ancylostomiasis and ascariasis in dogs.will it go to humans? does it going to people,hurt us.?

Question

heard it can be eosinophillic enteritis.shelter took dog back.

vet said to take back to shelter.dog would only get worse.he was losing hair and would lose more or all.could have paid 650 dollars to treat the mainge.we did give the dog 3 doses of worm medicine.mainge treatment was not guarenteed.shelter said they would find us another puppy.our grand daughter age 10 and half was very upset.she cried so much.we had dog 11 days.

Answer 1

Ancylostomiasis is actually human hookworms. Yes, they can have very bad effects on us. Canine hookworms can also be transmitted to humans and can cause illness. Roundworms (ascarids) can also be tranmitted to humans and can actually cause blindness. Eosinophillic enteritis is actually a disease of ferretts. Why would you send the dog back to the pound for a parasite infection that is common in dogs and easily treated. Your vet could have given your dog a capsule to deworm him with his vaccinations and the problems would have been solved.

Answer 2

Worm the dog. Rounds and Hooks are the most common parasites in dogs and cats that infect humans. It is not that common, but can happen. Children are the most often affected.
All pets should be wormed yearly at least. All new pets should be wormed also. It is not that big a deal, just worm the dog. A dog or cat coming from the shelter should go to the vet right from the shelter, then it can be treated BEFORE entering your home. I work at a shelter, and we worm everything, but I advise all new adoptors to go right to the vet. Some shelters do not worm however, or the animals can easily be reinfected by other animals.

Really, rounds and hooks are the easiest to treat!!! And then keeping the dog on something like Heartguard Plus or Interceptor for heartworm prevention will also prevent reinfection of the rounds and hooks.

Uh, Frank....you are WRONG!! Ancylostoma are HOOKWORMS. Tania are the most common tapeworm species in cats and dogs. Do a little more research please.

And ancylostoma are also DOG and CAT hookworms. The common species is after all Ancylostoma caninum.

Well, you said nothing about mange before!! I would have taken it back for that also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

I just love how people insist on posting answers that are WRONG....or more dangerously, partly correct/partly wrong....especially while 'correcting' others. Oh, the irony.... *sigh*
Thank goodness for people like Chetco.

Ancylostoma are indeed hookworms, not tapeworms (the most common species of which are Dipylidium, not Taenia. <---note the proper spelling.) Yes, they can infect humans in 2 ways: 1. Cutaneous larval migrans is caused when the eggs hatch into larvae in muddy areas, then enter a human's skin (most often by walking barefoot) and cause a rash. It is also known as "plumber's itch".....which is more widespread over the body, because of how they often have to lie in the mud to do their work.
2. If ingested orally, they can cause intestinal and other organ problems. (This is generally only a problem of people like young children who might be playing in the dirt where an infected animal has defecated, then put his hands into his mouth without first washing them.)

Ascarids are indeed roundworms. They can cause something in humans called visceral larval migrans, with the larvae getting 'stuck' (for lack of a better word) in one of the internal organs. Their most common destination in humans seems to be the eye, and they can cause blindness. They are ingested in the same way I mentioned for hookworms above.

Both can cause eosinophila (an elevated eosinophil count on the CBC), and both can cause enteritis, but it's not generally an eosinophilic enteritis....which is slightly different.

Both are easily treated (and then prevented from recurring)....thus avoiding all of the above scenarios, which are somewhat rare to start with. What IS rare is finding a puppy or kitten who was not born with these worms. So, that alone is not reason to return the puppy. These worm eggs live in the soil for a long, long time....and were probably there before you even got THIS puppy. Shelters and human societies are notorious for underdosing the medication used to treat these parasites....which has caused them to develop some resistance and now require even higher doses to eliminate them. It can easily be done by your DVM, however.

If it had demodectic 'mange', then your decision would be understandable. Treatment of that can take a long time and be expensive, but the success rate is much higher now than it was in years past. It is not AT ALL contagious to humans, however. But most shelters euthanize these animals due to the expense of treatment. (Unless you are seeing a DVM on Park Avenue in Manhattan, however.....it rarely approaches anywhere NEAR $650.)

If it had sarcoptic 'mange' (scabies), then that also could have been very easily and inexpensively treated. Although HIGHLY contagious among animals of the same species, it is not "contagious" to humans (humans have their own species of scabies mite).....but direct contact with an infested animal can cause a temporary rash when the mites get on the human skin and then die. Fortunately, that's no longer an issue a mere day or two after treatment, even though it takes longer than that for the skin to clear up.

Was a skin scraping done actually done to confirm one of the two types of 'mange' listed above? If not, the dog might simply have had dermatitis due to contact with the hookworm larvae, if it lived in a dirty, muddy area. Again....easily corrected. There are also other common dermatologic problems that are often mistaken for 'mange' because they look alike, yet proper diagnosis was not sought. I'm assuming that since your DVM said to take the dog back, that a skin scraping WAS done to confirm Demodex? If so, you could have sought a second opinion on treatment..... (In case it happens again, please consider doing that before breaking the bond of a young child and a dog.)

Answer 4

Ascarids are round worms and yes, they can be a problem to humans, Ancylstoma are tape worms and the transmission is not so direct. You are obviously unaware that animals can transmit diseases to humans, in medicine, we call the zoonosis and there are many but with a healthy animal, you can infect it too, if you have an illness. Avian flu is an example of a zoonosis but so is Mad Cow Disease or SARS, or rabies, etc. Eosinophilia is simply one blood test of the white blood cells and it can show a worm infestation OR an allergy not related to the animal. Enteritis is a catch-all term for diarrhea, stomach cramps, etc.. So if you wish to avoid the love and affection of a pet because of your fears, then do it. But most people risk such exotic dieases because they like the companionship of a pet. Yes, in rare instances, people have a problem because of a pet...one of my patients had tuberculosis because of a pet fish! You are being both hysterical about potential dangers and irrational....people are not dropping dead on the sidewalk because they have a dog...and it is more likely that your spinach will cause greater danger to you health than a friendly lovable pet.

Answer 5

Haha... To some people, not much.. Some animals are better then humans!

Answer 6

You will be safe with normal good hygiene practices, such as washing hands before handling food.