Episode 8: Why Yearly Fecal Exams Matter for Your Pet

In this episode of Ted the Vet, Dr. Ted Burghardt discusses the significance of yearly fecal exams for pets, emphasizing their role in early detection of gastrointestinal parasites and overall pet wellness. He explains the types of parasites that can be found, their transmission, and the importance of proper treatment. The conversation also highlights that fecal exams can reveal other health issues and the necessity of maintaining regular wellness checks for pets.

Takeaways

• Fecal exams are crucial for pet wellness.
• Early detection of problems reduces morbidity.
• Gastrointestinal parasites can cause serious health issues.
• Parasites are often spread in public areas.
• Giardia can be transmitted to humans.
• Different parasites require specific treatments.
• Fecal exams can reveal non-pathogenic organisms.
• Regular wellness checks are essential for pets.
• Fecal exams can indicate other health issues.
• Maintaining hygiene is important to prevent parasite transmission.

Transcript

Ted The Vet (00:02.156)
Welcome to Ted the Vet podcast, where pet owners are empowered with insightful tips and advice to give the best care to their furry companion. Hi, I'm Dr. Ted Burghardt, owner of Companion Pet Care in Encinitas, California. Today I want to talk about a question I get from clients, which is why do I have to do a yearly fecal exam? I want to address this question and go into some depth that you may not have considered about the importance of fecal exams.

To start, fecal exams are part of some general wellness items we recommend performing every year. The term general wellness is basically the things veterinarians recommend for your pets when they're healthy. Along with fecal exams, this also includes things like vaccinations, flea and tick prevention, heartworm tests, and regular yearly exams. When it comes to wellness and keeping pets healthy,

The main point I want to focus on in one word is prevention. Preventing illness is accomplished by finding problems early before they become larger problems. Fecal exams allow us to monitor for problems, find them, address them, and treat them early rather than waiting until there's a more advanced problem. The term for the accumulation of symptoms of illness is, quote, morbidity.

So the goal is early detection of common problems in order to reduce morbidity and to start the necessary treatment earlier rather than later. So let's come back to fecal exams specifically. The things we're looking for when we perform a fecal exam are generally gastrointestinal parasites. Gastro meaning stomach and intestinal meaning intestines. Parasites we find in fecal samples can include worms,

such as hookworms, whipworms, tapeworms, and roundworms. Additionally, we test for other microscopic parasites such as Giardia, which is a very common bug that we find especially at dog parks, and another not uncommon parasite called Coccydia. Parasites are often spread in public places like dog parks and boarding or daycare facilities. Another example of a populated area here

Ted The Vet (02:27.298)
For dogs in San Diego is dog beach. The way a parasite is passed from animal to animal is by the fecal-oral transmission, where the feces one way or another makes it to the mouth and it gets ingested. For example, the dog will step in feces containing parasite and then it will lick its foot or sniff another dog's hind end and then lick its nose and effectively ingest the parasite.

For whatever reason, some dogs will also just eat other feces when it is available. And as humans, we just scratch our heads and wonder why. Let's mention some problems that gastrointestinal parasites can cause. Parasites use the resources of the host dog and can commonly cause weight loss, loose stools or diarrhea, and unthriftiness that can even cause changes in the hair coat, lethargy, and dehydration.

Another thing to make note of is that Giardia particularly can be passed to humans. So testing to make sure your dog is clean is important for your health too. If your dog has a parasite, it's essential to pick up their stools quickly, use proper hygiene, wash your hands, and of course avoid any behavior that could cause you to ingest any Giardia or other parasites from them.

Letting them lick your face would not be advised if they have a parasite. In my camping days in Colorado, I saw many humans who got Giardia from drinking river water, and those guys looked miserable, to say the least. Moving on to the treatment for fecal parasites, let's say the lab reports a positive finding of parasites in your dog's fecal sample. Different organisms need different treatments.

It's important to understand the difference between the different parasites because a dewormer may take care of certain worms, but it will not treat coccidia, for example. Giardia has a couple of different medications for treatment, but those meds may not be effective for other parasites. I believe that instead of treating for all the different possible parasites, I would rather just do a fecal exam and see if there's anything that we actually need to treat.

Ted The Vet (04:53.218)
So I believe that doing a broad test for parasites to see if there's anything present is much more preferable than treating with multiple antelamentics or anti-parasitic meds. Aside from parasites, sometimes we find other things in the stool that we don't need to treat for, such as certain types of yeast. It's not uncommon for the lab to identify a non-pathogenic yeast in the feces.

The journey of a yeast through the gastrointestinal tract starts when it gets ingested and then it passes through without causing any disease. So it doesn't need to be treated. So since the yeast is non-pathogenic, it will just pass through and not cause any problems. However, the finding of yeast in the feces is evidence that the pet is eating random things. In Southern California,

Dogs that are eating bird feces or rabbit feces commonly contract this yeast. So doing a fecal exam can also tell us if your pets might be eating other random things. Fecal exams can also reveal other manifestations of disease, including some skin diseases. For example, I've run some fecal exams on cats and found ear mites in their feces. This happens when a cat has ear mites

scratches his ears and then licks his feet and ingests the mite and then the mite passes through the GI tract. There are other skin mites that can be found in the feces as well, such as Demodex or Sarcopdes, which by the way are both types of mange, which can be picked up on a fecal exam as well. I don't see those as commonly. So this was a brief discussion about fecal exams on healthy pets.

When pets develop diarrhea or other gastrointestinal disease, there are many other tests that can be done to try and determine the cause. But those are not usually performed unless there are signs of illness. So in summary, please make sure to keep up on wellness items for your pets, including yearly fecal exams. That's a wrap for today on Ted the Vet podcast. Thanks for joining me and together we can take great care of your pets.

Ted The Vet (07:12.888)
To learn more about my veterinary hospital, you can head over to our website, companionpcvet.com, and connect with us on Instagram at companionpetcare. The links are also available in the show notes. If you enjoyed the episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your fellow animal lovers. I'm Dr. Ted Burkhart. Until next time.