Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Signs and appearance of tungiasis flea infection on dogs' paws
By Harvey, Tatiani Vitor et al.·Published in Parasitology research·2021·Programa de Pó, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Clinical and macroscopic morphological features of canine tungiasis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in northeastern Brazil were found to have a skin condition called tungiasis, caused by a parasite that burrows into the skin, particularly on their paw pads. Many of these dogs showed signs of pain, lameness, and skin changes like dark pigmentation and thickening, which made it hard to spot the lesions. The study highlighted that younger dogs had more lesions, and those with many lesions experienced more severe skin changes. Effective treatment and prevention strategies are crucial to control this issue in dogs and reduce the risk of spreading the parasite to humans.
People also search for: dog paw pad lesions · tungiasis in dogs · treatment for dog skin parasites · why is my dog limping · dog skin problems causes
Abstract
Tungiasis is a public health problem in endemic resource-poor communities, where dogs are important reservoirs of Tunga spp., contributing significantly to the process of transmission of this zoonosis. In order to optimize the diagnosis of canine tungiasis, macroscopic morphological characteristics and clinical signs of the lesions were investigated, based on the inspection of 40 dogs infested by T. penetrans from an endemic rural community in northeastern Brazil. Of the 1546 lesions found in these dogs, including all stages of development of the parasite, 89.1% (1378) were located on the paw pads. Dogs aged up to 5 years had the greatest number of lesions. Dark pigmentation and hyperkeratosis of the paw pads made it difficult to identify the lesions. Among all the clinical signs observed were hyperemia (38; 95%), pain (32; 80%), fissure (11; 27.5%), onychogryphosis (29; 72.5%), cluster of lesions (26; 65%), hyperkeratosis (25; 62.5%), lameness (15; 37.5%), and fissure (11; 27.5%). Ectopic lesions were found especially in the nipples (64; 4.1%) and abdomen (51; 3.3%). The maximum diameter of the stage III neosomes was 6 mm. Dogs with a higher number of lesions had a higher degree of hyperkeratosis. Age over 1 year was associated with a higher rate of dispersion of the parasite in the environment (p = 0.04). The identification of the initial stages of tungiasis can guarantee a more effective control of the disease in dogs, which will mainly depend on the treatment of adult animals and the application of continuous preventive actions based on One Health in these communities.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33474585/