Roundworms, pets and your childs health
How Round worms cause illness?
Roundworm eggs passed in feces of dogs and cats can cause a serious disease in humans known as VLM. Eggs can stick to hands and be transfered to mouths and swallowed. If the eggs hatch in intestines tiny larvae are released. They penetrate the walls of the intestine and move thought the body doing damage to many organs. How sick someone gets depends how many eggs are swallowed and what parts of body are affected. Severe infections can result in eye injury and blindness, heart, kidney damage, pneumonia or nervous disorders. Mild case may involve muscle aches or diarrhea and cramps or might have no symptoms.
Prevention
many animals are infected with roundworms without showing any symptoms. Everyone should be careful. Make sure that playgrounds are fee of animal feces. Sandboxes should be covered when they are not used.Children should always wash their hands after playing with pets.
Pet owners should take special precautions by:
having a vet examine the dog or cat before bringing it home. Pet should be checked for worms at least twice in their first year and at least once a year for the rest of their life.A vet will easly beable to determine if an animal has roundworms by checking fresh stool sample. if the animal is infected a de worming drug will quickly get rid of the problem.
Keep utensils and plates used for animals separate from dishes you use yourself. Don;t let animals lick your plate. Pets shouldn’t share bed with you or your children.
Make sure you clean after your dog when you take it for a walk.