How To Treat Your Pets For Worms
- Give them regular worm treatments – ask your vet for the best treatment and method to de-worm your pet.
- Treat pets for roundworms from a young age and, when they’re adults, also treat them for tapeworms.
- Different worms may need different treatments – ask your vet which treatment is safe and suitable for your pet.
- Also treat for fleas – prevent tapeworms by using a flea treatment regularly, as fleas can carry tapeworm eggs.
What Are The Symptoms Of Tapeworms In Cats
While tapeworm infections can cause your cat discomfort, the good news is that severe complications are rare. You may not even realize your cat is infected with tapeworms in many cases, no symptoms will be present or detectable. However, you might notice:
- Tapeworm segments crawling around your cats back end or in their stool
Summary Of Tapeworms In Cats
Tapeworms in cats are common intestinal parasites that often cause diarrhea. Infections can range from mild to potentially life-threatening, but are easily cured with medication. Deworming kittens during early wellness visits reduces their chances of contracting tapeworms, and regular veterinary visits throughout your cats life will further reduce the risk of contracting parasites and other diseases.
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Apple Cider Vinegar Is Effective Against Fleas
Will apple cider vinegar kill worms in cats? Well, when ingested apple cider vinegar creates an acidic environment in your pet’s stomach. But there is little scientific proof that apple cider vinegar strong enough to kill worms. Besides, giving apple cider vinegar, even diluted with water to your cat, might irritate her stomach and digestive tract.
Nevertheless, apple cider vinegar can help you in your fight with worms by getting rid of fleas. As you remember, the flea carries tapeworms and is a source of great discomfort for your pet.
So, mix apple cider vinegar with water and pour the solution into a squeeze bottle. Then spray your pet’s fur gently with the mixture. After that, take a flea comb and use it to remove the fleas.
In addition to this, you can also use apple cider vinegar to treat ringworm and fungus. It’s also suitable for your dog.
Are There Home Remedies For Tapeworms In Cats
There are no home remedies for tapeworms in cats. Prevention, however, is the best course of action.
Whether your cat has had tapeworms or you want to avoid your cat getting them, the best way to prevent tapeworms in cats is by giving your cat flea and tick medicine.
Your veterinarian can recommend a flea and tick prevention medication to help keep your cat healthy and tapeworm free.
For more information on cat health and care from our experts, visit our Pet Expertise page.
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What Is The Treatment For Tapeworms In Cats
Once your veterinarian diagnoses your cat with tapeworms, they will prescribe either an injection or oral medication.
After administering the deworming medication, the worms dissolve in the intestines. Because they dissolve, they arent usually visible in the cats feces.
As with any medication your veterinarian prescribes, give your cat the full course of deworming medication to ensure the tapeworms are completely eradicated.
Since tapeworms are often caused by fleas, youll also want to wash pet bedding, clean carpets and any other areas where your cat spends time to eliminate the pest.
Treatment For Roundworms In Cats
Luckily, when identified early, treating a roundworm infection is pretty straightforward to help bring your healthy cat back to their normal self.
In the case of kittens, kittens should be dewormed at 2-3 weeks of age and at every visit for booster vaccinations. If you notice that your kitten has roundworm, you will likely use an anthelmintic, or deworming medication to kill the immature form of the worms and the migrating worm eggs. At least 203 treatments are needed to fully eradicate the roundworm.
In addition to treating kittens proactively and quickly if you notice an infection, breeding female cats should also be dewormed prior to pregnancy and again later in their pregnancy.
Adult cats also remain at risk for roundworm infections and the best treatment is prevention. We talk about some prevention tips later in this article, but one of the best and easiest things you can do is to give your cat a parasite medication, such as a flea or heartworm medication, that also treats roundworm. If your cat goes outside, you should have their stools examined several times a year.
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How Can You Tell If Your Cat Has Tapeworms
As a tapeworm grows, pieces of its body break into segments and pass into your cats intestines. You may see dried, white or cream-colored segments of the tapeworm in your cat’s feces, or you may find them stuck to the fur under your cats tail.
Some tapeworm species will break into segments that are too small to see, while the segments of other tapeworm species will resemble sesame or cucumber seeds in size and appearance.
If a tapeworm has traveled into a cats stomach, and the cat vomits up the worm, it may come up as a large and moving segment.
Cats may bite or lick their , or drag their hindquarters across the floor. Keep in mind that a tapeworm infection is often asymptomatic and, contrary to popular belief, rarely a cause of weight loss in cats.
If you notice tapeworms, take your cat to the vet for an evaluation. A fecal sample can be used to diagnose intestinal parasites like tapeworms. Its always helpful to save any worms that you find and bring them to your veterinarian for diagnosis. They can be transported in a sealed plastic bag or jar.
How Tapeworms Are Diagnosed And Treated
Nichols says that tapeworms in cats are most often diagnosed by either the owner or the veterinarian seeing the tapeworm segments . You dont need a microscope to spot them. Unlike with roundworms, yearly fecal float tests that use a microscope to look for parasite eggs in the poop arent as useful for detecting tapeworms.
Treatment of tapeworms in cats involves a single dose of a deworming drug by mouth, explains Nichols. However, cats can become reinfected by eating infected rodents or fleas, so they may have to undergo the same treatment again in the future. Because fleas are a common route of infection, its important to treat the fleas as well as the tapeworms, she adds. I always recommend flea preventatives for my patients that have tapeworm, and I always consider a tapeworm treatment or screening for my patients that have fleas.
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Treatment For Tapeworms In Cats
Medications that are specifically designed to eliminate parasites treat tapeworms in cats. In cats, these medications include epsiprantel, praziquantel, and fenbendazole. Epsiprantel and praziquantel are used to treat both dipylidium and taenia, and veterinarians may recommend fenbendazole for taenia tapeworms in some cases as well. Treatment for fleas will also be needed.
In severe cases of tapeworm infection, veterinarians might also have to treat complications like intestinal blockages. It can require additional diagnostic imaging, procedures, and medication to resolve.
Fasting Out The Parasites
Finally, you can put your cat on a one-day fast. You should first make sure your cat is healthy and strong. Fasting for a day can help clear out pesky parasites that simply can’t live without food. You can do this up to once a week without hurting your cat’s health.
References
Writer Bio
Krista Raye is a Steel Magnolia who began writing professionally in 2009 with eHow, Answerbag and Trails. She has 10 years teaching experience in middle and high schools. Raye holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, a Bachelor of Science in secondary English education and a Master of Arts in adolescent English education.
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Benefits Of Wrm Clear
- Easy to administer. Its liquid formulation means it can be given directly by mouth, in food or water.
- Safe for kittens, pregnant females, adult and senior cats.
- No chemicals, so no toxicity or drug interactions
- Can be combined with conventional wormers to reduce toxic side effects, such as vomiting or diarrhoea
- Aids recovery after worm infestation is removed
- Reduces the risk of reinfection by suppressing egg production
- Can be combined with other HomeoPet products such as Liver Rescue
How Do Felines Get Tapeworms In The First Place
As if tapeworms are gross-sounding enough, consider the most common way that cats get them in the first place:
From fleas.
You may not think that you have fleas in your home, but it’s actually relatively easy to come in contact with these little buggers on a day-to-day basis. Boarding kennels , grooming shops, pet stores, or even veterinary hospitals are often hotspots for fleas that may pass from one animal host to another.
Even the great outdoors can expose your cat to fleas. This is especially true if your cat goes outdoors and you live in a woody area.
Tapeworms, like a few other common parasites, require at least 2 animal hosts in order to survive. The first hostusually the common fleawill contain tapeworm larvae. Once the infected flea becomes ingested by the second hoste.g., your catthat the larvae will find their way to the animal’s small intestine, latch on, and begin to grow.
For cats specifically, they typically become infected by tapeworms after accidentally eating a flea while grooming, or after eating a tapeworm-infected rodent.
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Worming Your Cat Is There A Natural Alternative
Worming your cat is an essential part of being a responsible pet parent. Worms can have serious health effects and not only do they pose a danger to your cat, but some of them can also infect humans and all of them can infect other household pets. Consequently, intestinal worming should never be overlooked.
Here at HomeoPet, our mission is to provide a more natural way to help keep your pets healthy and although there are a range of chemical-based products available on the market today to treat worms, a drug free approach is possible, thanks to WRM Clear. Feline WRM Clear is formulated specifically for cats, is easy to administer, is safe and gentle with HPUS listed Monographs for all major worm types. But before we look at how WRM Clear can potentially benefit a cat with worms, we should have a basic understanding of the signs and consequences of worm infestation.
Telling If Your Cat Has Tapeworm
If you or your loved ones cat has a tapeworm, its important to be aware of the signs. This infection can cause stomach issues and can be fatal to cats. Tapeworms are passed through raw or undercooked meat. This means that if your cat has access to raw meat such as offal, fish or poultry, they can get an infection. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and dull hair coat. Your cat may also appear listless and have a poor appetite. This is often the first sign of tapeworms.
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How To Prevent Tapeworm Infestation In The First Place
Tapeworms are a nuisance for your cat. Thus it would help if you took certain measures to prevent it in the first place. The ideal approach suggests limiting your cats exposure to critters if it has already ever been infected by the tapeworm. Besides, vets also recommend always keeping your cats litter area clean by disposing of the litter immediately. If your cat prefers outdoors, make sure to keep it away from eating rodents and thoroughly clean her after coming back. Plus, get your vet to check the stool of your cat every once in a while for examination.
Besides, your vet may also recommend a routine flea preventive medication, which you must give throughout the year. Mostly tapeworm is contracted to pets from other household pets only, so keep an eye on your other household pets as well.
Which Worming Products To Use
There are many different worming products available on the market, and drug availability varies between different countries. While worming products may be available from pet shops and even some supermarkets, these are often old or less effective products and some are even less safe to use in cats.
It is always better to seek the advice of your vet, who will know what types of worms occur commonly where you live, and will be able to recommend the most effective and safest treatments for your cat. Additionally, some treatments are available which may be easier to administer, such as an injection that your vet can give, a tiny tablet that can go in with food, or even some drops that can be applied to the skin.
See also our information on how to give your cat a tablet.
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How To Prevent Tapeworms In Cats
As the old saying goes, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound cure. That certainly holds true when it comes to tapeworm infections. Vigilant and effective flea control for your cat is the first step in preventing infection from the flea tapeworm, Dipylidium, and cats who go outside will often hunt and consume prey, which serve as intermediate hosts for the other species of tapeworms. These cats should see their vet every three months for intestinal parasite testing and deworming whether symptoms are present or not.
Home Remedies For Tapeworm In Cats A More Natural Approach
Approved By: Dr. Sara Ochoa, DVM
Certified Content. This article has been fact checked and verified by our veterinary adviser.
Home Remedies for Tapeworm in Cats, is there such a thing?
For pet owners, there’s nothing worse than watching a pet get sick.
Actually, maybe there’s one thing that’s worse:
Watching your cat get sick from a preventable illness.
Sadly, this is what thousands of pet owners have to go through every year when their animals contract tapeworms. While it may be tempting to doubt just how harmful a little worm can be, don’t let the innocent-sounding name fool you. These little critters can cause problems for your cat.
Fortunately, tapeworms can be avoided. At the very least, parasitic tapeworms can be effectively treated if an infection does occur. There are plenty of natural remedies for tapeworms in cats, as well, so you won’t have to overly rely on harsh medications to free your feline of these irritating parasites.
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What Will A Tapeworm Do To My Cat’s Health
While not considered a serious health concern, tapeworms can stick around for a long time inside your animal and, like most parasites, may cause your cat to lose weight or become weaker. This is because tapeworms essentially leech nutrients from your cat’s body.
Plus, as mentioned, tapeworms can make your cat physically uncomfortable and itchy in all the wrong places.
Not fun for you or your feline.
Home Remedies For Worms In Cat Natural Dewormer For Cats
Worms affect nearly every cat owner at some point.
Many people are concerned about the side effects of traditional worming solutions, so its important to know that there are a number of natural options that can cure and prevent these annoying parasites in your cat.
Because every cat and scenario is different, its always better to consult your vet first for the best strategy to treat and prevent worms in your cat.
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How To Get Rid Of Tapeworms In Cats Without Going To The Vet
Domestic cats can be traced back to ancient Egypt, maybe further, becoming a sacred creature for the Egyptians and cat lovers. This lovely pet was first domesticated in the East to protect crops by reducing diseases and rodent attacks, but now, they are more than just a beneficial tool they are family. Therefore, same as family, we must do everything possible to keep them well and protect them from anything harmful. Tapeworms are one of those things we would like to protect cats from.
These are some home-based remedies that can help you get rid of tapeworms in cats without going to the vet: pumpkin seeds and garlic powder. Also, giving your fur baby regular flea treatment every three months and keeping their litter box clean will lower the chances of getting tapeworms.
Prevention is the best cure for any type of infection however, this will not guarantee that our feline will not become infected at some point with internal parasites. Cats that are regularly outdoors are more susceptible to getting infected, but it doesnt mean that the ones that are mostly indoors would not. It is crucial to know about common infections and diseases to be on the lookout for any possible symptoms. Understanding and knowing the signs will guide you in determining how to help your pet feel well and if it requires an immediate professional check.
How To Prevent Tapeworms
Keeping your cat free of flea infestations with flea and tick medication is the best protection against tapeworms. However, if infestation does occur, the environment must be treated along with the cat to prevent recurring infestations.
Since cats are fastidious groomers, you may not see the fleas that they are ingesting or know that they are contracting tapeworms until there is an infestation.
Ask your veterinarian which flea and tick prevention products are safe for your cat. Keeping your cat indoors and away from dead animals and garbage may also help prevent them from ingesting tapeworms.
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What Are The Other Tapeworms That Can Infect My Cat
The other common tapeworms that can infect a cat are members of a group called Taenia. The intermediate hosts of these tapeworms are mice, birds, or rabbits.
“…cats acquire Taenia infestations by eating infected mice, birds, or rabbits.”
In a similar manner to Dipylidium transmission, cats acquire Taenia infestations by eating infected mice, birds, or rabbits. Tapeworm medications are highly effective at eliminating these parasites. However, if your cat continues to hunt and eat prey, reinfection can occur with passage of tapeworm segments in 6-8 weeks. In cats that hunt frequently, regular deworming may be needed.
Another less common group of tapeworms called Echinococcus is of increasing concern as a threat to human health. These tapeworms cause serious, potentially fatal disease when humans become infected. Infection with this parasite is harder to diagnose than Dipylidium because the segments are small and not readily seen. Trappers and hunters in the north central United States and south central Canada may be at increased risk for infection with this worm when strict hygiene is not practiced. Foxes, coyotes, and the wild rodents upon which they prey are important in the life cycle of this parasite.
Humans become infected through ingestion of the eggs, and may not show clinical signs until years after ingestion.