I have a 7 yr old morkie that has just gone blind during this infestation. I keep them bathed, shoot I had just paid $587 for the aussies to get their teeth cleaned. I take them regularly to the vet for all annual exams and if anything else occurs.

My dogs are 5, 6 and 7 years old they only go in our fenced in back yard. I took a one time dose of 4 tabs of the ivermectin and my inside dogs were diagnosed with what he thought was roundworms and the vet stated other parasites!?! Those damn horsehair worms were able to infest my 3 dogs and myself!

I 100% agree with you! I’ve spent 3 month trying to get someone to listen to me. Here are a couple of links with more information, if you’re interested. When still alive, they tend to “tie themselves in knots”, hence their other nickname, the Gordian worm. I thought the picture might be interesting to you. I thought they had run their course, but I stepped on yet another cricket yesterday and out popped a horsehair worm, sort of a cricket pinata. I have stepped on dozens of them in my clinic in the last month. One of the elementary schools called in an exterminator after finding hundreds of them in a utility room.

This year they have really been annoying. There have always been a few in the fall, but This fall, we have been plagued by an unusually large influx of crickets as the weather cooled off. If you stretched it out, it would be eight inches long.

I’ve kept this specimen in a test tube for years. There is really no harm in them (unless you’re the unlucky insect). If the insect enters the water, the mature parasite will exit to begin its life cycle anew. They do not infest the pets, but the crickets or beetles may be eaten by a pet, and the worm puked up. Every year or two, a panicky client finds one of these in a toilet bowl, water dish, or a bit of pet vomit. The horsehair worm is a parasite that lives in water, and its larvae infect insects.

Download horse hair worms in humans