAN BURROW INTO HUMAN SKIN TOO!!).
Diagnosis is by seeing hookworm eggs on a faecal floatation, along with clinical suspicion.
Treatment is via worming tablets, though prevention is best. Worm your pets.
Heartworm – Dirofilaria immitis
Heartworm, although not currently in Tasmania, is a potentially fatal, but preventable infection caused by a worm parasite. It is particularly important to know this information when travelling to the mainland. This has been touched on before, but we thought it would be valuable to raise awareness for it again during our parasitology month. The parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes, which carry the heartworm larvae (called microfilariae) from an infected host to a new animal host. Once the larvae reach the new host (your pet) they grow into adult worms in several months and live in blood vessels that go towards the heart and lungs. The presence of the worms causes stress on the heart and inflammation of the blood vessels and lungs. Severe complications occur when the worm burden becomes high in numbers. Any dog can become infected, it only takes one bite from an infected mosquito.
The clinical signs to look for if you ever travel with your pet to the mainland are coughing, exercise intolerance, laboured breathing, blue/purple gums, fainting, nose bleeding and/or accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity. The severity of signs is related to the amount of lung damage and the dog’s activity level. A veterinarian has a variety of ways for diagnosing heartworm, so a consultation is always preferred if you believe your pet may have a heartworm infection.
There are a variety of ways of treating heartworm as well, and a thorough medical history will be needed to provide the best and most appropriate treatment plan. However, in most situations, an anti-parasiticide and/or antibiotic will be needed for an extended period to ensure your pet is treated properly. In all cases it is preferable that the disease is prevented all together. There are several preventative medications available for heartworm and are highly recommended when travelling outside of Tasmania with your pet. If you have any further questions regarding heartworm, please contact us for more information.