S8 E1: The Worms Crawl In: The Story of Whipworm (feat Sweet Pea)

0:00 Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa, and we are the hosts of the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast based out of New Jersey where we tell you about the most obscure cases that you may have never heard of. So join us in the Book of the Dead library for another chapter of the Book of the Dead. Wherever you get your podcasts. Hi guys, are you looking for your next true crime podcast? Do you crave stories that have mystery and suspense? Well, look no further, introducing Love and Murder, the podcast that dives deep into the world of relationships gone horribly wrong.

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1:40 Side effects include enjoining another true crime podcast, becoming a lamb, learning logic and how to deal with your problems in a healthy manner and not turn into murder. Waiting for the next episode of Love and Murder to drop every week. Visit my website at www dot murder and love dot com and remember all love and no murder. See you soon. Dark Cast Network, come on over to the dark Side. We're really nice people once you get past the true crime and scary science. Hello, and welcome to Cause of Death. One hundred seconds to midnight. I'm your host, Jackie Morante. This episode begins a new season of the podcast. The topic for this season is parasites.

2:27 I call it Creepy Crawley's. There may not be a whole lot of history in this season, but there will be plenty of diseases that you don't really want. Today, we're going to talk about whipworm. I chose this particular parasite because my dog's sweet pea was diagnosed with it a few weeks ago, despite having worm meds every month. We'll begin this story as usual with ediology and pathology. Worm infections are often referred to as helminth infections, and I'll use both references. Whipworm is a parasitic roundworm. Its scientific name is Tricurus tricuria. Its phylum is Nematoda. It's in the class of Anoplia.

3:17 Its domain is Eukaryota. It's in the family Tricyidae, genus Tricurus and kingdom Animalia. The body of the worm is shaped like a whip, with a long, thick handle like structure at one end, the anus that tapers off to a thin whip like structure at the other end. It's this end that attaches to the sekum, but we'll get to that. The disease that it causes in people is tricuriasis. The size of these worms varies between three to five centimeters, and the female is usually larger than the male. The female lays anywhere from two thousand to ten thousand eggs per day. Think about that for a minute. These eggs are generally left behind after an infected human defecates in the soil. If you've ever wondered why I tell you to wash your fruits and vegetables before you eat them, well soon you will have your answer.

4:28 The eggs mature in about fourteen to twenty one days. This is when they enter the effective stage. If someone ingests the ambryonated eggs, the eggs will hatch in the small intestine, where they'll use the intestinal microflora and the nutrients in the digestive tract to mature and grow. The majority of the larvae will move to the secum, where they penetrate the mucosa and mature to adulthood. If a large worm burden is present, parts of the large intestine could become involved. Most of the disease burden is found in tropical climates. Asia has the highest burden, and less often it is seen in Africa and South America. It's also found in the rural southeastern United States. Worldwide, between four hundred and fifty million and one billion people were recently diagnosed with whipworm infections.

5:28 Most of these cases affect children, with boys at higher risk than girls. It's possible that a partial immunity to the worm develops with age tricuriates. This is one of three well documented soil transmitted helminth infections. It's considered to be a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization and the CDC. The most common cause of whipworm disease is the ingestion of infected eggs that live in the soil. Most often, this is due to poor sanitary conditions, including areas where people defecate on the ground and the use of human feces as fertilizer.

6:14 Wash everything before you eat it, everything you don't know where it's been. Once ingested, the larvae hatch and the small intestine, then they migrate to the large intestine, where they attach to the mucosal membrane. In severe infections, the infestation may include the entire rectum and colon. This leads to cell destruction and the activation of the host immune system through lymphocytes, eosinophils, and plasma cells. Unembryonated eggs will be dispelled through the feces, where they become embrionated in two to four weeks, and this makes them infective. The worm lives between one and four years in patients who go untreated. Infections usually occur in people who visit areas where whipworm infections are common. Patients may experience abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, painful passage of stools, abdominal discomfort, and mucous discharge. Diarrhea and constipation may also present. Nocturnal passage of stools is a common complaint among patients with whipworm infections. Many patients remain asymptomatic if the worm burden is light. Rectal prolapse is common in those with heavy worm burdens.

7:46 Children with whipworm may develop anemia, growth deficiency, and impaired cognitive development due to an iron deficiency and malnutrition, since the worms are taking up all the nutrients that the children are eating. The diagnosis depends on stool samples taken from the patient. Microscopic examination should reveal the presence of eggs. It may then be possible to determine the number of eggs in the sample, thus determining the worm burden. This diagnostic tool has one pitfall, however, between the time that the eggs are ingested to the development of the mature worm. There is a lag of about three months. During this period, there may be no signs of an infestation and the stools may not show evidence of eggs or shedding. Red blood cells and white blood cells, specifically eosinophils may be present in the stool samples, and a blood test could confirm anemia. Treatment includes mebendazol, albendazol or ivermectin, Yes, the very same ivermeictin that people claim will Ward off COVID nineteen. It doesn't. That thought is totally ridiculous.

9:09 I talked about covid and ivermectin in Season one. Go back and listen. While all these drugs are suggested for treatment of whipworm, neither albendizol nor ivermectin have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of whipworm. Treatment with a prescribed antiparasitic normally lasts three days. As with any helmeth infection, It's important to note that there may be more than one parasite involved, so combinations of antiparasitics may be required. Whipworms tend to be more resistant to treatment than other worms. Some studies list the curates as low as twenty eight to thirty six percent. While whipworms can still be present after treatment, the low warm count may not lead to a significant disease burden. Tricariasis is not a fatal disease, but it can cause anemia and nocturnal stooling. Many patients develop colitis and malabsorption. Deficiencies of fat soluble vitamins are not uncommon. Children may develop poor growth and rectal prolabs. In areas of the world where the disease is endemic, mass drug administration may occur. Mass drug administration will include entire risk groups, with health care providers going door to door to offer preventive treatment. The

10:43 drugs used are relatively safe and are either very inexpensive or donated. This practice is normally performed annually in these higher risk areas. We'll be talking more about mass drug administration in a few future season on Neglected Tropical Diseases. The whole reason that I chose whipworm as the first episode in this season is because my dog, sweet Pea, was diagnosed with whipworm a few weeks ago. My dog gets a heartguard wormer every month like clockwork, so I didn't understand how she could get whipworm. It turns out that heartguard doesn't prevent or treat whipworm or tapeworm. I need to talk to my vet again about changing her wormer to something that controls allworms. I have a special guest in the studio today.

11:41 I'm going to let Sweet Pea tell you about her experience with whipworm. Then I'll come back to talk about how the disease affects dogs. Hi. Everyone, I really didn't want to talk about this because it's super embarrassing. It's a lot about poop and some of my bad habits. I'd much rather talk about my birthday party at doggie daycare. You can talk about your birthday party on TikTok. Right now you need to talk about worms. Gross, Okay, I guess it's better to begin at the beginning. Daycare isn't always good for dogs. We learn bad habits there and we get away with everything.

12:30 Some daycares are better than others, but most of the time there are way too many dogs hanging out and playing to give much attention to everyone. I picked up some bad habits too. One of them was eating poop. I don't know why I do it. It doesn't taste very good, but my friends sometimes do it, so I do it too. I'm a follower. I won't go anywhere near another dog's poop when I'm out with Jackie, but all the dogs eat poop at daycare, so I don't want to be different. It's kind of a big deal. Anyway, Enough about peer pressure.

13:15 Jackie feeds me two pieces of pineapple and two sprigs of curly parsley three times a week to make me stop eating poop, and that seems to work. I haven't done it in quite a while. I really like pineapple, but parsley is like garnish, isn't it. I don't like it so much. Anyway, One day, Jackie noticed that I was straining to poop. I had to go, but nothing was coming out, and when it did come out, it was really hard. On the way back from our walk, I had to poop again, but this time it was really runny and it had a little blood in it. I went to day and all day I had really renny poops and there was a lot of mucus and some blood in them. I didn't play very much that day either, I just wanted to sleep. My tummy hurt, and I wasn't feeling like being social.

14:16 When we got home that night, I wouldn't eat. I'm a voracious eater. If I don't eat, there's something definitely wrong. So Jackie called the vet and made an appointment for me to go in the next day. She was hoping to be one of the last appointments that night, but they were just getting ready to close, so we had to wait. I went to bed, but I got up twice during the night to poop. Both times it was pretty runny, and it was really stinky too, Not like poop doesn't stink anyway, but this was really stinky. The next morning, Jackie took me to the vet along with a stool sample. After a lot of uncomfortable examination, he found out that I had whipworm. Jackie was pretty upset when the VET told her that heartguard doesn't control whipworm, but the VET said that Heartguard is the best wormer out there. She's still kind of mad about the whole thing. Anyway. The VAT put me on three days of panker, and when I was all done with the medication, my worms were gone and I felt much better. Okay, is that enough of my poopskapads?

15:35 Can I talk about my birthday party? Now? You can talk about your birthday party in a little bit. I need to get this episode out. When I drop it, we'll work on your TikTok video. Okay, but everyone needs to know about my birthday party. They will. Let's just get this done first, Okay. Tell everyone goodbye and you'll talk to them a little later. Bye. Everyone, Thank you for listening to Cause of Death one hundred seconds to midnight. Watch out for my video where I talk about my birthday party. There was no poop involved, well some, but it didn't have anything to do with my birthday party. We're all dogs, we poop. Okay, sweet pee, we get it. Go play so I can finish this. Bye. Everyone. I was pretty worried about my dog.

16:30 She's got a genetic disorder called double murle gene trait, so I thought that possibly something was really wrong with her gut and it was a much bigger deal. I was also worried that she ate something like a ball or a toy that got stuck in her intestinal system. Surgery wasn't in my budget, even with pet insurance. I tend to overthink everything and land right on the worst case scenario, though, so I freak out over all lot of things. I'm still mad that the vet prescribed heartguard when he could have prescribed an allwormer. The whole situation was rather maddening. Really, Okay, we're going to take a break to hear from our sponsors. Then I'll be back with the rest of the story. Forty percent of Americans have a hard time swallowing pills, and I'm one of them, so I really did not want to get on a vitamin regimen, even though I needed it. When it's time to take your vitamins, large capsules and pills are out of the question.

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21:25 Head to www. Truleafmarket dot com and use promo code COFD ten at checkout for ten dollars off any purchase of fifty dollars or more with free shipping in the lower forty eight States on purchases of over seventy five dollars. Go get your grow on with true Leaf Market anyway. Now you have the background on sweetpeas experience with whipworm, and you know the topic of her next TikTok, So let's get back to how the worm affects dogs. These infections are difficult to detect in dogs. Clinical signs vary from nothing to intermittent large bowel diarrhea.

22:11 Severe infections present as critical and life threatening. Whipworm infection is often misdiagnosed as hookworms, roundworms, giardia, or the ever popular garbage enteritis. Garbage enteritis was my go to when sweet Peas started showing signs of infection. She's always eating something that she shouldn't be eating, and she and I both pay for it when she goes out to poop. Whipworm wasn't even on my radar. According to MRK Animal Health, this is common among dog owners and veterinary professionals. We discount whipworm because the dogs are getting warmer on a regular schedule.

22:59 But Merk also says that there are three characteristics of whipworm that should keep them on the list of things to look out for. Whipworms are patient, sneaky, and persistent. Canine whipworm is known as Tricurus vulpus. These worms also look like whips and can grow from four to seven centimeters long. The adult worms live primarily in the secum, while the thick portion of the worm will remain in the intestinal lumin and the thinner end will penetrate the secual mucosa. Adult whipworms live off the dog's mucosal, epithelium, blood, and tissue fluids. The female worm may lay up to two thousand eggs in a day, but she's patient. She doesn't produce eggs daily. Shedding episodes may occur days or weeks apart, so there won't always be worms in a stool sample.

24:02 When the female finally does lay eggs, dogs shed them in the environment Tricurus eggs generally embryonate between nine and twenty one days, but they're also patient. They can remain effective in the environment for years before being ingested by the unsuspecting dog who just happens to pick up the ball that rolled in the dirt patch at the dog park, or the dog who eats poop. After ingestion, the larvae hatch and develop in the mucosa lining of the small intestine for up to ten days. Then the cycle begins, and anywhere from seventy four to ninety days later, the female will begin shedding more eggs. The usual down and dirty way to detect worms is the float test. Basically, a stool sample is put into a container of water or saline and the eggs float to the top. Whipworm eggs, however, are very dense. They have a specific gravity of one point one point five, so rather than using saline, a sugar solution with a specific gravity of one point two five must be used so that the eggs will float. Often, whipworm is diagnosed by ruling other bacterial and parasite infections out rather than finding the worms. This happened in

25:33 sweet peas case. The worms couldn't be found, but the vet suspected whipworms since she didn't have anything else. Whipworm eggs are thick and they're tough. They can survive desiccation, extreme temperatures, and even UV radiation. The human whipworm can survive temperatures from one hundred and twenty six degrees fahrenheit down to negative sixty degrees fahrenheit and still ambryonate. The resilience of these worms makes it highly likely that they're everywhere in the dog's environment. Murk cited a recent study of parasite prevalence in two hundred and eighty eight dog parks in thirty metropolitan cities.

26:21 They found Tricuris vulpus in eighteen percent of those parks. This means that nearly one in five dog parks are infested with whipworms. Now let's get this part straight. Am I telling you to keep your dogs away from dog parks and daycares? Not at all. What I am telling you is that you need to talk to your vet and get them on a good all around worm prevention. Whipworms are persistent in more ways than one. The common treatment for whipworms and dogs is panker, but it may not get all the eggs that are circulating in the dog's digestive system. This means that the infection may not completely clear after the first treatment. Having a good preventive wormer will ensure that your dog doesn't get them in the first place, so you don't have to worry about treating the same infection over and over again. So that's whipworm, no history at all, but it's a good cautionary tale for those with dogs that go out and socialize in dog parks, parks, doggy daycares, and just about anywhere else that dogs poop. Are we still talking about poop? I want to talk about my birthday, for Heaven's sakes, let me finish.

27:44 Then you could talk about your birthday. Thank you all for listening to Cause of Death one hundred seconds to midnight. If you would like to support the show, there are several ways you can do so. The easiest way is to listen and share these episodes with everyone you know. I would also love it if you would stop by Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leave a five star review. These two things help the show grow and move the podcast up the charts so that others can find it too. Another way to support the show is to sign up on either Patreon or Apple subscriptions. I have some truly amazing sponsors, and stopping by their online stores and using the promo codes that I give you can also help the show grow and expand. Honestly, I wouldn't be talking about these sponsors if I didn't believe in their products. If you'd like to contact me, please feel free to email me at Jackie at cause of Death one hundred scs dot net, or you can leave a message on the website at www. Cause of Death one hundred second dot net.

29:02 The show notes are a great place to find my Patreon page, my website, my sponsors, and the research that I used for this episode. I want to thank my amazing dog, Sweetpea, for sharing her poop story with us. I promise the birthday story is much easier to swallow. Stop talking about poop. I'll see you in two weeks when I'll be talking about brain eating amba and why they're so dangerous. Until then, don't lick the dog park. Stop stop, stand still, stand