Toxoplasmosis in dogs: symptoms, treatment and prevention

General information

Toxoplasma (Toxoplasma gondii) lies in wait for a person in everyday life everywhere: on the fur of a beloved dog, in beach sand, street dust, unwashed berries and fruits, on the legs of flies, on meat counters. Slightly less than half of the meat sold is also contaminated with these microorganisms.

Toxoplasmosis occurs when toxoplasma (parasitic microorganisms invisible to the eye) enters the body. The first time after penetration, Toxoplasma does not show itself; this quiet time is the incubation period. It lasts from seven to forty-five days.

During the incubation period, Toxoplasma groups in the blood of an infected animal or person; over time, they begin to develop and spread throughout the body through the bloodstream. Some harmful microorganisms are eliminated from the body naturally (with feces) after some time, while the remaining ones begin to parasitize the cells of internal organs, eventually leading to their destruction.

How the cells are destroyed: the toxoplasma that has settled in them begins to multiply rapidly. When their number exceeds the size of the cell, the cell walls burst under the pressure of these simple microorganisms. Leaving the burst cell, microorganisms populate healthy neighboring cells - gradually the focus of the disease grows, internal organs begin to work intermittently and incorrectly.

Important! A certain time passes and a single dense, impenetrable shell appears around many toxoplasmas.
Microorganisms enclosed in a cocoon are called cysts. After the protozoa pupate into cysts, their destructive activity is practically curtailed.

How can your four-legged friend get infected?

A domestic dog can become infected with toxoplasmosis through contact with street dogs. To exclude the possibility of infection, the owner should not allow his dog to approach them - after all, no one knows whether these dogs suffer from toxoplasmosis.

A pet can become infected if its diet includes raw meat. There is an opinion among dog owners that well-frozen meat from the freezer guarantees the absence of toxoplasma. This is only partially true, harmful microorganisms die at a temperature of -25C°, moreover, this temperature must be maintained for 5 days. The temperature in modern freezers does not fall below -20C°, and this temperature is absolutely not enough to disinfect raw meat. You should not only give raw meat to your dog, but also allow it to lick your hands, which are covered in blood after cutting the meat (liver).

What factors can cause infection:

raw meat and liver;
unwashed fruits and vegetables;
water from a puddle;
contact with infected animals;
grass or soil on which a sick dog or cat lay;
cat feces (there are no cysts with toxoplasma in dog feces).

Did you know? A dog is a very smart and intelligent creature.
Street dogs perfectly adapt to independent life in the city, perfectly understanding the rules of behavior with people, navigating the interweaving of streets and public transport. Their landmarks are background noise, smell, events that occur with constant frequency, and visual stimuli. Many people have seen with their own eyes how dogs travel independently on trams and trolleybuses, unerringly getting off at the right stop. It is all the landmarks in the complex that help them in this.

Dangerous or not

To be fair, it should be noted that the likelihood of an owner becoming infected from a dog is negligible. Today we are not talking about immediately getting rid of pets, but about how to prevent this disease and cure your pet if symptoms have already appeared. Therefore, there is no need to get rid of a sick animal. Maintain personal hygiene and visit a veterinarian.

Symptoms of the disease in a dog

After Toxoplasma enters the blood and begins its destructive activity, the animal exhibits the first symptoms:

the dog begins to refuse food;
mucous membranes change their color to red;
the animal becomes weaker and refuses to walk;
discharge appears from the nose, tears flow from the eyes.

After several days, the microorganisms spread to other (healthy) internal organs of the animal, the cells multiplying and occupying more and more new space.
The number of microorganisms in the cell grows until it breaks through its walls. The protozoa that escape from the cell occupy a new place and the development cycle repeats again. At this time, the animal’s immunity comes into play. The body begins to react to the aliens - releasing antibodies that fight microscopic invaders. As a result of this struggle, some of the toxoplasmas die, the remaining ones pupate into cysts, the limits of which they cannot leave due to the hard shell. That is, the body coped with the problem itself, the animal recovered without treatment. But if the dog was sick before becoming infected with toxoplasmosis and its immunity is weakened, then the disease may develop with complications.

Can you get toxoplasmosis from a dog?

If the owner has close contact with the pet during the incubation period, toxoplasmosis can easily be transmitted from dog to person, because toxoplasma is present in the animal’s saliva and on its mucous membranes.

Ways of infecting a person from an animal:

the dog licks the owner’s face or hands;
sleeps with a person in the same bed;
the dog is treated from the owner's plate;
the dog sneezes or coughs near a person;
cysts were brought on the fur or paws of an animal from the street (after petting a dog, a person accidentally touches his eyes or nose);
the dog sniffs infected cat feces, then comes into contact with the owner;
failure to comply with hygiene rules (the dog is not bathed, the owner does not wash his hands).

Veterinarians are convinced that more than half of cat and dog owners have been infected with toxoplasmosis at some time and did not know it.
Primary infection with toxoplasmosis is very dangerous for pregnant women. If during her life a woman has already had a latent or obvious form of this disease once, then contact with an infected animal is not dangerous for her, she has immunity to this disease. The most dangerous period of pregnancy for infection is the first three trimesters. If a woman becomes infected before 24 weeks, doctors recommend artificial termination of pregnancy. Infection at this stage threatens the developing fetus with developmental pathologies incompatible with life.

Important! If a woman does not know whether she has had toxoplasmosis in the past, then it is better for her to completely avoid physical contact with cats and dogs during pregnancy.

Pet treatment

If a dog gets sick, it is a tragedy for every owner. Finding a veterinarian, setting aside time to visit the clinic, carrying out the necessary procedures every day is an additional burden, but the hardest thing is to observe and not be able to help. However, toxoplasmosis rarely causes severe damage. Usually, owners may not notice short-term signs that disappear as soon as the disease becomes chronic.

But it will most likely not be possible to completely cure it. Therefore, if your dog is sick, you must first undergo an examination and make the correct diagnosis, and then smooth out the symptoms. In this case, a small amount of parasites remains in the blood, but does not cause any concern to the animal. The dog in this case is not contagious at all.

Diagnostic methods

It is quite difficult to confirm the fact of the disease with toxoplasmosis; for this, several laboratory tests are performed, after which only one of them can indicate the actual cause of the disease.

Laboratory diagnostic methods:

parasitological method (bioassays on mice);
immunofluorescence reaction (RIF);
polymerase chain reaction (PCR);
serological tests.

Since each of these methods is effective at a certain degree of development of the disease, their use is not always effective. To ensure that the correct result is obtained, veterinarians recommend testing for toxoplasmosis simultaneously in several laboratories, using different diagnostic methods.

How to help your pet

If tests have shown the presence of toxoplasma in the animal’s body, treatment must be started immediately.

Treatment is carried out simultaneously in several directions:

Parasites circulating along with arterial blood throughout the body are destroyed with special drugs.
Toxoplasma, which has already invaded the internal organs, immunomodulators are practically inaccessible to drugs. Therefore, the animal is given drugs that increase its immunity (immunomodulators). After taking immunomodulators, antibodies begin to actively enter the animal’s body, which are locked in capsules - cysts that have settled in the cells of internal organs, parasitic microorganisms.
Simultaneously with the two treatments listed above, drugs (symptomatic drugs) are used that maintain the general condition of the body. In an animal weakened by disease, the liver, kidneys, and spleen work poorly, and the load on the heart increases.

Please note that to strengthen the immune system, Vetom 1.1, Gamavit, Travmatin, Ronkoleukin, Helavit are also recommended

A sick dog can additionally “catch” any viral disease, so against secondary infections an additional course of treatment is carried out with the following drugs:

chloridine in combination with drugs of the sulfonamide group;
chemical coccide;
B vitamins simultaneously with a 40% glucose solution.

In fact, treatment does not destroy the disease, but transfers it to an inactive stage.
If this is successful, the animal recovers completely. It takes up to ten days to treat a dog. Irreversible consequences occur only when the animal has been ill for a sufficiently long period without treatment and one of the internal organs is seriously damaged. Such complications are typical for chronically ill dogs or young puppies under one year old. For 90% of sick animals everything ends well. Did you know? Smart animals are used as rescuers on water and in the mountains, as companions for blind people. You can often see the following picture at a pedestrian crossing: a guide dog leads a blind owner across the road. But dogs do not distinguish colors, which means they cannot navigate traffic lights. The solution is simple; a savvy companion takes into account not the changing colors at the traffic lights, but the movement of the flow of cars and the behavior of people crossing the road.

Pathogenesis

In most situations, toxoplasmosis in dogs is asymptomatic. The protective system does not allow the protozoan to actively reproduce. She drives Toxoplasma into a capsule from which the parasite does not know how to get out. And only individuals with weakened immune systems exhibit clinical symptoms of the disease. The parasite enters the alimentary tract with food and multiplies in the intestines. Having reached a certain number, Toxoplasma reaches the organs through the bloodstream, forming colonies in them that feed on the contents of the tissues. The liver, lymph nodes, kidneys, skeletal muscles and myocardium, brain, and hematopoietic system are affected.

A dog becomes infected with toxoplasmosis by eating raw meat.