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Pooches and Parasites

© Ann Downing

Hookworms, Roundworms, tapeworms, whipworms, and heartworms like to make themselves at home inside your dog's organs, such as the intestins, heart, and bloodvessels. Your dog may show signs of hosting these menacing and dangerous creatures by vomiting, diarrhea, or pieces of worms in the dog's stool, according to NewPet.com Health Tips. Sometimes, there aren't any signs of disease or illness. Therefore, preventative measures, such as a yearly test, not letting your dog eat raw meat, rodents, or fish will help to keep your pet from infestation. For more information access NetPet.com.

According to Vets on the Net, humans, as well as cats, horses, pigs and other animals, have a different roundworm. Dogs get roundworms by eating worm eggs off infected ground or infestation from a mother dog to her puppies. Adult roundworms feed on food partly digested in the intestinal tract of the dog. Hookworms got their name because they hook on the wall of the intestine to feed. Hookworms eat blood and cause the dog's intestine to bleed. Dogs get hookworms from ground contaminated by an infected dog's feces containing hookworm eggs. A mother dog may also infect her nursing puppies with hookworm eggs contained in her milk. Whipworms have fat bodies and very long necks that look like a whip. They bury their long necks in the dog's intestine, causing intestinal bleeding. Tapeworms are long, flat, and resemble a ribbon. Tape worms attach themselves to the intestine with hooks and suckers on their head, but they absorb food, passing over their skin, in order to feed. A dog eating a flea that ate a tapeworm egg may become infected. Heartworms live in the dog's heart and blood vessels, causing the heart not to work as it should. Cats may also get heartworms. Mosquitoes that bite a dog infected with heartworms, spreads the disease when it bites another dog, according to Vets on the Net.

According to the Center for Disease Control, CDC, about three thousand to four thousand serum specimens from human patients are sent to the CDC, state public health laboratories, or private laboritories for confirmation of hookworm and ascarid infection. The ascarid larva travels through the human's liver,lungs, and other organs and tissues, damaging them and causing allergic reactions. Infected children may have permanent visual and neurological damage. For more detailed information, access the CDC web site.

Worms not only cause health problems for pets and people, it also is very uncomfortable and painful for the pet. Be kind to your pet. Deworming is not only kind and important to your pet's health, but it is being kind to your fellow humans and yourself.

The copyright of the article Pooches and Parasites in Animal Cruelty is owned by Ann Downing. Permission to republish Pooches and Parasites in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.