ByDr. Steve Surujbally
(– continued Last week, you received an introduction into the destructive nature of the tapeworm – its anatomy, its physiology and its method of attacking the host’s body. This week, we’ll concentrate on the infection itself. )
Symptoms
How do you know if your dog has tapeworms? Well the surest way is to actually see the tapeworms on the surface of the stool. There, they can be seen moving – contracting and expanding. Some books say they look like cucumber seeds. Well, that must be American cucumbers. I tend to think that ‘tapes’ look more like flattened grains of rice that contract and elongate themselves on top of the stool. Sometimes one can see the tapes crawling out of the anus and attaching themselves to the hair surrounding the anal orifice. As the ‘tapes’ exit the anus, there is a tickling/itching sensation, and the animal scoots around on his behind.
Usually, one will not see the tapeworms (segments) on the stool unless there is a heavy infestation. It seems that the individual worms are competing for space on the gut wall to attach themselves. If they can’t find a niche, then they are shed.
According to the level of tapeworm infestation, the telltale signs will vary. For example, if the bundle of ‘tapes’ in the intestine is so large as to occlude the lumen of the intestine, then the symptoms would be the same of a foreign body blocking (stuck in) the intestine. The animal would vomit and be constipated.
The vomiting will cause dehydration and the constipation would result in great discomfort, straining and uneasiness.
Also, if there is a huge ‘tape’ burden, then the food intake and absorption could be compromised. The animal therefore will lose weight, the hair coat will lose its lustre, the pet will become emaciated. In some cases, perhaps because of the loss of macro and micro-elements (minerals and trace elements) or because of toxic substances exuded by the tapeworms, the animal exhibits epilepsy–like seizures (‘fits’).
So in telegram-style, the symptoms could be:
(i) Loss of appetite
(ii) Loss of weight/
general unthriftiness
(iii) Vomiting
(iv) Lethargy
(v) Constipation
(vi) Expressions of
discomfort/ pain (colic)
(vii) Lacklustre coat
(viii) Epileptiform seizures
(‘fits’)
(ix) Mild diarrhoea
In every relevant textbook, I notice that the author goes to great pains to tell us that ‘tapes in dogs and cats rarely cause serious problems or elicit symptoms.
Well, in my almost four decades of practice, I have seen many a dog waste away because of even a mild infestation with tapeworms.
Perhaps the poor nutritional status of our animals may allow the ‘tapes’ to be more destructive compared to their activity in the gut of well-fed animals. Also, it has been proven that the expression of clinical signs is often associated with the age and breed (in addition to the above mentioned degree of infection and nutritional status) of the animal.
Of course an animal can have tapeworms for a long time without shedding them or their segments. But there is another way to determine whether your animal has ‘tapes’. One can take a stool sample to any medical laboratory for analysis. The lab technician will prepare the sample and look for tapeworm eggs. These eggs are very characteristic in their shapes and very unlike other worms’ eggs.
I must entreat you, however, to label the stool sample correctly. Your accompanying note to the lab technician must state specifically that your request is for analysis to determine whether your animal has tapeworms. If you just write: “Please examine the stool sample for the presence of worms”, the laboratory will invariably just look the usual Nematode eggs (Roundworm, Hookworm, etc). This latter process is based on the flotation principle. The solution in which the stool sample is mixed allows the light Nematode eggs to float to the surface where they
can be easily dipped out and placed on a slide for microscopic analysis.
Tapeworm eggs, on the other hand, are relatively heavy. They sink to the bottom of the test tube – sedimentation – and can’t be easily fished out. The lab technician has to use a special test tube with a run-off valve at the bottom. After the ‘tape’ eggs in the sample have settled at the bottom, one can then open the clip and collect the sedimented stuff which contains the ‘tape’ eggs. This process is more complicated and is not done routinely
So, please write on the accompanying note: “Examine for tapeworm eggs – Sedimentation process, please”. Or, if you fear that the lab technician will think of you as being “uppity” and “officious” and treading his/her turf, let your veterinarian write the note and deposit the sample on your behalf.
Until next week – same column, same newspaper – when we will continue the next episode of this tapeworm drama, Tschuss.
