A few days ago, a 10-year-old girl from Zhejiang went to see a doctor because of vision problems. The doctor found that the vision in her left eye was severely reduced and she could only see faint light, while the vision in her right eye was normal; the examination also found old panretinal detachment in the left eye. Her clinical diagnosis was actually: canine toxocariasis.
It turns out that the girl kept a cat as a pet at home. The little girl often hugged the cat and had close contact with the cat. The doctor said that if you keep dogs and cats at home, if you don't pay attention to hygiene and epidemic prevention, your children will easily get "canine toxocariasis", and the clinic encounters many such children.
What is canine toxocariasis?
Regarding the understanding of roundworms, many people have memories of stomach upset due to them. How could roundworms get into their eyes?
Toxocara canis is a common parasite that lives in the intestines of dogs and cats. The feces excreted by dogs and cats parasitized by Toxocara canis contains a large number of eggs. If a person ingests the eggs by mistake, the eggs will hatch in the human body.
"After hatching, Toxocara will enter the liver, heart, lungs, eyes and other organs along with the blood circulation. If it invades the eyes, it will cause ocular toxocariasis, induce inflammation, and damage the retina. In severe cases, it may result in blindness." A doctor from the Fundus Disease Center of Zhejiang Provincial Eye Hospital said that the diagnosis of ocular toxocariasis requires special laboratory examination.
If your child’s eyes are red if there are pets at home, don’t be careless!
According to doctors, there are no special symptoms of toxocariasis in dogs in the early stage. They will have red eyes and painful eyes, which can easily be regarded as "pink eye" by parents. Parents are reminded that if there are pets at home, in addition to deworming treatment, if the child has red and painful eyes, photophobia, and vision loss, do not handle it by yourself, and please send it to the hospital for examination as soon as possible.
Doctors remind: Children cannot express themselves in a timely manner, and are often not discovered until their vision has seriously deteriorated or during school physical examinations. By then, the condition has progressed for many years, developing into retinal detachment, eyeball atrophy, etc. There may be roundworm eggs in sand pits and soil in public places. Parents should educate their children to wash their hands after playing or petting cats and dogs, and not to put dirty hands in their mouths.
Cats, dogs and other pets are good companions of human beings. Not all pets will become infected by the disease. However, pets that often run outside are prone to parasites, their fur may cause allergies to babies, and pets may scratch babies. These potential dangers are worthy of every parent's attention.
1. Take your pet to the veterinarian for a comprehensive examination. Always remember that a healthy pet is a safe pet. Deworming and vaccination are essential, and it would be even better if you get a beauty treatment!
2. Bathe your pets frequently and try to keep them in a clean environment.
3. If there are many guests visiting your home, try not to let it surround the guests. Crowds of people and strangers will make it excited, and the visitors will definitely focus their attention on the baby, which will make it jump around and scream around the baby. Therefore, parents should pay attention to both their babies and their pets to prevent accidents.
4. Do not let pets and babies sleep in an unattended room together.
5. When you are holding your baby on the sofa, do not let your pet get on the sofa.
6. Don’t mistakenly think that a muzzle can solve all safety problems. Although the dog cannot bite when it is muzzled, if the baby plays too much with the dog, it may accidentally scratch the baby with its paws.
7. Let the baby know: Do not poke the eyes and ears of animals with your hands, do not put your hands into the pet's mouth, and do not drag the pet's tail or pull its fur.
In fact, pets are very humane, and we cannot put all the responsibility on them when such things happen. The key lies in the hygiene of the little cuties. If you pay more attention to the above, you can effectively avoid such things from happening and get along with them safely!