Coccidiosis In Puppies.

A puppy offers unconditional friendship in his life, furnished with attention, devotion and entertainment. If you get a new puppy, it is important to immediately checked. It aims to detect disease / disorder as early as possible and take precautions against several types of diseases. A visit to the vet is a must do after buying a puppy. The first visit was aimed to evaluate the health and personality, as well as take action to prevent disease and to treat diseases that are commonly found in puppies, one of which is coccidiosis. 

Puppies who are at risk of suffering from coccidiosis is coming from a place with a population / number of dogs that a lot, such as kennel, pet shop, animal shelter (shelter). These places are at high risk for coccidia infection through food or water contaminated with oocysts. In an environment as mentioned above, the puppy is stress and the body's defense system is not fully developed. 

Coccidiosis is a disease caused by Isospora, which is also known as Coccidia, which is included in the phylum Apicomplexa. This parasite infects the gastrointestinal tract. Cycle life is in intestinal epithelial cells. Clinical symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, but in some cases do not show clinical symptoms (asymptomatis).

Figure 1: Microscopy Isospora Sp.

Environmental conditions and stress is a factor that determines the body's defense system puppy. These factors have a great influence in the disease coccidiosis. Often found in puppies look healthy at the time of purchase, but then had diarrhea a few days after moving to a new home. On examination, the puppy was later diagnosed with coccidiosis. The incubation period (the time between infection to clinical symptoms) is about 13 days. If the puppy has a new home is less than 13 days, most likely the infected puppy from its original location. If the puppy is in a new home is more than 13 days, then the infection came from a new home. 

In addition to the risk of environmental teinfeksi, puppies can be infected with coccidia from its parent. Puppies are often exposed to feces containing oocysts parent. The oocysts then will multiply in the digestive tract puppy. The proliferation of these parasites can occur quickly because the puppy does not yet have a healthy immune system to fully develop. These parasites can quickly spread to other puppies, for which an infected puppy should be separated from the others. In our Vitapet Animal Clinic has particularly special isolation room for a case like this.

Figure 2: Bubble Digestion.

The vet can diagnose this disease through direct fecal smear examination procedure by using a litter of puppies as a sample. If the dung contains oocysts, this can be detected by using a microscope. Oocysts that appear under the microscope are round, transparent, with a small size. Another method that can be used to detect fecal floatation oocysts are. 

If oocysts found in feces that dogs do not have diarrhea, it is an insignificant finding. However, in puppies and adult dogs were unhealthy, oocysts can cause severe diarrhea, dehydration, pressure on the abdomen and vomiting. Severe cases can lead to death. 

In Vitapet Animal Clinic, we get 9 cases of coccidia during the month of April 2011, 78% occur in puppies. Children infected dogs originated from a small race that Cihuahua, Yorkshire Terrier and Pomeranian. The rest occur in kittens and rabbits. Most of the cases were treated on an outpatient basis. But in cases of severe dehydration, patients should be treated in our clinic. It aims to restore electrolyte balance. The survival rate of this disease is 89%.

Figure 3: Infected Dogs Isospora Sp.

The types of drugs most commonly used to treat coccidiosis is a type of sulfa antibiotics are given for 10-14 days. Re-infection is very likely to happen, for the disinfection of the environment should be done. Environmental disinfection can be done using chlorine bleach, diluted (1 cup diluted in 1 liter of water). To minimize the risk of transmission, good sanitation by removing dog droppings every day is recommended. In our clinic, the cleaning process is done by manually cleaning the cage and by using steam and pressure to the cage and the floor of the room.