"But how come you don't hear that parasites cause problems?"

So Doc,
In having a conversation today with the wife of the other step-child that just also bought a rabbit for their 3 year old daughter for her birthday, and also have it in a cage right next to the dinner table--the granddaughter is a thumb sucker too...

When I was talking to the other grandmother this weekend, she was beside herself that this family had bought a rabbit and were keeping it inside the house because the little girl liked the other grand-daughter's rabbit so much. When I asked the mother today if she had read the paper I'd showed the other grandmother about what parasites/bacterias etc rabbits are carriers of, she said "yeh, but it didn't say humans could get any of them".

When I told her about how highly allergic the asthmatic was to her rabbit in the house, and what blood tests had shown for the platelets being high, and Neutrophils being high- that the Dr. has parasites listed as one of the things he's sure is going on, and that his question was if the whole family was willing to clean them up and do what it took to get this girl healthy- including parasite cleansing everyone.

"Do I need to keep my kids away from the other kids so they don't get exposed to them?" Rabbit in a cage in the house, let loose to run around- horses right outside the yard, dogs in the house- big dogs that lick the kids faces and are kept in the enclosed yard where the kids walk barefooted in the summer time. Dad is a cowboy on the ranch, has the kids around the horses and cows all the time- plus what they all bring in the house on their clothes and boots after grooming the horses, etc etc.

But, gotta keep them away from the other grandkids so they don't get exposed to their parasites.

She's got a Master's degree in Elementary Education. Her question was "If parasites cause problems why don't you ever hear about it?" I have not said anything to her about my parasite/liver problem for a reason- she would be the type that would go ballistic if she saw that one of her kids had passed a worm, and they actually do live in people.

Good question Doc--what would you have told her?

She had "researched" rabbits and everything she read said they were safe to have...she's going to now do more research.

Come to find out, the other grandma told me that when this family picked up the rabbit and the mom was holding it- she broke out in welts all over her chest. She was big time sick in bed for 2 days after they got back from bringing the rabbit home 5 hours in the car with them- "sinuses". I also didn't know the step-son had asthma growing up, had allergy shots 2x a week as a kid- and had an inhaler playing sports in High school. He's had chronic respitory problems for the past 2 years straight, I'm sure he had pneumonia last winter and was never treated for it because he said the Dr's wouldn't give him anything for it even if he went in. Which is actually happening alot- the head guy at the clinic won't prescribe antibiotics because of the resistance, even in cases like that. He either gives them samples of stuff to treat the symptoms or tells them to go to the store and get something off the counter--and charges an office call.

But apparently she's never in her life heard that humans have parasites. I was going to copy out what CDC says about the number of known varieties of parasites humans can have. She might be surprised to find the same ones are on the list for the rabbit parasites...and horse parasites.....and dog parasites...pork, beef. Name an animal that has parasites that humans can't pick up? Tweet