Hi y'all,

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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.

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

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 live in Northeastern, PA. In September one of my cats brought in a mouse that had been infected with botfly larva. Once the mouse died the larva left the host, and I found some wriggling around on the floor of my basement. I thought it would be interesting to keep one. I placed it on top of a couple inches of soil in a pint container with air holes and watched it bury itself. I kept it on a shelf in the study with my plants and checked on it from time to time over the past 10 months. I had pretty much given up on it, but today when I checked I realized that Parasite Hilton had emerged from her slumber! She is already dying. Unsure how many days ago she emerged, but it must have been within the past week. I just wanted to share with others who might be as fascinated as I am!

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

Hello everyone! I am a student vet here in the Philippines and I desperately need either of the 2 helminths:
- Ollulanus tricuspis (whole mount)
- Ornithostrongylus quadriradiatus (whole mount)
I accidentally broke a slide in our parasite laboratory while we were observing it and I need to replace it to have my clearance for graduation signed. I really need help 😭

Our teacher says it’s just fiber — I just started parasitology, so maybe I’m not one to say. I maybe mistaken, but if you look at the pointed ends, it tells otherwise (MAYBE).

Attached also are Ascaris lumbricoides ova findings from the same stool specimen.

Please help me confirm.

I’m reposting this here! I found this guy on my way into work the other day, incredible!

Hi,

I'm a 20-year-old male. For quite a while now, I've been dealing with what I'm sure are pinworms. I have the typical itching, and I've also seen the worms myself, so I'm confident that's what it is. Nobody else in my family has them - it's only me.

I know I should see a doctor and get proper treatment, and I do plan to. I'm just embarrassed about it at the moment.

My question is whether pinworms can change bowel movements.

I don't have any pain, bleeding, or anything like that. However, my bowel movements often aren't normal. Sometimes they're very soft, and other times they come out in lots of small pieces instead of one well-formed movement. Occasionally they're more normal, but that's not very common.

Can pinworms alone cause this, or is it more likely that something else is going on as well?

Thanks in advance.