“Aliens” found in dog feces (unidentified oocysts from coccidia?)

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ImperatorRex
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“Aliens” found in dog feces (unidentified oocysts from coccidia?)

#1 Post by ImperatorRex » Thu Jun 08, 2023 8:46 pm

Below photos of some of the “alien eggs” that I found in dog feces 😊
Sample was collected from a passive floatation of fresh dog feces with a Sodium Nitrite solution.

Any help to identify the Aliens is very welcomed!

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My assumptions:
Flat or round worm eggs can be excluded as candidates, they are bit larger. Also to be noted that the dog was just recently (two weeks ago) been de-wormed.
Other candidates: cysts (Oocysts) from protozoan parasites of the genera Coccidia:
Genera that infect dogs: Isospora (also called Cystoisospora), Hammondia, Besnoitia, Sarcocystis, Caryospora, Toxoplasma, Neospora, Cryptosporidium, and Cyclospora species.
https://veteriankey.com/enteric-coccidiosis/#bib13

Isospora ohioensis or I. burrowski match in size, but Isospora should have color less oocyst walls and do not have characteristic polar cap and a micropyle.

I did several searches and found Eimeria be the most promising canidate: Oocysts are generally ovoid to ellipsoid in shape, range from 10-40µm in length by 10-30µm in width, and may contain specialized structures, such as polar caps, micropyles, residual and crystalline bodies. (https://parasite.org.au/para-site/text/ ... -text.html)
However Eimeria is not infecting dogs, so the only option would have been that my dog has eaten some other faces from animals like rabbits, horses etc. Not very likely too happen…have not seen my do eating such stuff.

So good if anybody has some other advice on the indentification…please let me know.

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