Perhaps most pet owners will know that their dogs need to be dewormed every once in a while. However, questions such as “how often ‘once in a while’ should be?” What kind of medicine should I choose to deworm my pet?” or “my dog is just fine, does he/she really need anything? “, are harder to answer.
Not long ago, Green Cross Macau Clinic was visited by “Fluffy”, an adult dog that – we were told – was suffering from a lack of appetite and had been losing weight for more than a month. The basic, blood work was normal, so we decided to perform an abdominal ultrasound which revealed an inflammation in the last part of the intestine. Fluffy was put on fluids in order to rehydrate and was prepped for a colonoscopy under general anaesthesia. As soon as we started our journey we could see countless little whipworms moving around and biting the entire colon. Et voila, a massive infection with Trichuris vulpis was diagnosed with minimal invasive methods.
“But doctor, I gave my dog a deworming pill four months ago, why is this parasite infection persisting?” It’s very simple, not every pill kills all kind of parasites, it could also be that, sometimes, the amount of deworm is just not enough. Finally you may have eggs of parasites around your yard or near your street and your dog keeps getting infected.
Whipworms removed from Fluffy. Photo provided by Rafael Lopez
