Removal of Giant Kidney Worms from Dog

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Giant Kidney Worms Found In Dog
Warning: Graphic Medical Content
This dog recovered well and is doing great!

Here are the answers to some of the questions posted by viewers:

Question: How do the kidney worms get there?
Answer: Giant kidney worm (Dioctophyme renale) is a parasite usually found in fish eating mammals and their relatives to which dogs and occasionally humans become infected. It is a parasite that requires several different hosts to complete it’s life cycle. The female adult parasite colonizes the right kidney of the host and lays eggs which are passed in the urine. These eggs make their way to fresh water supplies and are consumed by earthworms and hatch and develop into a larva inside the earthworm. The infected earthworm is then ingested by frogs, crayfish or small freshwater fish and infests their tissues. Mink or other animals (such as dogs) then eat either the earthworms or infected freshwater crayfish, frogs or fish and the juvenile parasites migrate out of the new host’s intestine, and into the liver where they mature and make their way to the kidney as adults and begin the cycle again. The whole process takes 3-6 months and an adult can live up to 5 years.

Question: Do they hurt the dog?
Answer: Yes. The larva can cause liver damage when maturing and the adults can destroy the right kidney and in severe infection, damage the remaining left kidney leading to complete kidney failure. They can also cause peritonitis (inflammation of the lining body wall) which can be painful. Surgical incision is the only way to remove the adults and often the destroyed right kidney has to be removed as well. If there are more adults than the kidney can hold, they will inhabit the abdominal space instead or move to the left kidney.

Question: How can they be prevented?
Answer: Do not allow your dog to forage for freshwater fish/ crayfish/ frogs. Don’t eat undercooked freshwater fish or frog legs. Some of the common medications used for heartworm prevention are thought to kill the larvae but there has not been any testing to confirm this. Heartworm preventative medications may be helpful in preventing mature infestations but the disease is not common enough for clinical studies to have been done.

Question: What prevention did you give so the other eggs would not hatch?
Answer: The eggs that were laid by the adults inside the dog would not hatch. The body will treat them as foreign material and through the process of inflammation, eventually remove them.

Symptoms: Blood in urine. Weight loss. Rough Coat. Intermittantly painful abdomen.

Question: Can the kidney be sewn back into the dog?
Answer: The kidney is damaged by pressure necrosis and cannot usually be salvaged. It is removed to a. remove parasites and b. prevent future complications (ie. abscess etc.). The parasites survive on blood components.

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