Tape worm symptoms
By: Johan
It might be difficult to detect the symptoms of a tape worm infection in both humans or in animals. Most are usual feelings of discomfort and illness, tape worm symptoms could more or less be any other disease that affects the stomach or it could even have been something that you ate. But as there are some certain tape worm symptoms a short list will now follow, what to look for in different animals.
Tape worm symptoms - Humans
For humans, tape worm symptoms are a feeling sort of queasy, a form of abdominal discomfort followed by diarrhea and in some cases even vomiting. A quick loss of appetite being followed by an almost endless hunger is also a tape worm symptom to look out for. Although the most usual way of confirming tape worm symptoms is to find tape worm eggs and segments in your stool there are these days also the possibility to check using ultrasound, much like looking at a baby inside a pregnant woman.
Tape worm symptoms - Dogs
Dogs can be tricky as they do not really show any symptoms at all. The first idea of that your dog might have tape worm is probably an obsessive chewing of its own backside and having the dog dragging its anus across your carpets, but this might be signs of many other things as they both are pretty common dog traits. The first real tape worm symptom, I am sorry to say, is egg sacks or baby-worms falling out of your dogs rectum or appearing in the dogs faeces. The egg sacks appear as rice corns and can actually move, disgusting but true.
Tape worm symptoms - Cats
As with dogs it is much more difficult to see tape worm symptoms than on humans. Although it is more common with a dog dragging its anus across the floor due to anal irritation, if a cat does the same it is most certainly a tape worm symptom. Also, as with the dog, egg sack can be seen in the cats faeces or fall out of the cats anus. The cat might also on rare occasions throw up a piece of, if not the whole, tape worm and that is an obvious tape worm symptom. Put do not get the idea that the cat is cured if it throw up the tape worm, because there could still be bits of it left, still at large.
Tape worm symptoms - Livestock
As there is no real way for the livestock to tell you that something is wrong, unless you work as a farmer and over the years have learned the animals quite subtle way of telling you things, there is no real way for you knowing that your livestock has been infected. Only way is to keep a lookout for if any of your animals start to rapidly loose weight and then check their faeces carefully for live worms and egg sacks. That will be an obvious tape worm symptom.