GIARDIA, CRYPTOSPORIDIUM, AND COCCLDIA— PERSISTENT PARASITES

摘要

Some intestinal parasitic infections of the dog and cat will just not cure. It is fairly easy these days to clear these pets of their infections with nematodes, trematodes, and cestodes, because the pharmaceutical industry has provided excellent meansof combating these parasites with wonder drugs such as fenbendazole, ivermectin, and praziquantel. Low doses kill worms, and the remarkable levels of safety, due to selection for products that are highly lethal to the worms while remaining well below toxic levels in the host, are fantastic compared to what used to be available. However, certain parasites are either hard to treat, result in infections that refuse to clear, or just refuse to be controllable in certain environments. Some of this is due tothe lack of efficacy of all drugs, as occurs with Cryptosporidium; others, like Giardia, just do not seem to respond to repeated treatments; and finally, there is Cystoisospora, which has stages in the mucosa that perhaps reactivate for some reason later in the life on the animal.