Welcome!

Your adorable pal Scruffy is sick? Maybe she needs to be prescribed a simple antibiotic. Maybe she just needs to be dewormed. Or maybe its something more serious…

Welcome to a website aimed at teaching you everything you need to know about the extremely diverse and cunning parasite, Babesia canis (B. canis) of dogs and other canines! Although B. canis was only recently discovered in the late 1900’s, it has since undergone much research and scrutiny. B. canis has multiple characteristics, subspecies, and reservoirs, making it difficult to control and treat in a canine host (i.e. Scruffy). Within this webpage we will explore the multiple characteristics that make this parasite one to remember.         

 Here you will find the classification and ancestry of Babesia canis, and discover what makes it so unique. While perusing through our site, we encourage you to check out whether your dog is vulnerable to this parasite--and in the endemic range of infection--based on B. canis’s habitat and geography. Educate yourself on the lifecycle of B. canis and its reproductive habits as well as how it interacts with dogs, ticks, and other species. Finally, you will want to learn more about the multiple forms and functions of this parasite, which make it so complex. You will come to see that B. canis is an extremely interesting organism that deserves to be studied and shared (for Scruffy’s sake).

This page was created by biology students from the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse and is associated with the project MultipleOrganisms.net, a compilation of Biology 203 student web pages, which cover organisms on an ever-growing and never ending spectrum.

Now start your search! You can begin with the classification!

 

Other canine parasites! Whipworm, Tapeworms, and Dog Heart Worm.