# Worms



## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

This might sound silly but can dogs get worms from eating the soil? Aspen was eating some around the orange tree yesterday and the day before.


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

Don't know about worms but they can get giardia and coccidia from contaminated soil.


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## harrkim120 (Feb 2, 2010)

I do believe it is possible if there have been other dogs there that are infested. If there were infected feces there, some of the worms could have migrated from the feces to the soil. However, from the way that you are talking I'm assuming that the tree is on your own property, so I highly doubt that anything will come of it. That is unless you lend out your yard to all the neighborhood doggies. :wink:

One issue that most people think is worms (thanks to the name) is ringworm. This can come from the dirt, but it is fungus and infects the skin. Brady got it before from the dog park...he still has the bald patch from it on his thigh.


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## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

Yeah, the soil is in our backyard. But about 8 months ago, he ate some soil in our backyard and about 3 weeks later had worms. Now that I remember, he did eat a little bit of organic fertilizer that was there. Maybe this caused the worms?


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

My dogs appear to be eating dirt from time to time. I don't know if they are eating worms, bugs or just dirt. They have never had worms. I wouldn't worry about it. Even if they do get worms, its not a big deal.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

RawFedDogs said:


> My dogs appear to be eating dirt from time to time. I don't know if they are eating worms, bugs or just dirt. They have never had worms. I wouldn't worry about it.


How do you know if they have had them or not? Not every case shows symptoms of carrying worms. BUT they can still carry them and infect others (dogs and humans). A fecal test must be preformed to conclude whether a dog is infected or not. I do NOT think its wise to assume that a dog is not infected or not.



> Even if they do get worms, its not a big deal.


How do you know its not a big deal? Do you know what these worms do to your dog? 

_Ancylostoma caninum:_ (hookworm)



> Hookworm infection is generally considered to be asymptomatic, but as Norman Stoll described in 1962, hookworm is an extremely dangerous infection because its damage is “silent and insidious.”[2] There are general symptoms that an individual may experience soon after infection. Ground-itch, which is an allergic reaction at the site of parasitic penetration and entry, is common in patients infected with N. americanus.[1] Additionally, cough and pneumonitis may result as the larvae begin to break into the alveoli and travel up the trachea. Then once the larvae reach the small intestine of the host and begin to mature, the infected individual will suffer from diarrhea and other gastrointestinal discomfort.[1] However, the “silent and insidious” symptoms referred to by Stoll are related to chronic, heavy-intensity hookworm infections. Major morbidity associated with hookworm is caused by intestinal blood loss, iron deficiency anemia, and protein malnutrition.[3] They result mainly from adult hookworms in the small intestine ingesting blood, rupturing erythrocytes, and degrading hemoglobin in the host.[4] This long-term blood loss can manifest itself physically through facial and peripheral edema; eosinophilia and pica caused by iron deficiency anemia are also experienced by some hookworm-infected patients.[1] Recently, more attention has been given to other important outcomes of hookworm infection that play a large role in public health. It is now widely accepted that children who suffer from chronic hookworm infection can suffer from growth retardation as well as intellectual and cognitive impairments.[4] Additionally, recent research has focused on the potential of adverse maternal-fetal outcomes when the mother is infected with hookworm during pregnancy.
> The disease was linked to nematode worms (Ankylostoma duodenalis) from one-third to half an inch long in the intestine chiefly through the labours of Theodor Bilharz and Griesinger in Egypt (1854).
> The symptoms can be linked to inflammation in the gut stimulated by feeding hookworms, such as nausea, abdominal pain and intermittent diarrhea, and to progressive anemia in prolonged disease: capricious appetite, pica (or dirt-eating), obstinate constipation followed by diarrhea, palpitations, thready pulse, coldness of the skin, pallor of the mucous membranes, fatigue and weakness, shortness of breath and in cases running a fatal course, dysentery, hemorrhages and edema.
> Blood tests in early infection often show a rise in numbers of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell that is preferentially stimulated by worm infections in tissues (large numbers of eosinophils are also present in the local inflammatory response). Falling blood hemoglobin levels will be seen in cases of prolonged infection with anemia.
> ...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookworm#Pathology

_Toxocara canis:_ (roundworm)



> There are four modes of infection associated with this species. The basic form is typical to all ascaroides, the egg containing the L2(the second larval developmental stage), being infective, at optimal temperature and humidity, four weeks after secreted in the faeces to the environment. After ingestion, and hatching in the small intestine, the L2 travel through the portal blood stream into the liver and lungs. Such migratory route is known as entero-hepatic-pulmonar larval migration. The second molt takes place in the lungs, the now L3 returns via the trachea and into the intestines where the final two molts take place. This form of infection occurs regularly only in dogs of up to three months of age. In older dogs, this type of migration occurs less frequently and at six months it is almost ceased. Instead, the L2 travel to a wide range of organs including the liver, lungs, brain, heart and skeletal muscles, as well as to the walls of the gastrointestinal tract. In pregnant bitch,parental infection occurs when larvae becoming mobilized at approximately, three week prior to parturition, and migrate to the lungs of the foetus where they molt into L3 just prior to birth. In the newborn pup the cycle is completed when the larva migrates through the trachea and into the intestinal lumen, where the final molts take place. Once infected, a bitch will usually harbor sufficient larvae to subsequently infect all of her litters, even if she never again encounters an infection. A certin amount of the bitch's dormant larvae penetrate into the intestinal lumen, where molting into adulthood take, yet again, place, thus leading to a new release of eggs containing L1 larvae. The suckling pup may be infected by the presence of L3 in the milk during the first three weeks of lactation. There is no migration in the pup via this route. L2 may also be ingested by a variety of animals where it stays in a dormant stage inside the animals tissue until the intermediate host has been eaten by a dog, when subsequent development is confined to the gastrointestinal tract.[6]


Dogs are able to get worms from eating the soil. Hookworm and roundworm and whipworm (type of roundworm) eggs are able to survive in the soil and infect dogs who ingest them, as well as people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxocara_canis

_Trichuris vulpis:_ (whipworm)



> Because the eggs of T. vulpis eggs are very resistant from desiccation, they can live in soil for up to seven years [10]. Once ingested by the canine, the eggs hatch and the resulted larvae live in the small intestine. At this point, though infected, the canine is still asymptomatic. When adult form, T. vulpis live primarily in the cecum with its anterior end attached to the superficial mucosa and its posterior end extended to the cecal lumen where it consumes the canine’s blood, tissue fluid, and mucosal epithelium. Severe infections include symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, weight loss, dehydration, and anemia, and in extreme cases, death.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichuris_vulpis#Pathology.2FSymptoms

Hookworms (_Ancylostoma caninum_) can also infect humans directly from the soil, just by walking barefoot in infected areas. Cutaneous larval migrans is what this infection is called, ewww.










Roundworms (_Toxocara canis_) causes ocular larval migrans in small children (but adults as well, but usually kids) who get infected by walking/playing in infected soil.










I *highly* recommend getting your dog tested once annually or biannually to make sure they don't have these worms because the transmission to humans can happen, and is fairly regular in the warmer, southern parts of the US. In most cases dogs test negative for these guys, but to me its better to make sure...especially if you have kids.

GRANTED I have only provided just 3 examples of worms a dog or human can get from the soil, I think its well worth a $20 lab fee and meds to get your dog checked out for these parasites. In school, I took parasitology and it was one of my favorite classes....and I soon learned that we do not rule the world...parasites do. EVERY human being on this planet has AT LEAST one parasite living with them. Just think about that one :wink:


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

danemama08 said:


> I do NOT think its wise to assume that a dog is not infected or not.


I don't worry about it. You sound like you work for a vet. :biggrin:



> How do you know its not a big deal? Do you know what these worms do to your dog?


I've owned dogs for a zillion years. One of them had worms one time. Don't remember which kind. One trip to the vet and they were gone. You sound like you work for a vet. :biggrin:



> Dogs are able to get worms from eating the soil. Hookworm and roundworm and whipworm (type of roundworm) eggs are able to survive in the soil and infect dogs who ingest them, as well as people.


See the part about the zillion years. 



> I *highly* recommend getting your dog tested once annually or biannually to make sure they don't have these worms because the transmission to humans can happen, and is fairly regular in the warmer, southern parts of the US. In most cases dogs test negative for these guys, but to me its better to make sure...especially if you have kids.


My "kid" is old enough to be your father. :biggrin:


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

RawFedDogs said:


> My "kid" is old enough to be your father. :biggrin:


Holy crap you're older than dirt


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

jdatwood said:


> Holy crap you're older than dirt


You say that like its a bad thing. :smile:


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

RawFedDogs said:


> You say that like its a bad thing. :smile:


Nah, just giving you a hard time since I haven't been on much lately :wink:


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

RawFedDogs said:


> I don't worry about it. You sound like you work for a vet. :biggrin:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is the response to this as that I thought you would bring, lame and weak. The number of dogs that you have owned doesn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things in a demographic way, even if your son is "old enough to be my father." You should bring a more valid post to the argument than "None of my dogs have ever had them, so its not a problem."

My response sounds like someone who has learned about parasites (which was even before I worked at a vet actually, earning my BS in Biology and minor in chemistry). The only thing that I learned differently from working at a vet was how to treat them and how to preform a fecal float (other than the way that was preformed in class).


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

jdatwood said:


> Holy crap you're older than dirt


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## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

So, if Aspen *does* get worms from the soil ( he ate some about 2-3 days ago), when can I expect to see the little suckers?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I would test him within the next few weeks. You will see adult worms as the infection progresses but not within just a few days.


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