Interesting Information
Why T. vulpis?
As I am interested in the field of Veterinary Medicine, I thought it fitting to research an organism that was exclusive to Veterinary Medicine. The dog whipworm rarely infects any other host but dogs and is one of the most common intestinal parasites in older dogs. Look in the future for a link to another of my pages where I will cover information on all parasites that are a danger to your dog.
Why is it Interesting?
Anything that can cause harm to something this cute is worth taking an interest in. But otherwise its important to know about because it affects dogs all over the world and in older dogs when the numbers get high it can cause serious problems that can lead to overall poor health that can lead to other diseases.
Why is the Trichuris genus interesting?
Trichuris has representatives from many hosts. T. suis infects swine, T. muris infects mice, T. trichiuria infects humans, and many other Trichuris species infect other hosts. They all have the characteristic whip-like morphology and live in the intestine of their hosts.
Special thanks and points of interest
I hope you found this organism interesting. As I am studying to become a veterinarian, I found this a lot more interesting and useful then a lot of people do and that’s probably why finding all of the information and pictures proved to be difficult. If you own a dog you should be concerned about this parasite as it it is one of the most common intestinal parasites that infect dogs. I would like to extend a special thanks to the professors of parasitology at the University of Wisconsin- Madison School of Veterinary medicine for the pictures they provided. And I would like to thank madi for being such a good puppy and now a good dog. She is now almost five and lives at home with my parents until I can eventually take her with me.
photo taken by me