This here is Percival, the slug.
He's happy about the rainy weather, the fat, green grassblades
and the larger than expected tax refund
his accountant just informed him about.
All in all, Percival is having a wonderful day, which--
[narrator sighs]
Okay, let's just start over again.
This here is Bob, the dog.
After burying his master's wallet in the garden,
he ate a delicious slug.
All in all, Bob is having a wonderful day
because he's totally clueless about the parasitic worm larvae
he just consumed with the slug.
Let us take a closer look!
Angiostronglyus vasorum is an internal parasite of dogs and likes.
Its proper name is French heartworm,
probably because of the Eiffel tower photobombing all the pictures ever taken of it.
Or maybe because it was discovered in France,
no one can tell for sure.
Even though it's called 'heartworm',
the main damage it's responsible for is of the lungs.
It's much smaller than its namesake,
barely reaching the length of 2 centimeters as an adult.
It has nothing to hide: its insides are visible through its skin.
It's most common in Europe
but it can be found almost everywhere around the globe.
The definitive host (the dog) acquires the parasite
by ingesting the infected intermediate host (the slug).
Neither of them is very happy about this
but due to the lack of heart-wrenching puppy dog eyes,
we don't really give a sh*t about the slug.
Inside the dog's guts, the worm is set free.
At this point, we call it stage 3 larva or L3 for short,
it's practically a child but it knows exactly
that marinating in stinky digestive juices is not a good way of getting old.
It penetrates the intestinal wall and migrates to the mesenteric lymphnodes
where it procrastinates long enough to outgrow its skin twice
becoming a stage 5 larva, or L5.
After this, it will ride the bloodflow to the liver
(because it's a fun organ from the inside)
then it will continue its journey through the heart to the pulmonary arteries.
You can't remain an L5 forever, mom always said,
so deep inside the vessels of the lungs, the parasite waves goodbye to youth
and turns into an adult worm.
The males then seduce the females by reciting Monty Python quotes.
After mating, the females lay tiny eggs into the blood
which get helplessly carried away by the flow
and eventually get stuck in the pulmonary capillaries.
This is right next to the respiratory surface
so the stage one larvae (L1) hatching from the eggs
don't have anywhere else to go:
they chew through the thin wall of the air vesicles and land in the airways.
The dog will cough them up and either spit them out or swallow them.
The latter is a longer journey to the outside
but it's filled with colorful (well, mostly brown) experiences.
Whether or not little L1 exits the dog in the front or in the back,
it will put its life in the hands of fate.
Although pretty durable and in no need of counseling,
it will eventually kick the bucket unless a slug or snail comes rushing in
to feast on the delicious pile of crap and incidentally, on the larva.
The intermediate host is a sort of kindergarten for the parasite:
in it, the little worm will learn how to tie its shoelaces
and how to cuss like a motherf***er.
During the weeks and months spent in the slug, the larva molts twice,
turning into L3 ready to infect any stupid dog hungry for slugs.
But, of course, your dog is not so dumb as to eat slugs!
Maybe a frog sometimes, or cigarette butts
or the occasional Paris-Moscow bus ticket, but a slug?
Not in a million years!
Bob can't get infected… can he?
Well, most dogs really do not eat snails or slugs.
Not intentionally at least, because it's… disgusting.
But they often munch on all sorts of s**t they find lying around
–literal s**t too–
and if a slug happens to be dining on top of it…
Well, that's an express ticket to the dog's belly.
Also, somewhat sick scientific experiments taught us
that the L3 is able to exit the slug on its own
and can survive in the slimetrail for a short time.
Bob therefore, might get infected simply by licking up the slug snot.
Furthermore, it's been demonstrated that frogs too can act as intermediate hosts
or at least transport hosts
(meaning the larva doesn't grow in them or do anything
besides knitting sweaters)
so frog-eating dogs aren't safe from the worm either.
It should be noted that the experimental conditions
under which the L3s emerging from the slug
and the frogs getting infected were observed
were not strictly speaking natural
so it's hard to say whether these crazy pathways of development
are ever taken by sane larvae in the wild
and if so, how often they lead to the infection of dogs.
So maybe just because you notice a slimetrail on your dog's golden drinking bowl,
it's not worth ripping your own face off in a full-blown panic attack
but I thought I should post a warning. Just to be on the safe side.
Okay, okay, but what happens to the dog if it gets infected?
Around 6-10 weeks after the L3 is ingested
the adult worm starts laying eggs in the small arteries of the lungs
and the hatching larvae begin damaging the local lung tissue.
The severity of the damage greatly depends on how many worms are present in the dog.
If only a few, you may not even notice the occasional cough,
but if the worms are teeming, Bob is facing some hardcore, chronic coughing
and the destruction of his useful respiratory surface
which leads to excersice intolerance and shortness of breath.
These symptoms alone are not very specific.
They could be signs of heart disease or… Krhregrh-syndrome or something
but French heartworm infection may also lead to bleeding disorders.
Consider it a bonus.
Injuries bleed longer, bloodshots and hematomas appear all over the body,
and fatal internal bleeding becomes a real possibility.
How do worms in the lungs cause bleeding disorders?
Scientists determined that we just don't f***ing know yet.
If you find out, please do tell us.
Contrary to its namesake, however, the French heartworm rarely causes heart disease.
On this note, not so long ago, a crowd of almost 3 parasitologists
gathered on the street protesting for changing the name of the parasite to "lungworm"
because that's more in line with the pathology of the disease.
Angiostrongylus vasorum, therefore, is also referred to as lungworm
lumped together with several other parasitic worm species living in the lungs.
Specific mentions of the parasite should say either the Latin name or French heartworm.
When respiratory symptoms and bleeding disorders are seen at the same time,
the possibility of French heartworm infection should be considered
but for a certain diagnosis, we need more.
The microscopic larvae have to be shown in the dog's spit or poop
which is not only difficult because you have to soak s**t in water in a champaign glass for 8 hours
–friendly advice: don't do it on New Year's Eve–
but because larvae are not produced continuously
and you just might pick a time when none are present.
Blood tests able to detect infection have become available lately
but they aren't perfect either,
so combining them with the classic technique is recommended.
This is all fine and dandy but how can you kill the damned worm?
Several drugs with unpronounceable names are suitable for this purpose.
They are available in the forms of spot-ons and pills - some are better, others less so.
Your veterinarian will know which one is worth taking.
And they'll sell you the more expensive one.
Just kidding! Just kidd-[ends in cough]
The French heartworm, by the way, is a pretty tough parasite:
even with proper treatment, 1-2 months are needed for all of them to die off.
Without treatment, they may live for years.
Although the worm can be destroyed, full recovery can only be expected
in the cases of light-moderate illness.
If the lungs have already been chewed up into a pulp
they're not going back to normal even after the death of the parasites.
Oh, and it's not a bad idea to do something about the symptoms
during those 1-2 months of worm killing
which is quite a challenge if the dog is choking and bleeding
and you want to adhere to the rules of Spanish etiquette at the same time.
DOCTOR: Oh, dear, oh, dear...
DOCTOR: Well, f***k me!
Furthermore, we can only kill the parasite but not remove it
The latter has to be done by the host's own body
which, in the case of a truckload of worms,
is almost as straining as shoveling snow with grandpa.
Due to all of this, it's probably better to prevent lungworm disease
caused by the French heartworm than to treat it once it develops.
So don't let your dog eat slugs and snails and frogs
or lick up unknown snot from the ground.
It's best if you wrap it in cellophane and put it in the closet
between the ironing board and the Peruvian sitting mummy.
I get it, this isn't very practical, so it's a legitimate question
whether there are any spot-ons, pills or some other stuff for prevention
like there are against ticks, fleas and whatnot.
The answer is yes!
Go ask your veterinarian.
Unless they have spent the past ten years in a coma, they'll know what to give.
If you're worried that the French heartworm might infect you as well,
let me reassure you: we have no idea if that's possible or not.
No human cases have been reported so far
but to be fair, we don't really eat raw slugs or snails.
If you become infected anyway somehow, you're gonna be famous!
Just a quick note so you don't feel excluded from the lungworm business:
humans are able to contract the lungworm of the rat,
however, in people it attacks the brain rather than the lungs.
Much better, right?
So don't eat raw snails and slugs and unwashed greens in Southeast Asia.
Cat owners can relax:
it's very rare for the French heartworm to cause problems in cats,
instead, cats have their own lungworm,
the name of which should probably come with a speech therapist included.
Summing it up:
Angiostrongylus vasorum or French heartworm
(lungworm, to be more precise)
is a parasite of dogs with worldwide presence.
It damages the lungs and causes bleeding disorders
but its sexy as hell!
If caught in time, the infection can be cured easily, although not quickly.
For severe cases, it's best to ask for heavenly intervention
which you don't always receive
so it's a bit more practical to prevent the disease in the first place.
HEARTWORM: I am the real heartworm and this is MY dog!
HEARTWORM: So get the hell out of here before I—
EIFFEL TOWER: Bonjour!
The technical information in this video was fact-checked
by Olga Jacsó and Gábor Majoros parasitologists.
I thank them very much!
As much as I thank Bayer for its support.
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Or check out my other videos.
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