How can Toxocara canis appear?

• A. Large, slender and white
• B. Small, round and bright red with smooth surface
• C. Long and flat with segmented body
• D. Small, round and dark with pitted/wrinkled surface

Answer: (D)

Recognizing parasite eggs by their surface texture and size. Toxocara canis eggs that you’d find in a dog's feces are small and round, with a dark color and a distinctly pitted or wrinkled outer shell. That rough, mammillated surface is a hallmark of many roundworm eggs and helps set them apart from other parasites—adult worms are large and white, tapeworms are long and flat, and eggs with a smooth, bright red surface don’t fit Toxocara. So the description of a small, round, dark egg with a pitted/wrinkled surface is the correct appearance for Toxocara canis in diagnostic samples.