Dangers of kicking your dog’s poo into long grass

I HAD just turned the corner of the cycle path when I saw him.

He stopped what he was doing and looked at me with a sheepish, guilty grin, then said, “Better scoop it out of sight where nature will take care of it, rather than wrap it up in a non-biodegradable polythene bag and bin it!.. Don’t you think?”

He was referring, of course, to the rather large poo that his dog had passed right at the junction where the tarmac meets the grass.

He appeared, with some difficulty, to be trying to kick it further into the undergrowth.

At least he was wearing wellington boots and not flip-flops.

“Not necessarily.” I said, as he continued flicking with his toe. “Have you considered Angiostrongylus vasorum?”

He looked at me blankly and it was immediately clear that he had not.

“You might know it as lungworm,” I said. But he didn’t. So my lecture began.

“Let’s start with an adult lungworm, or Angiostrongylus vasorum, which is nestled comfortably within the lungs in the pulmonary artery or in the right ventricle of the heart of a dog.

“Reproduction occurs and the female produces eggs intermittently, which lodge in the tiny blood vessels, called capillaries, where they hatch.

“Now named L1 larvae, these 310-400 microns long, transparent beasties enter the lungs and are coughed up, swallowed and passed out in faeces.

“This whole process takes 38-57 days.

“L1 larvae are then ingested by molluscan intermediate hosts (generally slugs and snails, but occasionally frogs), where they develop into L3 larvae, which infect dogs when they ingest the host.

“Following this, L3 larvae cross the canine’s intestinal wall and enter the mesenteric (or abdominal) lymph nodes, where they further develop to L5 larvae.

“These then migrate towards the right side of the heart and lungs via the hepatic portal vein, caudal vena cava and the liver.

“Upon reaching their destination, they mature into adults and the cycle is complete.

“So actually, when you fail to remove your dog’s faeces but choose, instead, to move them to the greener, moist areas adjacent to the track, you encourage the ingestion of faeces by snails in close proximity to other dogs and so are responsible for the spread of this disease, which can cause lung, heart and organ damage and lead to unexpected haemorrhage.

“Of course, maybe you treat your dog regularly?”

I could tell by the expression on his face that he had neither considered this nor used prophylactic treatment.