Can dog eye worms be transmitted to humans? It’s a zoonotic disease!

Dec 09,2023
4Min

Can dog eye worms be transmitted to humans? It’s a zoonotic disease! It’s terrible! We all know that zoonotic diseases are actually relatively rare. Ordinary fevers and colds cannot be transmitted to humans at all. Today we are talking about a bug in dogs that can be transmitted to humans, namely eye worms. It’s scary to think about life in your eyes!

Can eye worms be transmitted to humans? The parasite is milky white in color, has jagged horizontal stripes on its body surface, and is 7 to 17 mm long. Before developing into adults, the larvae are difficult to detect. When the adults swim on the surface of the eyes, they can see very clearly. If not treated in time, the number of parasites will grow from a few to hundreds, and in severe cases, it can cause the dog to go blind.

So how was it transmitted to humans?

Can eye worms be transmitted to humans? The adult worms usually live under the conjunctiva of the dog's eyes, and the eggs they produce will be scattered in the tears and eye secretions. When licked by a fly, the eggs will develop into larvae in the fly's body and slowly move to the fly. If the fly licks the secretions of the human eye, the larvae will be infected into the human eye and then grow into adults. Of course, this can also be transmitted to cats.

Usually when dogs are infected with eye worms, the symptoms are conjunctival congestion, moist eyeballs, photophobia and easy tearing, which then turn into chronic conjunctivitis, secretion of sticky eye feces, and conjunctival swelling or bleeding. . Severe cases can cause the cornea to become cloudy and then ulcerate, leading to blindness. You know, the cornea is the window to the pupil and is a very important part of the eye. Once the cornea is damaged, it is really dangerous.

Can eye worms be transmitted to humans? In infected dogs, you can see slender adult worms swimming in the eyeballs, or you can see translucent milky white worms when you open the conjunctiva. Sometimes you can see hundreds of them, which is very scary.

If you are infected, you still need to seek medical advice.

Can eye worms be transmitted to humans? In addition, you can take precautions at ordinary times. Regularly clean the environment where the dog lives, spray disinfectants to kill mosquitoes and flies, and regularly deworm the dog internally and externally. Let me tell you, the reproduction cycle of fleas and roundworms is very short. The shortest growth cycle of fleas is two weeks, the shortest growth cycle of roundworms is only three weeks, the shortest growth cycle of hookworms and heartworms is only two weeks, and the shortest growth cycle of ear scabies mites is only 16 days. All in all, parasites reproduce very quickly. Maybe you think there is no problem if you don’t deworm your dog every few months, but by the time you think of deworming your dog, the parasites may have already given birth to several more offspring.

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