Roundworms

[WHITEYrs4 29]

As a father of 2 and I come from a family of a lot of children I think this is important information for people to read about dog worms and the dangers of them. The information I have put on here, I am not a vet or scientist but its 100% fact on what I have been researching over the past week and with two discussions with my vet. I think you will find this useful and a bit scary at the same time as people do not realise how serious this problem is especially if you have pups. I think if this happened to one of my children, a family member or myself I would be absolutely devastated just because I didn’t regularly worm my dogs.

 

Roundworms

How did my dog get roundworms?

 

Bitches that have had roundworms at any time in the past can transmit them to their puppies before birth. This is true even if the bitch is not passing roundworm eggs in the faeces because roundworm larvae (immature worms) encyst in the mother's muscle tissue and are not detected by our tests for adult worms. These encysted larvae are mobilised by changes in the bitch's hormonal status as a result of pregnancy and migrate across the placenta into the foetal tissues. They ultimately mature in the puppy's bowel. Another major source of roundworm infection for puppies is the mother's milk. Roundworm larvae may be present in the mother's mammary glands and milk throughout the period of nursing the puppies.

Both puppies and adult dogs may become infected by swallowing roundworm eggs which contain infective larvae. The larvae hatch out in the dog's stomach and small intestine and migrate through the muscle, liver, and lungs. After several weeks, the larvae make their way back to the intestine to mature. When these worms begin to reproduce, new eggs will pass in the dog's faeces, and the life cycle of the parasite is completed.

Obviously, roundworm eggs passed in one dog's faeces are infectious to other dogs. Interestingly, a large number of other animal species have been found to harbour roundworms and represent potential sources of infection for dogs. These include cockroaches, earthworms, chickens, Cat, Foxes and rodents.

It is easy to get rid of roundworms in the intestine. Just give any oral wormer effective against roundworms. The "migrating juvenile worms are the problem". Nothing at all will kill the juvenile worms trapped in granuloma's. It is best to worm breeding female dogs and cats before breeding and again 3, 6 and 9 weeks after welping. Juveniles migrating through the liver and lungs also will not be killed by conventional wormers. This is why we like to worm puppies twice and three weeks apart and then check a faecal specimen three weeks later. This allows all migrating juveniles to reach the intestine where they are easily killed.

EYES AND BRAIN

 

In humans, roundworms pathological lesions observed consist of skin irritations (cutaneous larval migrans) and eye and brain tissue damage (visceral larval migrans) due to the random migration of the larvae. The affected individuals may experience nausea, a lethargic feeling, incoordination and loss of eyesight. The most often diagnosed illness is loss of sight in one or two eyes. The roundworm larva is trapped in the optic disk behind the retina of the eye and a granuloma forms. These granuloma's have been mistaken for retinoblastoma's (cancer of the retina) and the eye was mistakenly removed. I believe the reason the problem is so often diagnosed in the eye is because we know it is happening. We experience loss of vision; the eye is removed and the larva is discovered.Roundworms in eye

Roundworms in muscle tissue

 

So I think the moral of the story is you must regularly worm your dog! My vet told me that if you have children under the age of eight and you have a working dog it should be wormed once every three months with the correct dose for the dogs weight. I hope this helps you out and sheds a bit of light on the problems of worms and remember this is only roundworms.

Edited December 16, 2008 by WHITEYrs4

[Guest hpool_hunter]

thats an excellent peice of infomation , and thank you for sharing and putting it up

[PORK CHOP 13]

thats an excellent peice of infomation , and thank you for sharing and putting it up

 

 

thanks whitey

[jeppi 49]

thanks for shearing

your research with

us mate

[stealthy1 3,964]

Interesting post.

[blacktabs 3]

A good mate of my dads only got one eye he lost his other as a kid even though his family didnt keep dogs must have picked it up on the local park.