#whipworms

Yikies! This poor dog had everything on the 4dx test. We don't see a lot of Anaplasmosis here, so this was a first for us! Plus poor girlie had whipworms and hookworms.

This is why it's so important to have your dogs on quality heartworm (one also labelled for whipworms!), flea, and tick prevention year-round, especially in areas like the southeastern US where there's a high parasite burden!

So remember how I wrote recently about a new study to see if swallowing pig whipworm eggs would treat Crohn's Disease? Well apparently this isn't a new treatment- there is someone who has been swallowing these little critters for eight years already!

Herbert Smith, a 33-year-old Crohn's patient, swallowed thousands of whipworm eggs suspended in a liquid solution over an eight year period. But after ingesting 2,500 of them in the first three months, most of his Crohn's symptoms disappeared. Unbelievable!

Despite the treatment being uncertain and the high costs associated with, Smith decided he wanted to give it a try after years of horrible symptoms. According to ABC News,

Despite undergoing multiple operations to remove part of his gut, his symptoms always returned, he said. He calculated that at his current rate of required surgeries, he would eventually run out of small intestine. If this occurred, he would require liquid feedings through an intravenous line, with potentially fatal consequences.

"That realization was pretty hard to take in," said Smith. "I had to do my own research."

Now that we know it worked wonders for this patient, are you more likely to try it?

You can read the full ABC story here.