Lab 11 Appendix: Small Animal Parasite Review - Cat

Parasite	Location in Host	Diagnostic Stage*	Lab Specimen+
Dipylidium caninum	small intestine	proglottids (eggs) in feces	SSB 4,5,6
Taenia taeniaeformis	small intestine	proglottids (eggs) in feces	SSB 1,2,3 B 14
Mesocestoides sp.	small intestine	proglottids in feces
Spirometra mansonoides	small intestine	eggs in feces	B 144
Diphyllobothrium latum	small intestine	eggs in feces
Echinococcus multilocularis	small intestine	eggs in feces
Ancylostoma tubaeforme	small intestine	eggs in feces
A. braziliense	small intestine	eggs in feces
Toxocara cati	small intestine	eggs in feces
Toxascaris leonina	small intestine	eggs in feces
Cryptosporidium spp.	small intestine	oocyst in feces	SSB 97
Toxoplasma gondii	small intestine	oocyst in feces	B 182, SSB 49
Isospora sp.	small intestine	oocyst in feces	B 157
Giardia	small intestine	cyst in feces
Capillaria aerophilia	lungs	eggs in feces or sputum	B 61
Capillaria plica	urinary bladder	eggs in urine	B 61
Paragonimus kellicotti	lungs	eggs in feces or sputum	B 142
Aelurostrongylus abstrusus	lungs	larva in feces	B 157
Dirofilaria immitis	pulmonary artery	usually none (Ag or Ab in serum)
Otodectes cyanotis	external ear	adult in ear
Notoedres cati	skin	adults in skin scrape
Cuterebra sp.	skin	larva under skin
Ctenocephalides sp.	skin	adults on skin	SSB 75
Trichinella spiralis	muscle	larva (biopsy)	SSB 38

* Diagnostic stage in living host; serology and biopsy excluded. Where no diagnostic stage is present, serology or biopsy may be appropriate.

+ "B" = Bottle at end of bench, "SSB"= Student Slide Box Slide

Quiz Questions:

1. A client brings you a fecal sample from her 6 month old male cat (indoor/outdoor).  The client's 2 year old son was caught playing in the cat's litter box and had some of the feces (the actual sample brought in) on his hands and face.  You ran a ZnSO₄ flotation on the sample and the results are shown below (the objects measure about 10 µm).
   1. Identify the parasite.
   2. The owner is concerned for her son's health, given what you see at the right, should she be concerned?

Click here for the answer:

 

 

2. A young stray cat is brought into the clinic for a check-up by someone who is thinking of adopting it. A routine fecal flotation shows the presence of nematode larvae and the Baermann technique revealed the larva shown below (low power on the left; high power view on the right).
   1. Identify the parasite.
   2. Where are the adults of this worm found (what is its predilection site)?

Click here for the answer:

 

3. A client brings you a fecal sample from her 6 month old male cat (indoor/outdoor). The client's 2 year old son was caught playing in the cat's litter box and had some of the feces (the actual sample brought in) on his hands and face. You ran a ZnSO₄ flotation on the sample and the results are shown below. This time the object found measures about 70 µm.
   1. Identify the parasite.
   2. The owner is concerned for her son's health, given what you see at the right, should she be concerned?

Click here for the answer:

 

A. Toxocara cati (note the rough surface).

B. The owner should not about her son being infected from this egg, it has no larva in it yet and therefore is not infectious.  And since it has not even started to divide, other eggs in the feces are still 2 weeks or more from reaching the infectious stage.

A. Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Note the kinked tail.)

B. Adult worms are found in the lungs