Where Do Worms Come From
Worms come from several sources your cat may come into contacts with, such as fleas and other cats as well. Insects and mice may also be sources of infection that can cause your cat to get infected with parasites that cause worms.
A cat can easily get infected with worms if it eats something infected with worms, even many types of insects. If you have a dog and a cat, there may be a problem where these two pets will infect each other.
Mice and rodents are also sources of infection where your cats roam freely outside to hunt these small animals. Three common worm types are mostly found with cats, and they are:
- Tapeworms: These are the most common types of worms your cat will get, and your cat gets infected by ingesting the eggs.
- Roundworms: This is common among cats with fleas where they ingest the flea eggs contaminated with the parasite.
- Hookworms: This type of worm can spread when the cat ingests the eggs or walks on contaminated soil. This means that cats can infect each other if they share a litter box.
How Often To Deworm Cats
Cats are the perfect pets anyone can have. However, it is essential on your part as an owner to ensure that they are healthy. Numerous types of worms like hookworms, heartworms, roundworms, tapeworms, etc can infect your cat easily. Hence, it becomes extremely important to deworm cats. If your cat is not dewormed regularly, it not only impacts your cats health but could potentially infect you as well.
How Do I Pick The Right Wormer For My Cat
There are several ingredients available which effectively kill various worms. Many products combine a number of ingredients to kill all of the worms listed above, so when selecting a product, look at the list of worms it will act against to ensure you are worming your pet completely.
Cat anti-worm treatments
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Deworming Cats And Kittens
Deworming cats is not the same as dogs. Cats won’t take medicine just because you think they should, so we must be sure we get the medication in them. You’ve probably also noticed that there aren’t as many dewormers labeled for cats. Even though there are fewer products with cat labels, several are effective and safe!
Do Indoor Cats Need Deworming
All kittens need consistent deworming regardless of their environment. Although parasites are a more common health issue in outdoor cats than indoor cats, indoor cats are still at risk of infection.
Fleas potential tapeworms carriers can enter homes by riding on clothing, people, or other pets. When indoor cats groom themselves, tapeworm transmission can occur by accidentally ingesting an infected flea. Similarly, mosquitos can easily enter homes through screen doors and windows, where they can then bite pets and transmit feline heartworm disease.
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About Dr Pete Wedderburn Dvm
Dr Pete Wedderburn qualified as a vet from Edinburgh in 1985 and has run his own 4-veterinarian companion animal practice in County Wicklow, Ireland, since 1991. Pete is well known as a media veterinarian with regular national tv, radio and newspaper slots, including a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph since 2007. Pete is known as “Pete the Vet” on his busy Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, regularly posting information on topical subjects and real-life cases from his clinic. He also write a regular blog at www.petethevet.com. His latest book: Pet Subjects, was published by Aurum Press in 2017.
Why Is Early Detection And Diagnosis Of Intestinal Parasites So Important
The parasites are freeloading for a good meal, and they’re reproducing. That’s what they’re doing. And so we can get to the point where the burden is so bad that we can have an obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract. It can lead to so much depletion that it makes your cat very, very ill. It’s even gotten to the point where I’ve seen such a terrible burden in a pet and granted, it’s very few and far between, but it caused such severe anemia that that pet needed a blood transfusion.
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Natural Dewormers Aren’t Necessarily A Better Option
Talk to your veterinarian before using natural dewormers for your cat. “When pet owners are looking for a product for their pet, I think they want research behind it,” Jeffer said. “Most of the time you really can’t guarantee that from a product that’s labeled ‘all natural.'”
Jeffer, who said he has serious doubts as to whether natural deworming products are at all effective, points out that conventional, veterinarian-recommended dewormers are not only very effective, but extremely safe to use. “They’ve all been used over decades and there are very few to no side effects associated with them,” he said.
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Can I Deworm My Cat At Home
If you’re comfortable pilling your cat at home, then we can send the dewormer home with you. Or my other recommendation to you is to keep your cat on a monthly preventative. I like Revolution Plus because it covers everything, and that’s a topical that you can put on at homethat way, you know your pet is protected year-round.
How Often To Deworm An Adult Cat
A healthy adult cat should be dewormed at regular intervals of 3 months, which is 4 times a year. Ensure that you get your beloved pet dewormed in a timely fashion to keep him/her healthy and fit. This holds good if your cat does not hunt for food and relies only the food supplied by you.
However, if you have got an adult cat who loves hunting then, you must deworm him/her every month because cats who hunt are at a higher risk of getting infected from the prey rodents like rats. Figure out the eating habits of your cat based on the details above and then decide how often you should deworm your cat.
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Natural Home Remedies For Worms In Cats
Cat owners should be careful before giving any home remedies to cats: they can be especially vulnerable to toxicities and harmful effects from medication that may be well tolerated in other species like dogs and humans. Its best to follow your veterinarians advice when selecting worm treatments.
Commonly mentioned products such as garlic, pumpkin seeds, sage, oregano or thyme, or homeopathic products, do not reliably kill worms, and cannot be recommended.
How Will A Veterinarian Diagnose Intestinal Parasites In Cats
We generally do a fecal flotation for intestinal parasites to see if we can find any eggs from those parasites. That’s what we’re looking for. And then, based on what eggs we’re seeing, we can diagnose what parasites are in there. Sometimes we have to send off to the lab to have some more specific tests run because we can’t always see the eggs on every parasites fecal flotation.
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Pregnant And Nursing Cats
Once the mother cat gives birth to kittens, she needs to be dewormed during the first lactation period. You can deworm both the nursing cat and kittens at the same time. Before proceeding, make sure the worm medication you choose is recommended by the vet as it must be appropriate for nursing and lactating cats.
If the dewormer agent is able to eliminate roundworm and tapeworm at the same time, it would be the best. There is nothing wrong if you use topical dewormer for cats. Some dewormer effectively eliminates roundworm and tapeworm separately. You can adopt this option as well.
Specific dewormer might be required based on whether your cat regularly goes outside or not. Cats that always stay inside the house has much less risk of getting infected by worms. You can ask your vet for more expert advice on deworming.
Side Effects Of Fenbendazole For Cats
Some cats may experience temporary diarrhea while taking fenbendazole.
At appropriate dosages, fenbendazole does not typically cause any adverse reactions on its own. Infrequently, drooling, vomiting, or diarrhea may occur.
It is important to remember that the job of any dewormer is to kill internal parasites. This means that sometimes, a reaction may occur to components released by a dying parasite, especially in cases where a very high parasite load is present.
In these cases, drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, or GI discomfort may be more likely to be seen. Typically, these signs are temporary, but if concerning, should be reported to an attending veterinarian in case some supportive care is needed.
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Best Topical Tapeworm Dewormer
One dose of Centragard Topical Solution for Cats quickly and safely kills tapeworms in cats, treats hookworms and roundworms, and prevents heartworms when given monthly.
Pros: Kills tapeworms with one dose, easy-to-administer topical solution, treats and prevents roundworms and hookworms, prevents heartworms when given every 30 days
Cons: Not for kittens less than 7 weeks old or weighing less than 1.8 pounds, not for use in pregnant or nursing mothers
Centragard quickly and safely treats tapeworms and two other intestinal parasites in cats and kittens 7 weeks of age and older. It is a great option for cats that won’t take pills. Simply squeeze the liquid in one spot on the back of your cat’s neck and allow it to dry. You can use Centragard one time to treat an infestation of tapeworms, hookworms, or roundworms, or give it monthly to keep your cat free from intestinal parasites and also prevent deadly heartworm.
Centragard contains the active ingredients eprinomectin and praziquantel, which work to kill worms and prevent future infection. These ingredients are effective against the two most common species of tapeworms , two species of hookworms , one species of roundworm , and heartworms.
Because cats can become reinfected by ingesting another flea, effectively eliminating tapeworms requires treating your cat for fleas as well.
How Often Do You Need To Worm Your Cat With Drontal The Answer You Need To Know
Without you knowing it, your feline friend might have worms. There are 2 types of intestinal worms affecting all types of cats, these are roundworms and tapeworms. Symptoms are not always visible in this case.
These worms can easily be acquired by eating the eggs from outside or ingesting the infected fleas during the grooming proves. Kittens are the ones that can easily get the roundworms from their mothers especially when breastfeeding.
The Drontal tablets work efficiently to kill these worms. So, whats exactly is this medication?
Contents
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Can I Give My Cat Dog Dewormer Answer: Not Recommended
When your cat has worms you can immediately assume that theyre not living life in optimal health. This is because the worms and other parasites live up to the name, theyre parasitic and they feed off of your cat in one way or another, by robbing them of nutrients or otherwise interfering with healthy functioning of their intestines and other organs. And since this isnt a problem that is likely to go away on its own, and only gets worse with time, youll want to take quick and effective action to help your cat out.
Cats and WormsWorms are a pretty typical problem with cats, and therefore many owners have had to deal with them, and many vets have written prescriptions to handle the problem. This is actually good news since they wont need to reinvent the wheel to treat your cat. The method for identifying and then eradicating the worms is well established, and its just a matter of putting your cat through the tests and getting them the medications that they need to get back to their normal happy selves.
Ugh Parasites: Inside Or Out Lets Get Rid Of Them
Parasites are free-loaders. They can be merely a nuisance, but all too often, they are harmful. Whether inside your cat or on their skin, they affect your cats health, and some can affect the people they live with: you! Roundworms can cause blindness, and bacteria carried by fleas can make people very sick. So lets protect everyone by providing parasite prevention year-round.
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Keep Your Cat Indoors
Rodents, rabbits, and birds are the carrier host of worms. If your cat spends a lot of time outdoors, its more likely that the feline will hunt them and consume later on.
Even if its not possible for you to keep your cat inside the house all the time, be sure to keep an eye on whether the cat is hunting any rodents or not. However, when it comes to your kittens, you must ensure that they dont go outside until they are adults.
How Should I Use Cat Wormers
So, to prevent the disease in both cats and humans, the following general recommendations for worming cats may be useful, though they will not apply in all situations.
- Kittens should be treated for intestinal worms at six, eight, ten and 12 weeks of age, then monthly until they are three months old, then at least every three months throughout life.
- Female cats should be wormed before mating, and pregnant cats should be treated ten days before kittening and fortnightly while the kittens are suckling.
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Many Cats Need A Regular Deworming Schedule
Did you ever see your cat throw up something that looks like spaghetti? Or find what look like grains of rice in her litter box? Not to wreck your dinner, but that spaghetti was probably roundworms, and the rice was likely tapeworm segments. The good news is that these parasitic infestations can be easily resolved with regular deworming.
What Are The Symptoms Of Worms
You will usually know whether your cat has contracted a worm infection based on the clinical signs they show. Intestinal worm infections mostly cause gastrointestinal symptoms in cats, such as:
- Diarrhea and loose stools as the worms upset usual digestive function
- An increase in appetite to compensate for the nutrients the worms are taking
- Unexplained weight loss as your cat is not getting the nutrients it needs
- An itchy bottom, usually shown by cats scooting across the floor
- Bloating of the abdominal area which is more common in infected kittens
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Are Worms In Cats A Danger To My Family
Some types of worms in cats, like roundworms, are very dangerous to human beings, especially children who play in areas frequented by host animals like raccoons, cats, and cats. Sandboxes and other dirt and sand covered outdoor play areas routinely serve as makeshift litter boxes for animals infected with cat worms, and many other intestinal parasites. In fact, approximately 10,000 children per year are infected with parasitic worms, and conditions including blindness can occur in severe cases. However, we will now discuss several effective precautionary measures you can take to help keep you and your family free from worms in cats.
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Why Deworm My Cat
Worms are parasites that can infect a kitten through the mothers milk and an adult cat can get infected through flea eggs or contact with other animals. Roundworms and tapeworms are the most frequently occurring varieties in cats. An infected kitten may suffer from growth retardation and a damaged immune system because it cant absorb all the necessary nutrients from its food. Worms are also contagious to humans. This makes deworming your cat very important.
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How Long Do Dewormers Take To Work On Cats
Now down to the important part: How long after deworming a cat are the worms gone? This is crucial information as you need to know when these parasites have left the body. This can ensure you keep your cat quarantined and keep on top of cleaning until they are gone, helping to prevent reinfection and stop other animals in your home from contracting this parasite.
In most cases, cats will be worm-free three days after you have administered their dewormer medication if they are not reinfected after this point. However, this does depend on the severity of the infection. For severe infections with a large number of adult parasites, it can take up to nine days for the worms to go completely.
Other factors that also affect how quickly and effectively the dewormers are at eliminating the parasites from the body include:
- The specific types of worms your cat is infected with
- The exact treatment offered to your cat and its appropriateness for treating the specific type of worms your cat is infected with
- The number of worms currently present inside your cats intestines
- Whether the worms have developed any resistance to the dewormer medication chosen
Many people will find the actual time after deworming that worms are gone is much longer than three to nine days. This is usually not due to the deworming medication not working, but rather because of reinfection. Worms can easily be picked up again by your cat if youre not careful!