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What's up with worms and all things Yucky?

 

It is fairly common for a dog or a cat to become infected with an internal or external parasite at some point in his or her lifetime. Parasites can affect your pet in a variety of ways ranging from simple irritation to life threatening conditions if left untreated.

 

Year-round Problem?
Some parasites can even infect and transmit diseases to you and your family. As many of you dog owners are aware, there are many preventive measures we take to keep our pets, ourselves and our neighbours safe from the many parasites “out there”. The reason we are careful is that some of these parasites can do harm if we let them grow and develop. While it is not new that wildlife can transmit disease (rabies, leptospirosis, etc.) and parasites to our pets, current research indicates that our cold winters do not give us the protection that we once thought. We now know that dogs and cats can be affected with parasites during the winter months too. The cold does slow down the life cycle, but it can continue.

 

Raccoons again!
Yes these cute and cuddly looking masked bandits that come at night can carry very harmful parasites. The roundworm of raccoons has been known to cause serious problems if young children accidently eat the eggs. Thankfully the habits of raccoons of using latrines prevents a lot of exposure. A latrine is an area where several raccoons will defecate. They are often located in the crotch of tree branches. Occasionally they will use a rooftop area too. However, we now know that dogs can become a host for this worm too! The parasite can not only affect a dog's health, but risk to humans occurs if the dog becomes infected with these intestinal worms and they start to shed their eggs in the dog’s feces. We humans are in contact with this every day, sometimes twice or more! Also, because dogs do not keep their droppings to one place in the yard, the risk for children to get exposed is much higher. We know that there is a risk from the regular round worms that affect dogs and that is why we have stoop and scoop programs. This racoon roundworm parasite simply increases the consequences of accidental exposure.

 

Heartworms for cats too?
New research indicates that the old enemy of dogs known as Heartworm is now showing its ugly face in the cat population. Instead of migrating to the heart and causing heart damage (as in dogs), in cats the problem is in the lungs. It seems that a cat's immune system is able to kill the baby worms on their way to the heart. These dying larva settle in the lungs instead and cause a sudden athsma like reaction. X-rays can show signs of pneumonia while blood tests can be negative for the parasite! It has only been accurately diagnosed after cats die from the disease. At the moment, researchers are trying to find an accurate way of making a diagnosis but most cat specialists agree that the best way to protect your cat is monthly medication to reduce the risk of these larva coming from mosquitoes.

 

Parasites that may affect your pet include:
*Coccidia
* Mange mites
* Ear mites
* Roundworms
* Fleas
* Tapeworms
* Giardia
* Ticks
* Heartworms
* Toxoplasmosis
* Hookworms
* Whipworms

 

Reducing the risk for your family:
You can reduce the risk of parasitic infection to your family by eliminating parasites from pets on a monthly basis. Other lifestyle changes that can help are restricting access to contaminated areas such as sandboxes, pet “walk areas” and practising good personal hygiene. Picking up after your pet and disposing of pet feces on a regular basis can remove potentially infective worm eggs before they are picked up by pets or children. How much risk is there? Thankfully the overall risk of having a life threatening problem is relatively low but just how much risk are we comfortable with? A research program across the USA and in parts of Canada, indicated that a about 25% of children had been exposed to some types of roundworm. Thankfully, none of these children have become seriously ill. We do not know the exposure risk of the raccoon roundworm but its consequences are much worse. A parasite protection plan including monthly medication is easy and economical.

 

Your Parasite Protection Plan:
We do not know when your pet is going to be exposed to one of these parasites so until we can train them to stop sniffing and licking places... we need a plan to treat them regularly. Given the life cycle of these parasites, year around monthly treatments with one of the medications we have used for heartworm prevention is effective at stopping a problem before it starts! Although heartworm and fleas are seasonal in nature, changing weather and climatic conditions are increasing the at-risk season. Last fall we had flea problems in December and January! In addition, stages of fleas often survive in your house during the winter months creating an uninterrupted life cycle. You may use the tables below as a guide, but discuss a parasite protection plan for your family during your next visit with our veterinary team.

 

The guidelines below are for pets following the monthly prevention plan. If you are not able to practise monthly prevention, Ova and Parasite Fecal tests should be performed two to four times a year to ensure early detection of any parasite with which your pet may have been infected. For further reading about the risks and preventive strategies, check out the web site for the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) at www.petsandparasites.org. Formed in 2002, CAPC is an independent council of veterinarians, physicians, public health personnel and others whose mission is to create guidelines for the optimal control of internal and external parasites of companion animals.

 

January 29, 2009

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