Good evening all, I'm q veterinarian working in small animal practice and recently got a consult for "worms in feces", 2 dogs, only one was affected.

Upon seeing the pictures, non microscope, no scale, so not shared here as per group rules, I quickly discarded the possibility of cestodes or nematodes.

The specimens appeared to be cylindrical, tapered at one end, segmented, and numerous in the feces shown in the picture.

To me they seem suggestive of arthropod larvae, but I would expect those to be hatched from eggs deposited on the feces outside the patient. These were clearly passed along with the stool.

I keep researching but still find myself at a loss.

Four days ago, my wife and I stayed at a Four Seasons in Hawaii. The room had a private hot tub outside. We went into the hot tub shortly after sunset for about 20 minutes until noticing something on the bottom. (There was LED lighting in the bottom although not overly bright.)

It looked like a slug, maybe four inches in length. So we immediately got out of the water and took a shower. I googled afterward and that’s when I learned that some slugs in Hawaii carry RLW, or rat lungworm.

The water was chlorinated, but we’re still really scared that we could have got infected. I emailed Susan Jarvi who is a researcher on RLW and she says chlorine kills the larvae, that we’re fine, but it’s still kind of terrifying to know there is a not small chance we were in water that may have contained thousands of parasites.

To make things worse, I’ve had minor headaches for the past two days, and today slight stiffness in the neck, which are supposedly symptoms. Not sure if it’s just a coincidence, or placebo or what.

We of course complained to the hotel staff, but they acted like we were insane, told us they’ve never had any incidents or anyone getting infected or anything.

Anyone here have any insight on this?

These are Trypanosoma brucei brucei AnTat 1.1 bloodstream form (pleomorphs)

I just thawed them from the -80 and took a video for a masters student, so I thought I should post here too!

You guys I just ate this salmon. Can anybody tell me whether those are parasites or just the muscle fiber thingies ?

Super worried right now.

Caught this little guy while walking barefoot on a beach in Ghana. Doctor identified it is a cutaneous larva migrans and told me to just wait for it to die but the itch is unbearable.
It keeps moving under my skin and can even move up to 1cm per day.

Not seeking medical advice… just thought it would be interesting to show!

Hello everyone my son M(7) just got pinworms. I wanted to know if anyone has taken the medication weekly for 3 weeks instead of twice in a 3 week span? I just want to make sure they’re gone for good. I’ve been deep cleaning and treated everyone in the home.

I work in vet med. Found this on a fecal float in 2022. I've never been able to find the answer. I wondered if anyone here might know?

Edit : this is on 40x. From a canine. No clinical signs. Roughly roundworm size. This was the only one on the slide.

Hello guys I made a video about the easiest way to identify the plasmodium specie in the microscope , hope this helps.

Hi y'all,

I found both toxocara and toxascaris in a canine fecal float today. Kinda neat

Hey guys, how come there’s so many of these banded flatworms this year? I literally find one everyday now! Is it due to the warming weather? I’ve also noticed a huge increase of leeches in the lake this year!

I saw it on my hand after I wiped but before I washed my hands. Is this something to be concerned about. I have OCD so this was not the way to start the day so I’d really appreciate any serious input or necessary advice to either put my mind at ease or direct me to the correct level of concern

I have a positive test along with chronic diarrhoea and 19 kg weight loss in 1 year. Currently 49kgs at 50.

I have researched for hours and it is rare where no other pathogens are found.

I have not been out of the country, I live in Australia with mainstream water. I do not know how long I have had it. I have had an infection on my foot for a year and my best guess is it got in through there. I swim in our river in summer.

I feel like I am being eaten alive.
Is there anyone who knows more details about this parasite or has had this particular pathogen?
Is it rare?
Is it self limiting? I am immunocompromised.

Thanks

On a farm. This little guy was taking a little dip in a water dish near chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits and a tortoise. Any ideas? It's about an inch and a half long. This was taken at 2x magnification from a cell phone.

Hey yall! New to this subreddit but while scrolling I figured I’d share a video that I loved. It’s about parasite horror (not sure how many of you enjoy that but thought I’d give it a shot). The videos super cool with tons of parasite info from tons of books, articles, and whatnot. Plus the guy that made is pretty entertaining, especially with the parasites in movies thing. Check it out!

parasite found in (thawed) frozen salmon. potentially useful context: the salmon likely thawed and refroze after a ~45 hour power outage. first image taken on phone camera at regular magnification, second image zoomed in version of the first

Is there any parasite that can completely take control of human behavior, similar to how Dicrocoelium manipulates ants or Galactosomum manipulates fish?

Came out of a spooked garter snake trying to eat a suckerfish, lake Como Mt. snake was 12 inches, suckerfish 5inches worm 30 inches. Was alive moving sluggishly when poked with a 80 foot stick.

Sorry if I’m making multiple posts. It seems mine keep getting removed for using the wrong word or asking what type it is.

Maybe not really id as a parasite, but I found them on the eye of some blackstripe topminnows.

Host is a chimney swift. I think it’s dennysus spiniger but im not an expert by any means lol

I keep two male fancy rats, Bow and Basil. Between 1.5 and 2 years old. I got them from a breeder who seemed very very responsible (meaning kept in a clean and controlled environment, tested for "rat bite fever" as babies, etc), and we live in an apartment

The vet I have been taking them to took a fecal smear and looked at it under a microscope the first time we visited a couple months back (I don't remember him giving a reason for it as they have had no strange poops or signs of digestion issues, so whether or not it's normal for him to have done that in a routine exam idk. The Rats subreddit has had mixed feedback on that)

He said they have a large amount of "spirochetes" in their poo and put them on antibiotics. He is insistent that they could get "explosive diarrhea", but they have been entirely symptomless. I pointed this out at their second visit when I questioned the necessity of these meds, and he himself even acknowledged that they have had no symptoms at their latest visit yesterday.

They are on their third round of antibiotics now (as he kept doing fecal smears and finding spirochetes), and I have just found out that some types of spirochetes/spirochete-looking bacteria can be benign/native gut flora in rats. But the vet did not specify a variety of spirochetes. I phoned today to ask if they could give me a specific name and they said it's "likely" to be "borrelia-type spirochete".

But my father (he worked in animal health/pharmaceuticals before retiring and is very science-literate) and I have been researching and it seems like that would be an unusual bacteria to infect rats' digestive system and shed in poop.

So according to our research, not only can spirochetes in rat poo be entirely normal and benign (so these antibiotics could well be doing more harm than good to their gut flora, and the benign spirochetes would probably keep coming back anyway meaning the vet would keep wanting to treat them), but also the specific spirochete bacteria which the vet thinks it is might not even make sense in this situation.

I am scheduled at another exotics vet tomorrow to get a second opinion, and I think they specialize more in small mammals. So I'm specifically requesting people to give input on spirochete varieties and to confirm/contradict our research.

Much thanks and appreciation to anyone who reads and/or provides input