From time immemorial, a dog is considered a friend of a person. Most people keep the houses of these shaggy four-legged pets, even without the idea that in case of non-observance of certain rules of communication with them and personal hygiene, a gentle and faithful dog becomes the most real threat to the health and even the life of their master. It's all about worms that can be transmitted to humans from a dog. For those and other dangerous helminthiasis are echinococcosis, teniosis, dipilidiosis and diphyllobothriasis. The dog can easily get infected with parasites that cause these serious diseases, because he walks not only walks the ground, but also lies on it, licks feces, and then goes to a house where he is in close contact with a person, licking his face and hands,and often even going to bed in the same bed.
The most dangerous canine worms are transmitted to humans in this way. Infection with them can provoke perforation of the intestine, accompanied by a large loss of blood, inflammation of the anus, constant diarrhea and significant loss of body weight. In addition, a very big danger lies in the fact that those dog worms transmitted to people who are not adapted to human digestive organs do not begin to develop in them, but make migration with blood flow throughout the body and often go even through the eyes. In children, this pathology usually causes blindness. What kind of worms can you get from a dog? Not all helminths living in the body of an animal are able to transfer to humans, so one should have the most accurate idea of the kinds that are transmitted to humans. There are only 5 of them, but their infection is quite dangerous:
- Cucumber tamer, which causes a person to have dipilitis. During this illness, there is an allergy and digestion functions are disrupted. Signs of the disease are general weakness, sleep disorders, abdominal pain, excessive salivation and nausea;
- This worm, like a wide ribbon, is also very often transmitted from dogs to humans. If you get infected with these helminths, you can get diphyllobothriasis. Symptoms include nausea and vomiting, severe abdominal pain, weakness, fatigue, anemia and bowel obstruction. Treatment is usually done out-patient, but sometimes hospitalization is required;
- From pigs to pig pork. The danger of this worm for a person is a serious lesion of the small intestine;
- Infection with nematodes, parasites that cause uninoriasis, threatens skin lesions. Larvae of helminth quickly penetrate into the human skin and become agents of hives and dermatitis;
- Transfers from dogs and such a dangerous worm as echinococcus. After this worm was transmitted to a person, the cysts begin to develop in the liver, lungs and other important organs. The insidiousness of the disease is that it does not manifest itself for many years, until the neoplasms reach a considerable size, which makes their treatment difficult.
How not to get infected with worms transmitted from the dog?
To protect yourself against the penetration of your pet in the body of the parasite, you should regularly carry out anthelmintic treatment. Also it is necessary to remember several important rules:
- After walking with a pet or any contact with it, you should definitely wash your hands with antibacterial or household soap;
- In an apartment where a four-legged friend lives, it is necessary to carry out wet cleaning as often as possible with special means. This will allow the destruction of most parasitic larvae introduced into the house by the animal;
- Dogs need not only to perform prophylactic antihelminthic procedures and wash them regularly, but also to destroy fleas that are intermediate hosts that transmit parasites to the animal;
- In no case should not contact with stray dogs. Also, in order to avoid the passage of parasites from them, one should completely guard against contact with stray animals of your pet;
- Dog worms survive very well in the sand, so on the beach should always lie on a towel, through which the parasites can not be transferred to the new master.
Worms in dogs are transmitted to a person in the case when preventive treatment is neglected. It is required every six months not only for the domestic dog, but also for its owner. Avoid the threat of infection as a four-legged pet, so you can stop feeding your friend with raw foods.
The only thing you should not do when you hear a positive answer to the question of whether the worms are transferred from dog to person is to get rid of a four-legged friend, limit communication with him or forbid him to play with the child. If all preventive measures and hygiene standards are observed, domestic dogs do not pose any threat to people.