Intestinal Parasites & Fecal Analysis

Hey, guys. Dr. Lara here today. I'm here with Ruby. Ruby is a little puppy, and she's here for her puppy visit today. One of the things that we do on puppy visits, our vaccine. But then the other thing that we do is what's called a fecal analysis. So fecal analysis is otherwise known as a poop test. So we have a couple of things here before Ruby knocks it off a lot of the times, some of the different ways that we can go about this, and we prefer to do this here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital, we prefer to send clients home with a cup for the fecal collection. And the reason we want to do that is because instead of having to place a rod up your dog's butt and potentially have it be kind of a traumatic experience, especially when they're young, or if you're going to a veterinarian for the first time, it is something that a lot of times, you want to go ahead and have them have positive experiences. And the doctor's office can definitely be a scary place. So we send them home with this cup. What I typically tell people is we don't need the sample cup to be full typically, we just need it filled up to maybe, like, half of your thumb. And that's pretty much it. Sometimes I've had it where people, like, give me, like, a speck on the spoon, and I just have to let them know that it's not gonna be enough. It'd be a waste of time for the lab and waste of money. Now, the reason what we're checking for on these particular tests is for what we call intestinal parasites, or what some people might call worms. Now, the worms are typically something that's trans, transmitted through what we call a fecal oral route. That means that it's transmitted from the poop of one animal, and another animal may sniff the ground, get some poop on their foot, or maybe even the microscopic eggs, as the poop disintegrates or dissolves or whatever, leaves the egg on the grass. And then if this particular dog, Ruby, is sniffing the grass and the grass is wet, and she gets that egg on her nose, and she licks her nose, now she'll have ingested the egg of parasite. And so intestinal parasites can cause vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, so not feeling well. They can also cause, you know, seizures in some rare cases. And the other thing about intestinal parasites is that they can actually be transmitted to humans. This is one of the conditions that is what we call zoonotic, which means it can be transmitted from animals to humans. And so it is something where, you know, the. What we've seen in the past, sometimes patients can, or humans can have what's called aberrant migrations. And so the parasites can sometimes go outside of the intestines into like, super fun places like the heart, brain, eyes, liver, kidneys. And so that's, you know, something that we have to be aware of. You know, some people, they don't want to give their dogs heartworm preventative because it's a chemical that they don't want to have to give to their dog if they don't have to. And I can respect that as long as you are on the same page with me as understanding the potential risks. And if you're on the same page, fine, so be it. You're aware of the risks. The other thing is when you are, the way that we typically prevent this is by giving your dog a heartworm preventative. So you're saying, hold on, you're telling me you give heartworm preventative to prevent intestinal parasites? Well, a lot of times what happens is the heartworm medication also has intestinal parasite dewormer in it. So what you're essentially doing is you're deworming your dog or parasites or once a month with this preventative. And so you don't have to rush and go ask your veterinarian, oh, I need an intestinal parasite dewormer. No, it's already in your heartworm prevention the majority of time. Okay, what else? The other thing in regards to intestinal parasites, the most common parasites that we will see, at least down here in South Florida, are hookworms, roundworms, and sometimes whipworms. People may also hear of tapeworms. And so tapeworms are typically not transmitted. They're not transmitted through a traditionally a fecal oral route to dogs. They are actually transmitted by fleas. If a dog gets fleas and they chew the flea, then I know that feels good, right? If they chew the flea, then they will ingest the. The tapeworm in the actual flea, and that's how your dog will get tapeworms. Other than that, that's pretty much it. Now, in regards to fecal analysis, some places will do what's called a fecal flotation in house. So we'll take a sample of a stool, even in that cup, potentially we'll fill it with what we call this particular solution is fecasol. There are other fecal analysis solutions depending on what it is you're trying to get. Essentially what happens is the egg is not as dense as the solution. And so the egg floats up to the top. We get a little piece of glass, touch it to the top of the cup, we place it on top of a slide and look under the microscope. And so what we are looking for is parasites or parasite eggs. We don't typically identify and test mole parasites based on pictures or actual worms. We identify them based on their eggs. The other thing that you need to be aware of is tapeworms typically don't float very well. So those could be harder for your veterinarian to identify. Another option is to go ahead and send the test, the sample out to the lab and have the lab go ahead and do the fecal flotation. We do send out the fecal flotations to the lab. Now, the other thing that our lab does, the lab that we use is called idex. It's probably the largest national veterinary laboratory in the United States. And they also do what's called an antigen test where they check for the DNA material of parasites. So maybe even if we don't see the eggs or if they don't see the eggs on the microscope, they're also testing for the DNA material. So just because that particular fecal sample doesn't have any eggs in it doesn't necessarily mean that there are other segments of the bowel movement or feces that may actually have eggs in it. So otherwise, if you guys have any questions about this particular video, please leave it in the comment box. If you found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up. Subscribe. If you know somebody who needs to watch it, please share it with them. Thanks for watching. Have a great day. Be safe. Sam.