r/Parasitology

“Timeline: Around 1 to 1.5 years ago, sudden onset of ‘blue balls’-type pain began occurring, often after dusk, following snorkeling in the Indian Ocean and work in a freshwater fishpond that contained roughly 25 unintentionally present ramshorn-type snails.

Ongoing symptoms also involve the eyes, skin, and digestive system.

Later, solid foreign pieces were observed extruding from the skin along the penile shaft, including the glans. Application of a baking soda solution triggered noticeable fluid swelling (possibly oedema). Since then, the occupant(s) is now believed to have moved into the urethra and is what is now externally visible in images.

Other images of extrusions from skin or nasal discharge containing noticeable segmented objects.

Magnification<= 16X's.

Has the string, and I dont want to squish the chrysalis unless I know for sure,
I hate killing bugs :(

Hi there, I’m a vet student working at a small zoo/aquarium type of place for a clinical rotation. I’m working on analyzing biosecurity protocols and cross-contamination risks so I did some centrifugal fecal floatations with fresh feces & fecal-sol from a bunch of different mammals. I recently made a similar post but for rabbits.

These pictures are mainly from the 40x and 100x objective lenses (the coccidia looking oocysts at 40x and tapeworm looking oocysts at 100x) is from wallabies, one of which has been having intermittent soft stool but no other clinical signs. They eat wallaby pellets, hay, and some fresh veggies. Their water dishes are cleaned every morning with hot water and soap and refilled with fresh water twice daily. The enclosure is spot cleaned twice daily and fully cleaned out every week or so.

All animals are tested frequently, and receive routine veterinary care, fecal checks, and annual exams. I just wanted to check if these are actually coccidia and tapeworm oocysts (plus maybe a couple other things like I think one might be f. buski as their enclosure is directly adjacent to pigs), or if it’s just artifact/debris. Any help is appreciated!

I found 2 worms under the microscope that need ID, I took vids of them so i will give you the link, the darker one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiwNQmRYFGA, and the whitish one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppKbpVkGRq0, details for the worms are in the videos descriptions, thank you for all your help

What could this be? I eat hardboiled eggs every morning and have never seen this before. Placed on standard sticky note for scale

I am thinking this may be Entomophaga grylli (The Grasshopper Fungus)

Anybody ever dealt with this? Ranch irrigation system that pulls from a gross lake. Pulling so many leeches that valves are jammed with leech bodies and stuck open. In line filters and mesh filters on the end of the pump get clogged and overheat the pump, and the lake is the only water source.

A former colleague sent me a video of their parasite, but I feel I made it better by adding the music. 🤪

Hi there, I’m a vet student working at a small zoo/aquarium type of place for a clinical rotation. I’m working on analyzing biosecurity protocols and cross-contamination risks so I did some centrifugal fecal floatations with fresh feces & fecal-sol from a bunch of different mammals.

This sample pictured (I believe this view is with the 20x objective lens) is from a rabbit, who is not currently displaying any clinical signs. Other stuff I found within the same sample, I’ve already identified as pollen artifact, but this one is making me suspicious. She eats fresh greens and rare berry treats in addition to her hay and rabbit pellets. Her water is cleaned every morning and refilled with fresh water twice daily. Bedding is changed as needed and she is litter box trained which gets cleaned out daily as well.

The other animals I’ve tested, I found a bunch of stuff even though they test frequently, so parasites aren’t unheard of here for sure. I’m just unsure if this is actually some sort of oocyst like cystoisospora, eimeria, or something, or if it’s just artifact/debris. Any help is appreciated!

Common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) in adult stage, I believe.

Noped tf out of that room.

[x0.5 zoom iPhone 14 Pro camera]

They latch on to the trees and slowly kill them. This was on my red guava tree. Not sure what species they are but here in local language we call them "Ithil"

This is a water sample observed under a 10x objective. I can see a morphology similar to Toxocara sp., but it looks far too large to actually be. I can’t observe it under 40x because my counting chamber would break.

Any idea what it could be?

Hi everyone, could someone help me with this? The sample is rabbit feces, 100x objective with oil immersion. Is this Eimeria? Ancylostoma? Any other suggestion? Thanks for the help!

Several leeches pulled from pectoral and caudal fins on bluegill sampled from a few lakes in Connecticut. First image is at 40x total, others are from a dissecting scope. Using a key from Hoffman's Parasites of North American Freshwater Fishes, my best guess is Piscicola, but I'm struggling with species level without resorting to PCR. In pic 3, are the eyespots the darker pigments on the sucker that are shaped like an asterisk? If yes, then my guess is P. milneri, but the fish and location match more with P. punctata, so how do you discern that?