We are joining, Gizmo’s Terrier Torrent, Sugar the Golden Retriever and Garth Riley for their Scoop That Poop Blog Hop...
Since I am a Veterinary Technician I thought I would talk a little about intestinal parasites associated with poop for Scoop That Poop day.
Nestle Purina company made this handy Fecal Scoring System for people to use to score their pet’s poop. It helps veterinarians and technicians determine if their pet’s poop is Normal or not. If the clients are unable to get a stool sample before their visit they can look at the chart and let us know what kind of bowel movement their pet is having and if it is normal or not.
Intestinal Parasites
Intestinal Parasites can cause your pet’s poop to be abnormal. Intestinal parasites roundworms, whipworms and hookworms can be spread to humans so it is a good idea to have your pet’s stool checked for intestinal parasites a couple times a year to make sure they are negative for intestinal parasites. If your pet has abnormal stool for a extended period of time you should take a sample to your veterinarian and have a fecal examination done on it. They will check for adult intestinal parasites like roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and tapeworms by examining the outside of the stool sample. If you see anything like this on your pet’s poop you should scoop it up along with the sample and take it to your veterinarian for analysis. Here is a picture of an adult roundworm.
Here is a picture of an adult tapeworm.
If you see “rice” like segments on the fur of your dogs hind legs or around the rectum most likely it is a tapeworm. You may also see the segments on your pet’s poop.
If no adults are found then they will set up a fecal float and look for the eggs of each of those parasites along with a parasite called coccidia. They will also look for a parasite called giardia. Sometimes you can find giardia by looking at a direct smear of the stool sample but not always so if the veterinarian suspects giardia they will run a giardia snap test which will test for giardia antigen. Here is a picture of a giardia trophozoite that can be found in a direct smear.
Giardia can cause bloody watery diarrhea, it can be contracted by drinking out of contaminated puddles or stepping in contaminated stool.
Since there are many intestinal parasites that are zoonotic to humans it is a good idea to ALLWAYS SCOOP YOUR POOP and practice good hygiene along with teaching your children about good hygiene to lessen the risk of them picking up a intestinal parasite from your pet.
There are other diseases that can cause your pet’s poop to look abnormal but I will save that for another post as intestinal parasites are the big one that is transmitted to humans so thought it was appropriate for today’s Scoop The Poop Blog Hop.
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There’s a little mischief in today’s blog post for Mischief Monday also. Gambler likes to cause mischief with his poop by pooping on various rocks around our house. The bigger the rock the better.
This is a Blog Hop. Thanks to Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog , Luna, a Dog’s Life , and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop. Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.
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Sand Spring Chesapeakes 
I think many people just figure the poop will disappear on its own, no big deal but there are so many diseases out there and with less people taking their pets to the vet, I’m sure there is more “bad poop” out there. It is a dog parents responsibility and it is really an easy habit to get into. Thanks for sharing the disgusting stuff in poop.
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Great information. I can see how that chart would be helpful. Silly Gambler. I guess he figures you shouldn’t have to bend over too far to scoop.
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I was at Nestle Purina last Fall with some other bloggers and remember being given that poop info. It was eye opening to say the least! Thanks for posting the logo, they had forgotten to give me the poop logo.
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Your welcome, it is a eye opener!
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Great tips!
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Thank you.
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Great post! I think too many folks just don’t think about the consequences of not picking up the poopl
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I agree. They should think thou.
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Great post!!! Ma is a former (people) nurse and she recognizes those little Giardia faces. Ick! I like the poop score card…that is fantastic!
*high paw*
Oz
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Former people nurse, what does your mom do now?
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Hi Y’all!
I’m a good boy, I go to my own private place to go to the bathroom where my Human cannot follow. HEY! They close the bathroom door! I never go on the lawn or on a trail.
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
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Privacy is nice! Have a great day.
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We scoop when we walk, but mostly the dogs poop in the backyard. My boy mows over the poop. Sh! Don’t tell. I do scoop the chicken and duck poo off the back porch, though. Straight into the compost.
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LOL chicken and duck poo, scoop that poop.
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Thanks for the poop chart! We poops a lot! 🙂 wooooowoooo, Ku
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Your welcome! I like poops too!
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Very interesting information in this post. Encouraging dog owners to scoop the poop is a great idea!
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Thank you for stopping by.
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Awww…Giardia is a cute little guy. Ha, ha. Thanks for the primer. I know a lot about the effect dog poo can have on water quality but didn’t know much at all about the actual bacteria.
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He is a cute little guy. But he does cause some damage.
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Oh dear, way to much information – but I will be bookmarking this for the next time one of them gets diarrhea! Thanks for sharing ???
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LOL, I should of put a disclaimer at the top. 🙂
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Great info. I often wonder if the folks who don’t scoop do it because their dogs poop is difficult to scoop due to bad diet, illness, etc.
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You are probably right, bad diets illness can cause bad poops that are hard to pick up. Have a great day and thanks for visiting.
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Well, this is an example of a post that can be so very gross and so very useful all at the same time! Thank you (sort of?) for the excellent information. My human mommy actually had giardia (isn’t that gross?), and she says that cute little “face” is the only fun thing about that parasite. That is so funny that Gambler likes to poop on the big rocks! I guess you could say he likes his on the rocks. 😉
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There was one disturbing photo I wanted to add but thought the post was disturbing enough. But it’s reality. So sorry your mom had to go through having Giardia, yuck. At least it was that and not a tapeworm, now that is bad, bad, bad. HAHAHA to liking his on the rocks, you made me BOL
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So now you have us very interested in what the really disturbing photo could have been!
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It was a pile of soft poop with worms in it, it was really bad.
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Ooooh, although I’m sure that at some point or another most dog owners have seen the real thing.
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Thank you so much for joining our hop today and providing such great medical information…I’ve learned a few things…i wish the chart was a bit large so i could read the whole description, but from the photos, Gizmo’s poops are usually either #2 or #3…Funny how I know that 🙂 I’m hoping that means he’s healthy…I do check for worms and haven’t seen any in years (knock on wood) but I never stop checking…And the mischief…Gambler pooping on rocks is a stitch…what a clown he is
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Your so welcome, thanks for having the blog hop day to get awareness out there. #2 is healthy normal poop. Glad you have his stools checked for intestinal parasites and he doesn’t have any. It’s good to that most dogs are on a monthly heartworm medication that will deworm them from intestinal parasites they pick up.
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Alright – B has poop like the 2nd picture! That’s good, right?
These worms really gross me out – thank goodness Blueberry doesn’t have them!
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Yes B is normal. Good for B having normal poops, bad poops are not fun. Have a great day.
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Good info. Mommy went right out and scooped our poop after she read your post! Mommy hates to scoop poop cause we leave great big ones for her to pick up!
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Yeah! I hear ya on big poops.
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So good of you to talk about the bacteria/parasites that can be in poop. So many people don’t scoop the poops because they don’t realize the dangers they are leaving behind.
Our two do nearly all their pooping in the backyard, but I pick it all up, at least once a day or more. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy since theirs are all mostly 2s from the scorecard… although Austin occasionally has 1s or 3s. He’s my weird pooper. He poops on the patio instead of going on the grass, because he doesn’t like to step in anything remotely wet, and by that I mean even morning dew on the grass is too wet for him. He will only go in the grass if it’s super dry. Thankfully his poops are dry and don’t leave residue, but still… thanks a lot, pal :). Li’l Girl doesn’t care… she always hits the grass.
That’s so funny that Gambler poops on rocks!! We don’t have any rocks like that… makes me wonder if Austin would poop on those if they were there.
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Thanks for stopping by.
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Saw that chart and contemplating o how to share /present it. Isn’t interesting. It’s amazing the bacteria and parasites. Golden Thanks for sharing and joining out Scoop That Poop campaign. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
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You are so welcome.
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Thanks so much for pawticipating! Very interesting post with some great information. We’ve never seen the poop rating photo before but that could be very helpful. (Mom remembers trying to describe my black lab brother Jake’s poop to the vet and saying it was like soft-serve ice cream.)
Gambler is funny pooping on rocks. I had a chocolate lab cousin named Toby who used to poop in little trees and bushes so that his poop would be stuck in the branches!
Garth
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Your welcome, it was a fun post. Nice to meet you and Gman poops in bushes too.
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Great information, often time you find yourself wondering what’s going on with that pooper BOL, and this chart is very informative! I’m going to share it with a link back to your great site!!
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Thank you so much!
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