Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Young heartworm found and removed from dog's eye after cornea injury
By Hayasaki, Mineo et al.·Published in The Journal of veterinary medical science·2013·School of Veterinary Medicine, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: A possible port of entry into the eye of dog during erratic canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) parasitism.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog was brought to the vet after a large white worm was found in the front part of its left eye, suspected to be a young heartworm. The vet used a special microscope to confirm the presence of the worm and discovered a fibrin sac, which indicated how the worm entered the eye. The vet performed surgery to remove the worm, and the cornea healed quickly afterward. This case shows that immature heartworms can sometimes migrate to unusual places, like the eye, causing serious issues.
People also search for: dog eye problems worm · heartworm in dog eye treatment · why is my dog’s eye swollen
Abstract
A dog was suspected of suffering from ectopic Dirofilaria immitis infection, because a large white nematode worm was detected in the anterior chamber of the left eye. A cylinder-shaped fibrin sac in the anterior chamber was found in the eye of the dog by slit lamp microscopy. After successful surgical removal of the worm, the corneal wound produced by the keratotomy healed in a short period. The worm was estimated to be extremely young, 5th-stage-immature male D. immitis, equivalent to a 90-120-day-old worm postinfection, by close morphological measurement and an experimental infection study. Thus, an immature worm can exhibit erratic parasitism in a host's eye. The fibrin sac was considered to be a trace of the invasion route, and the cornea may have been the port of entry into the anterior chamber of the eye in the erratic migration of D. immitis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23064450/