VeggieBoards banner

Kittens and worms!!

3K views 18 replies 12 participants last post by  imjennwhoareyou 
#1 ·
i have these 2 kittens and today i found what appeared to be a really small white worm like figure that mas moving outside of their rectum. i'm wondering if this is fatal or contagious (sp), i don't want to get this, but i have become so paronoid and i won't even touch the kittens anymore. i don't know what to do, what could have caused this and will it go away with time?

 
See less See more
1
#2 ·
Some worms can be transmitted to humans. Do not touch the worms or the cat poop. Most worms are fairly easy to get rid of. Just take the kittens to the vet and they'll test them and give them a dose of dewormer if needed. Worms GET WORSE, not better with time and can/will eventually harm the health of an infested animal if not treated.
 
#3 ·
OK, I'm not exactly sure if this even occurs in animals, but maybe she has pin worms. I know that in people, pin worms live in the lower intestine and appear around the anus at night (they are nocturnal) to lay their eggs. Apparently they are harmless, but highly contagious, and if one person in the family has them everyone else will become infected, too (the eggs are airborne!) You should probably take the kitten to the vet, though, and see what he/she says.
 
#6 ·
They're tapeworms. Have you taken the kittens to the vet for shots & a checkup? The vet should check for tapeworms, although some vets just give them worm meds without testing.

Cats get tapeworms when they eat flea larvae, so if you see fleas, it's a pretty good bet they'll have tapeworms soon.
 
#7 ·
You should go to the vet, with a stool sample in hand, and get them dewormed. New animals should see a vet within a week of aquisition anyway. Worms are transmitted through fecal oral contact, so don't eat their poo (and wash your hands post cat box cleaning), and you should be okay. The exception is tapeworks, which, as gracie pointed out, come from ingesting an infected flea, so don't eat fleas either.
 
#8 ·
Your cats almost certainly have tapeworms. What you see is one segment of the tapeworm, which is a specialized muscular egg sac. As it wiggles around it spreads tapeworm eggs. These are eaten by fleas. The cat eats the flea and starts the cycle all over again. The only really effective, safe tapeworm medications are prescription dewormers available from your veterinarian.
 
#15 ·
I know they make certain OTC tapeworm meds for kittens. Those tapeworm tabs mentioned by catgirl contain praziquantel the same ingredient that they use in Drontal (the prescription drug, except that Drontal contains other ingredients that kill roundworms, hookworms, whipworms too). Droncit kills tapeworms only. They dont say on the bottles of the OTC stuff (or might not) but you are supposed to repeat in two weeks because one time kills the adult worms and the other ones kill the eggs.
 
#16 ·
Tapeworms have a direct life cycle, they don't take a tour of the body before settling down in the intestines like the nematodes (hooks, rounds, etc.). One treatment is all that is needed for them. However, since the kittens have tapeworms, there are likely to be other worms and two treatments two weeks apart is best.

There's more than one type of tapeworm. One kind is from eating fleas, others are from rodent prey (so keep mice out of your diet as well).

Incedentaly there's a major human health risk from pet parasites. Round and hookworm eggs can hatch in human. The juveniles will take their usual tour of the body, but get lost along the way doing damage to internal organs (mainly in toddlers) or eyes causing blindness in older children to adults (second leading cause of blindness in pre-teen kids). The organ damage can be fatal, especially if it's the heart. Message: check fecals regularly and deworm your pets.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by catgirl67 View Post

Isn't this kind hard to treat, and potentially fatal?
Drontal from the vet treats 4 major kinds of tapeworms tania pisiformis (pork tape), dyplidia caninum (flea tape), echinococcus granulosus (rodent tapeworm, echinococcus multicularosis (sheep tapeworm). The rodent one is endemic to the northern border states of the US and lower canada. They cause hydatid cysts which can be fatal in humans if not treated.

sorry if my spelling isnt right.. Its information I read in a pamphlet from the vet because my dogs recently had tapeworms too.
 
#19 ·
Also worm eggs/ segments aren't always present in the particular stool sample that they may use in the fecal exam and is actually quite common to be missed in fecal exams so keeping an eye on your pets stool and anal area is pretty important. My dogs had fecal samples and nothing showed up for tapeworms but I found the worms while picking up poop in the backyard one day. And different worms have different treatments. Pyrantel pamoate only kills round and hook.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top