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Parasites
Roundworm
Roundworms are the most common of the parasitic worms found inside a dog. Almost all dogs become infected with them at some time in their lives, usually as puppies. Roundworms may be contracted in different ways, making them easy to spread and hard to control.
Your dog may be infected with roundworms from the time it is born because often the mother passes the worms to the puppy while it is still in her body. Roundworms can also develop in a puppy after it is born when the puppy eats larvated eggs from the environment or drinks worm larvae (young worms) in the mother's milk. Another way roundworms are passed is when roundworm larvae are present in the tissues of a mouse or another small mammal and the puppy eats the animal.
Hookworm
Similar to tapeworms and roundworms, hookworms are intestinal parasites that live in the digestive system of your dog (or cat). The hookworm attaches to the lining of the intestinal wall and feeds on your dog’s blood. Its eggs are ejected into the digestive tract and pass into the environment through your dog’s feces.
Larvae (young hookworms) that hatch from hookworm eggs live in the soil. These larvae can infect your dog simply through contact and penetration of the skin and through the dog eating the larvae when they ingest dirt or during their routine licking (cleaning).
Whipworm
The whipworm is one of the four most common intestinal parasites of dogs. Whipworms reside in the cecum, which is inside your dog’s body where the small intestine and large intestine meet.
Dogs become infected with whipworms by swallowing infective whipworm eggs in soil or other substances that may contain dog feces.
How will whipworms affect my dog?
Dogs that are infected with a few whipworms may not have any signs of infection. More severe infections can cause bloody diarrhea. If an infected dog is not treated, then severe whipworm infection can cause serious disease and even death.
Giardia
Giardia is a single-celled parasite that lives in your dog’s intestine. It infects older dogs but more frequently infects puppies. Dogs become infected when they swallow Giardia that may be present in water or other substances that have been soiled with feces.
How will Giardia affect my dog?
Many dogs infected with Giardia do not get any disease. Giardiasis, the disease caused by Giardia infection, usually results in diarrhea. Having giardiasis for a long time can cause weight loss; poor condition; and even death.
How do I prevent my dog from getting Giardia?
The best way to prevent Giardia infection is to make sure that your dog has safe, clean drinking water. It is important not to allow dogs to drink water from areas where other animals have left their feces.
Your veterinarian can perform a test on your dog’s feces to see if it has giardiasis. If your dog is infected with Giardia, your veterinarian can prescribe safe, effective treatment for control of the disease.
To prevent spreading Giardia (and other parasites), pick up the feces left by your dog immediately and place it in the trash. Be sure to avoid contact with the feces by using gloves, a bag over your hand, or a scooping device.
Can humans be harmed by Giardia?
Giardia is a common cause of diarrhea in people, but dog Giardia is not generally considered to spread from animals to humans. While human Giardia may infect dogs and then be passed on to humans, the majority of human cases are of human origin
Ringworm
Tapeworm
Tapeworms are long, flat worms that attach themselves to your dog’s (or cat's)intestines. A tapeworm body consists of multiple parts, or segments, each with its own reproductive organs. Tapeworm infections are usually diagnosed by finding segments—which appear as small white worms that may look like grains of rice or seeds—on the rear end of your dog, in your dog’s feces, or where your dog lives and sleeps.
There are several different kinds, or species, of tapeworms that can infect your dog, each with stage(s) in a different intermediate (in-between) host, which the dog eats to become infected. Dipylidium caninum is a tapeworm that uses fleas as its intermediate host, whereas Taenia and Echinococcus species use small rodents (mice, rats, squirrels), rabbits, or large animals (such as deer or sheep) as their intermediate hosts.
Heartworm
Heartworms are common in dogs throughout the United States (cats can have them, too). They are among the most damaging parasites in dogs but they are almost100 percent preventable. Heartworms are transmitted by mosquitoes and, once mature, they live in the heart and large blood vessels of the lungs. Adult heartworms can measure over one foot in length.
How will heartworms affect my dog?
The heartworm larvae deposited by the feeding mosquito eventually migrate to the chambers of the heart or into the vessels of the lungs. Once
Heart opened to reveal heartworms
in the heart, the worms can affect blood flow throughout the body. Heartworm infection can affect many different organs of the dog—heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver, for example—so symptoms may be varied. Most commonly though, signs of heart or lung disease are present. A veterinarian may suspect that a dog has been infected if an active animal tires easily or shows shortness of breath or coughing. Early in the disease, dogs are often asymptomatic. Signs are often progressive over weeks to months and untreated, heartworm infection can be fatal.
Testing for heartworm infection
Blood tests are most commonly used to diagnose heartworm infection in dogs. An in-house screening test run by your veterinarian may be followed by a confirmatory blood test sent to an outside lab. Other tests frequently employed in determining the extent and severity of heartwom infection in a dog include blood tests of kidney and liver function, x-rays of the chest and an ultrasound (sonogram) of the heart. Once infection is confirmed, your veterinarian will discuss the most appropriate treatment for your pet.
How do I prevent my dog from getting heartworms?
Heartworms have been found in dogs in all 50 states so all dogs are at risk, even those animals that primarily live indoors. Fortunately, with medication, heartworm infection is almost always preventable.
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Information on this site was provided by: http://www.petsandparasites.org/dog-owners/coccidia/...
Visit this siate for even more information on some of the less commonly semm parasties.
Although the name suggests otherwise, ringworm isn’t caused by a worm at all-but a fungus that can infect the skin, hair and nails. Not uncommon in cats and dogs, this highly contagious disease can lead to patchy, circular areas ofhair loss with central red rings. Also known as dermatophytosis, ringworm often spreads to other pets in the household-and to humans, too.
What Are the General symptoms of Ringworm?
Classic symptoms of ringworm in cats and dogs include skin lesions that typically appear on the head, ears and forelimbs. Ringworm can cause flaky bald patches that sometimes look red in the center. In mild cases, there may be localized areas of redness or simply dandruff, while more severe infections can spread over your pets entire body. It’s also possible for a pet to carry ringworm spores and not show any symptoms whatsoever.
How Do Cats Get Ringworm?
A cat or dog can get ringworm directly through contact with an infected animal-or indirectly through contact with bedding, dishes and other materials that have been contaminated with the skin cells or hairs of infected animals. Ringworm spores are notoriously hardy and can survive in the environment for more than a year!