Life History

An infective lava develops in the egg in about one month but will not hatch until ingested by a dog. Once inside the dogs digestive tract and develop as they move through. Then they spend about 2-10 days in the caecum until they migrate to the large intestine where they spend the rest of their life. That whole process takes about three months. The adult can live anywhere from 5-16 months. Each female whipworm may produce up to 2000 eggs per day so it devotes almost all of it’s energy to reproduction once it has developed and until it dies. It doesn’t move as an adult unless it has to.

 

Life Cycle

From Beginning to end: There is an egg produced by the female whipworm that is released into the intestinal tract of the dog. Eventually the egg travels through the digestive system until it is released in the fecal matter of the dog. The larva develops into the first stage in about one month but stays encapsulated in the egg until the dog comes along and ingests it by licking it off its paws or consuming the fecal matter. After the egg is ingested it travels down through the digestive system and hatches in the intestine. It continues on through the digestive system and develops along the way until it gets to the colon. Then it migrates back to the caecum where it matures for about a week and then migrates into the large intestine where it attaches to the intestinal wall. It embeds into the mucus lining the intestine and begins to feed off of blood from the intestinal wall. It starts reproducing quite frequently and as mentioned before can lay up to 2000 eggs a day. And also as mentioned before they live 5-16 months as adults. Eventually they will be released by the dog when they die but since those eggs they lay are so hearty there is a huge risk for reinfection and the process starts all over again.

Life Cycle Videos

the original page as the video can’t be directly linked                        page as the video cant be directly linked