r/Parasitology

I found this in front of my parent’s fridge, not sure what it is

I recently moved into this house, and there is a fish tank that had clearly been neglected for a long time. When we moved in, it contained extremely murky, greyish water that appeared not to have been cleaned. The feeding area at the top was also extremely dirty, with visible mold, green growth, and what looked like biofilm or algae. Apparently, the previous tenant would feed the fish through this opening and leave food residue behind without cleaning it. When we arrived, unfortunately all the fish were already dead. There was a large amount of old food and waste, and the water was so dark and murky that it was difficult to see through.

I don’t know whether this was due to the previous tenants or the condition in which the landlord left the tank, but it was incredibly upsetting to see. I also wonder whether the fish may have died because of overfeeding and the resulting poor water quality. When i asked, i was told the owner had fed them alot before moving out.

Yesterday, my dad had removed the dead fish but he was thinking about calling a professional to clean the tank so the dirty water was all still there.

Today, I wanted to check the temperature of the water, just cause of the heatwave i was curious, so I dipped my finger and dipped a paper towel into the water. I was distracted by a TV show and didn’t realise a minute later that I then used the same wet edge of the paper towel inside my nose because I felt an itch. I pushed it quite far up my nostril to clean my nose. I also used the
same finger. Disgusting, i know.

But now, this has made me extremely anxious about Naegleria fowleri the so-called “brain-eating amoeba.” I am particularly worried because the tank had previously been extremely dirty and murky, with stagnant water, algae/green growth, biofilm, and a lot of leftover food and waste. I know that the presence of these things does not necessarily mean Naegleria fowleri was present, but I am worried that the conditions could potentially have supported it.

The tank is indoors in London, downstairs, covered, and receives no direct sunlight. As far as I know, it was filled using London tap water. But with the recent heatwave, im worried abt the very high temperatures also favouring growth and the fact that there did seem to be a heater so i wonder how often it was used? The water in the tank is also not filtered or circulated.

What is worrying me now is that I understand Naegleria fowleri would have to be introduced into the tank in the first place.

I know UK tap water getting into ur nose isn’t a major concern as it usually has a negligible amount of this amoeba but, if there had somehow been even a very small amount present in the original tap water, could the neglected conditions of the tank — particularly the stagnant water, old food, algae, biofilm, and waste — have allowed it to multiply substantially In other words, could the concentration in the tank have become significantly higher than what would normally be expected from accidentally getting ordinary London tap water up the nose, potentially making this exposure much more risky?

I am so incredibly stressed, and obviously this isn’t major enough to go to A&E so i’m just at home googling. I wasn’t concerned at first but after asking chatgpt it made me 100 times more concerned.

I (female in my 20s) was at a fair the other day with my friend. There was a petting zoo and we pet and fed a lot of animals. At the end of the day, my friend tickled me, and I reflexively bit his forearm because he wouldn't stop. Right after biting, I realized that his forearms were still dirty from the animals because, although we washed our hands, we didn't wash our forearms. I quickly rinsed out my mouth with some water, but I'm still concerned about ingesting some microscopic worm eggs. I read that tapeworms can go into your brain, heart, and eyes, which is absolutely terrifying.

I know worms get transferred from feces to mouth, but I'm worried because some animals were walking around their own feces and then climbing up against the cage bars. And when petting the animals, we would lean our arms on the cage bars.

I'm not looking for medical advice. I'm just looking for any insight or information anyone might have about this. I'm not very knowledgeable about parasites or that sort of thing. I might bring this up to my doctor when I have my yearly physical if it's a real concern.

Just found out my 6 year old has pin worms tonight. It’s 11pm. I checked while he was sleeping in OUR BED yay!!! Anyways. I’m not familiar with pinworms or treatment. I initially thought I’d have to take him into pediatrician tomorrow. Does he need to miss school? Can you tell me the meds and what I need to do if you’ve dealt with pinworms before. I also have a 1 year old. Should I call the pediatrician or is this something I can take care of on my own? TIA

I feel unable to wear contact lenses. I am terrified that a brain eating amoeba could somehow get into my eye and that putting a contact lens in could trap it against my eye, allowing it to grow there and eventually reach my brain. I also worry about the possibility of developing an eye infection such as Acanthamoeba keratitis, which makes me scared that I could become blind.

When it comes to how an amoeba could supposedly enter my eye, there are so many different routes that go through my head that I cannot even list them all.
The route of an amoeba entering my eye will always stress me, but what I desperately want to overcome is the constant anxiety and horrible feeling in my stomach that a contact lens could somehow trap an amoeba against my eye, make it multiply, and allow it to reach my brain. I’m particularly interested in whether there is any mechanism by which an organism on the eye surface could subsequently reach deeper tissues or the brain due to contacts trapping it - brain eating amoeba in particular. I know eyes is not a normal route, but lenses could change that i assume?

I’m looking for information about the actual biology and mechanisms involved rather than reassurance about individual hypothetical exposures as i know only actual scientific facts will make sense to me.

I am on OCD medication and in therapy but i have an event i want to go to so i was hoping for any scientific facts to help.

My dog had a fecal test and tested positive for the following parasites-
But the letter said that it was negative for parasites that cause problems in dogs. The only thing I was advised to do was leash walk her so she won’t eat animal feces.
EIMERIA OOCYSTS 4+
STRONGYLE EGGS 2+
ANOLOCEPHALA EGGS 1+

Will these go away on their own?

Spayed F pit bull mix 61 lbs - Massachusetts,

Four days ago, my wife and I stayed at a Four Seasons in Hawaii. The room had a private hot tub outside. We went into the hot tub shortly after sunset for about 20 minutes until noticing something on the bottom. (There was LED lighting in the bottom although not overly bright.)

It looked like a slug, maybe four inches in length. So we immediately got out of the water and took a shower. I googled afterward and that’s when I learned that some slugs in Hawaii carry RLW, or rat lungworm.

The water was chlorinated, but we’re still really scared that we could have got infected. I emailed Susan Jarvi who is a researcher on RLW and she says chlorine kills the larvae, that we’re fine, but it’s still kind of terrifying to know there is a not small chance we were in water that may have contained thousands of parasites.

To make things worse, I’ve had minor headaches for the past two days, and today slight stiffness in the neck, which are supposedly symptoms. Not sure if it’s just a coincidence, or placebo or what.

We of course complained to the hotel staff, but they acted like we were insane, told us they’ve never had any incidents or anyone getting infected or anything.

Anyone here have any insight on this?

By that I mean, what's the mechanism behind it? It is well known pop-sci that it makes people like cats more, be more risk-takers (possibly correlates with more car accidents?), but *how* does it do that?

Good evening all, I'm q veterinarian working in small animal practice and recently got a consult for "worms in feces", 2 dogs, only one was affected.

Upon seeing the pictures, non microscope, no scale, so not shared here as per group rules, I quickly discarded the possibility of cestodes or nematodes.

The specimens appeared to be cylindrical, tapered at one end, segmented, and numerous in the feces shown in the picture.

To me they seem suggestive of arthropod larvae, but I would expect those to be hatched from eggs deposited on the feces outside the patient. These were clearly passed along with the stool.

I keep researching but still find myself at a loss.