What Kind Of Worms Can Cats Get

How Will Roundworms Affect My Cat

Adult roundworms live in the cat’s intestines. Most cats will not have signs of infection; however, cats with major roundworm infections commonly show vomiting, weight loss, dull hair, and a potbellied appearance. The cat may cough if the roundworms move into the lungs.

You may notice adult roundworms in your cat’s feces or vomit. They will appear white or light brown in color and may be several inches long.

What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Worms In Cats

Both indoor and outdoor cats, old and young, can contract worms. Adults can contract worms from contaminated feces, fleas, or rodents, while younger kittens can be exposed to worms through nursing.

The following symptoms are signs that your cat may be infested:

• Visible presence: For many cat owners, the first sign will be a visible presence of worms. You may see whole worms, parts of worms or worm eggs in your pets stool or vomit. Worms or eggs can also sometimes migrate to a cats anus, getting stuck in the fur.

• Change in coat: If your cat is infested with a parasite, their fur may appear dull, rumpled or clumped due to lack of nutrients or .

• Change in color of gums: The gums of a healthy cat should be nice and pink, but if they appear pale or white, your cat may be experiencing anemia, due to the worms.

• Vomiting: Vomiting is a common occurrence in cats, but if its happening more frequently than usual, worms could be the culprit.

• Change in stool / bowel movements: Dark, tarry stool indicates the presence of blood, potentially from hookworms. Worms in the gut can also cause diarrhea.

• Increased appetite despite weight loss: As the worms deprive your cat of vital nutrients, they need to take in more food in order to try to maintain their body condition.

If you notice any of the above signs, its important to have your cat examined by your vet immediately.

How To Tell If Your Cat Has Worms

Worms present in a variety of ways. Some cats display lots of visible symptoms while some dont show any signs at all. Evaluation for parasite infection is one of the most important reasons for a qualified veterinarian to see your cat at least once a year. Besides making appointments, you can consult a qualified veterinarian online using Vet Chat. Although an on-site evaluation is a must in the case of worms, you can get a timely response on how to build an evaluation schedule online.

A few of the most common signs your cat might have worms include:

• Visible worm segments or whole worms in your cats feces or around his anus
• Bloody stool/diarrhea
• Unexplained weight loss
• Bloated or especially rounded belly
• Constipation
• Constant coughing
• Difficulty breathing

If you have any reason to suspect your cat might have worms, make an appointment with a immediately. Only a vet can accurately diagnose your pet with worms and provide your cat with the medicine he needs to get rid of parasites.

Also, remember that it is possible for cats to transmit certain kinds of worms to humans! Roundworms, for example, can easily travel from feline to human host. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after touching a cat you suspect might have worms and to use gloves if handling his feces.

Drontal Broad Spectrum Dewormer

Are you not sure which parasites have infested your cat? Or does your cat have multiple species of worms such as tapeworms, roundworms, and hookworms? You must be thinking that you have to buy several deworming medications for cats, but it is not the case. You can get it all in one bottle of Drontal Broad Spectrum Dewormer for cats, which contains a broad spectrum of chemicalspraziquantel and pyrantel pamoatewhich will kill not only tapeworms but also hookworms and roundworms in cats.

No doubt, the product is a bit pricey but considering that it is effective against a broad spectrum of worm species and contains 50 tablets, with an expiry date of 2 years, it seems pretty reasonable.

However, you should keep in mind that it is quite bitter in taste. Drontal is highly effective but incredibly bitter. Pilling a cat requires some skill and most will fight it, says an American user in their review.

Can Humans Be Harmed By Roundworms

Roundworms do pose a significant risk to humans. Contact with contaminated soil or feces can result in human ingestion and infection. Roundworm eggs may accumulate in significant numbers in the soil where pets deposit feces. Children should not be allowed to play where animals have passed feces. Individuals who have direct contact with soil that may have been contaminated by cat or dog feces should wear gloves or wash their hands immediately.

For veterinary professionals, more detailed information on roundworms can be found at .

Treating Your Cat For Worms

Maintaining a regular worming schedule can save your cat from health issues and discomfort. While there are several types of worming treatments available, a spot-on wormer like Profender Allwormer helps take the stress out of worming. Its easy to apply, can be used on kittens from eight weeks of age and at least 2.5kg, and kills every type of intestinal worm commonly found in cats.

Types Of Parasites You Can Get From Your Pet

When you cuddle with your furry friend and let them give you kisses, you may not be thinking that they could pass along some unwanted guests to you. Zoonotic parasites can be transmitted from pets to humans. Heres what pet owners should know.

Some pets are born with intestinal worms . Intestinal parasites can affect your adult cat or dog, who can pick them up in unsanitary outdoor areas or from wildlife. Until your pet is dewormed for parasites, your family can be at risk of zoonotic parasitic infections. However, monthly heartworm preventives can protect your pet from most intestinal parasites because heartworm prevention medication includes parasite preventives. 

Here are four common zoonotic parasites:

Contact us to discuss preventative options for your furry friend to make sure they dont get bugged. 

Are There Home Remedies For Worms In Dogs

Generally speaking, prescription dewormers will be safer and/or more effective than many over-the-counter worm medications.

There are no home remedies to treat or prevent parasitic worms. Please consult with your local veterinarian for best choice of dewormer based on where you live and your pets lifestyle.

How To Deworm My Cat

The best way to deworm you cat is by visiting your vet. The vet can diagnose the exact problem and the type of worm that your cat has got infected with. Without exact information about the type of worm it is impossible to treat the infestation.

There are many over the counter deworming medicines available. While not all of them are safe, there are quite a few that are deemed safe for the cats. Some of them also have certification from the FDA. Always be sure while buying over the counter deworming medicine. Go through the composition and know the right dosage before administering. You will also have to know what type of worm is present in your feline pet.

If you give medicine for tapeworms, it wonât kill the roundworms. Hence, it is mandatory to know the type of worms. This is one of the major reasons why you need to visit the vet. Even if that is not possible, there are few broad spectrum medicine that might be helpful.

Do not wait for too long before taking your cat to the vet for deworming. You can certainly try by administering deworming medicines yourself. But, in case it does not improve the health of the cat, make sure that you visit the vet at the earliest.

How To Tell If Cat Has Worms

Not every worm gives away clear signs in terms of symptoms. Hence, it may become difficult to know if your cat has worm. However, there are some common symptoms that will help you know when you cat has worms.

• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Breathing problem

If you have a cat you have kept at home all life long and the cat gets regular medical attention, the risk of the cat getting worm decreases. 

The risk is particularly high among those cats who are exposed to the outside soil and other areas that may contain feces of cats or other animals. If your cat catches rodents and birds, even then the risk of getting infected by worm is present. 

The highest risk is to the stray cats that do not get regular treatment from vets.

How To Identify Worms In A Cat

This article was co-authored by Brian Bourquin, DVM. Brian Bourquin, better known as Dr. B to his clients, is a Veterinarian and the Owner of Boston Veterinary Clinic, a pet health care and veterinary clinic with three locations, South End/Bay Village, the Seaport, and Brookline, Massachusetts. Boston Veterinary Clinic specializes in primary veterinary care, including wellness and preventative care, sick and emergency care, soft-tissue surgery, dentistry. The clinic also provides specialty services in behavior, nutrition, and alternative pain management therapies using acupuncture, and therapeutic laser treatments. Boston Veterinary Clinic is an AAHA accredited hospital and Bostons first Fear Free Certified Clinic. Brian has over 19 years of veterinary experience and earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University.There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 20 testimonials and 93% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 621,213 times.

How Can I Tell If My Cat Has Tapeworms

Vomiting up pieces of worm that is still alive is a good indicator, of course. Other signs your cat might be suffering from a tapeworm infestation include unexplained weight loss, though the most common sign your cat is infested with tapeworms are the proglottids. You’re likely to see those rice-sized, egg-filled tapeworm segments in either your cat’s feces or crawling near her anus. You might witness your cat “scooting” across the floor if the segment is irritating her skin, but this behavior is much more common in dogs.

How Do I Prevent My Cat From Getting Roundworms

Because roundworms can enter your cat’s body in many different ways, it is essential to keep your cat’s living area clean and, if possible, keep your cat indoors to prevent it from eating wild animals that may carry roundworms.

Kittens should be treated for roundworms every 2 weeks between three and nine weeks of age and then receive a preventive treatment monthly.  Fecal examinations should be conducted 2 to 4 times during the first year of life and 1 or 2 times each year in adults. Nursing mothers should be kept on monthly preventive and treated along with their kittens. A monthly parasite control product effective against roundworms is recommended to treat potential new infections. Many heartworm medications also control roundworms so ask your veterinarian about prevention and treatment choices.

How To Prevent My Cat From Getting Worms

Cats are prone to getting worms due to a variety of reasons. However, you can always have some preventive measures in place. These small steps will help you assure better safety for your cats against worms.

• Make sure your cat stays indoors. This will prevent them from coming in contact with the feces of other cats or dogs or rodents, fleas and birds. These are the primary carrier for the worms that infects the cats.
• Keep the home, lawn and surrounding area clean. It is quite difficult to make your cat stay indoors at all times. This is the reason that you must keep these areas clean as your cat can get worms from these places too while roaming around.
• Always use preventive measures like wearing gloves while cleaning the litter. Make the cat practice good hygiene as well.
• Make sure you visit the vet at regular intervals. Do not try to treat your cat by yourself at all times.

Worms in cats are quite common. However, it is preventive as well. Gaining information is the first step towards guaranteeing your cat a safer life.

Testing Control & Treatment

Feline ectoparasites are often found through direct examination. However, since cats are good groomers the parasites can often be missed. Fleas can be found with a simple flea comb; however, lice and mites need to be examined under a microscope after collecting some samples of skin and fur. If your cat has any of the symptoms associated with ectoparasites, but no bugs were found on our exam we often will treat for the suspected parasite to see if the symptoms resolve. Fleas, lice, and some mites can be treated and prevented with the use of Revolution, a topical once a month anti-parasitic. Revolution is not labeled for ticks in the cat, but it is guaranteed by Zoetis to cover ticks.

Heartworm testing is difficult. We have a blood test that can screen for antibodies and antigen, however it is common to get a negative result even if the cat has an infection. Sometimes x-rays, or even an ultrasound of the heart is needed to help confirm the diagnosis; however, many cats arent diagnosed until after death with a necropsy. Once a month Revolution can protect your cat from Heartworm disease. Revolution is also recommended if your cat has heartworm to help prevent re-infection with more heartworms.

As you can read, Revolution doesnt treat everything but it covers a lot of the parasites we can find in or on your cat. This is why we recommend monthly, year round Revolution for all cats!

How Your Cat Can Get Worms

There are several ways that your cat can get worms, including:

• If your cat goes outside, one of the following: worms, worm eggs, or fleas carrying worm eggs can get caught on your cat’s coat. The cat can then ingest the eggs while grooming themselves or grooming other cats, says Travis Arndt, DVM, Medical Director at the Animal Medical Center of Mid-America.
• Kittens often get infected through breast milk when their mothers have a dormant case of worms, says Nichols. 
• “Some worms are also found in muscle tissue of infected animals, so cats who hunt or are fed raw meat products can ingest worms through their diet,” McNabb says.

How To Prevent A Dog From Getting Worms

Using a monthly, commercially-available dewormer can protect against heartworms and intestinal parasites indefinitely.

Most parasites have a life cycle of three to four weeks, so you can prevent and treat most parasites if you give the medication monthly.

Giving a monthly dewormer to your pregnant dog will prevent transmission to her offspring. Then the puppies can start on a dewormer after they finish weaning.

Here are some other ways you can help your dog avoid contracting worms.

Method 1 Of 2:looking For Physical Signs That A Cat Has Worms

How To Worm A Cat Or Kitten

Deworming cats is simple as worming treatments are now available as liquids, pastes, granules and palatable worming tablets as well as liquid spot on formulations so you can choose the easiest one for your cat. Follow the on-pack instructions in full and stick to the advised schedule for your chosen product.

Because roundworms are so common in kittens it is vital to begin treatment from an early age. It is recommended that kittens are treated for roundworms every two weeks from two until eight weeks of age, then monthly until six months of age and every one to three months thereafter. Kittens only require tapeworm treatment if they also have fleas. 

Adult cats should be treated every 1 to 3 months with a product which is effective against both roundworms and tapeworms.

Some Of The Ways You Can Prevent Your Cat From Getting Worms Are As Follows:

• All kittens and all-new household additions should be dewormed
• Use monthly heartworm and flea preventative that treats and controls hookworms and roundworms all year long
• Routine wellness and fecal examinations
• Keep your litter box clean
• Keep your cat indoors so that their possible exposure is limited

If you have any further questions about deworming cats or you’re ready to get an appointment for your own pet, please give us a call!

What Are Cat Worms And How Can My Cat Catch Them

are the most common intestinal parasites in kittens and cats. They are long, white and look like spaghetti. Eggs from these cat worms are passed in the faeces and can live for months or years in the soil. Cats can become infected in three main ways:

• Ingestion of eggs directly from contaminated soil e.g. by licking them off their feet
• Consumption of a rodent who has previously eaten worm eggs from the environment
• Ingestion by kittens of worm larvae in their mothers milk . The vast majority of new-born kittens are infected with roundworms by this route. 

Another type of cat worms your cat could be infected by are Tapeworms . Tapeworms are long, flat and composed of many segments which contain eggs. The segments are regularly shed in faeces and resemble grains of rice which can sometimes be seen crawling around a cats anus or on their bed.

To complete their lifecycle, tapeworms require an intermediate host to eat their eggs from the environment. Cats then become infected by consuming the intermediate host. Intermediate hosts include fleas and rodents. For this reason, if your cat is diagnosed with fleas, they will probably need treatment for tapeworms and vice versa. In addition, if they hunt and eats rodents, they will also require tapeworm treatment. You can find out more about tapeworms in cats with our easy guide.

How Is Heartworm Disease Transmitted From One Pet To Another

The mosquito plays an essential role in the heartworm life cycle. Adult female heartworms living in an infected dog, fox, coyote, or wolf produce microscopic baby worms called microfilaria that circulate in the bloodstream. When a mosquito bites and takes a blood meal from an infected animal, it picks up these baby worms, which develop and mature into infective stage larvae over a period of 10 to 14 days. Then, when the infected mosquito bites another dog, cat, or susceptible wild animal, the infective larvae are deposited onto the surface of the animal’s skin and enter the new host through the mosquitos bite wound. Once inside a new host, it takes approximately 6 months for the larvae to mature into adult heartworms. Once mature, heartworms can live for 5 to 7 years in dogs and up to 2 or 3 years in cats. Because of the longevity of these worms, each mosquito season can lead to an increasing number of worms in an infected pet.

How Is My Cat Dewormed

After your veterinarian has identified and diagnosed your cat with worms, they will have a proper treatment plan according to the type of worms your cat has been diagnosed with. Your cat will be prescribed a dewormer medication that might be a small pill, liquid, injection, or topical medicine to be administered.

The Companion Animal Parasite Council

The Companion Animal Parasite Council is an independent council of veterinarians and other animal healthcare professionals established to create guidelines for the optimal control of internal and external parasites that threaten the health of pets and people. It brings together broad expertise in parasitology, internal medicine, public health, veterinary law, private practice and association leadership.

Initially convened in 2002, CAPC was formed with the express purpose of changing the way veterinary professionals and pet owners approach parasite management. The CAPC advocates best practices for protecting pets from parasitic infections and reducing the risk of zoonotic parasite transmission.

What Are The Symptoms Of Intestinal Worms

There are a variety of signs or symptoms your cat may show if infected with worms, but the most common are typically diarrhea and vomiting. Other possible signs of an intestinal worm infection in your cat include:

• Spaghetti-like worms in your cats stool or vomit
• Weight loss
• Coughing
• Dehydration

Though intestinal parasites in adult cats arent generally life-threatening, severe cases can result in death. If you suspect your cat might have an intestinal worm infection, contact your veterinarian.

Types Of Worms In Cats And How To Recognize Them

Approved By: Dr. Sara Ochoa, DVM

Certified Content. This article has been fact checked and verified by our veterinary adviser.

The worms your cat needs to worry about are a parasite that resides in the intestinal system of your pet. They absorb the nutrients of the food your cat eats, nutrients that would better go to nourish your cat.

Parasitical worms can cause a well fed cat to gradually die of malnutrition. Generally, it is cats that go outdoors that contract worms but even indoor cats cat be infested with them.

There are four basic types of parasitical worms. Each worm has a different symptom, a different way of contraction, a different physical appearance and a different method of treatment. In all cases, veterinary assistance is recommended.

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What Is Heartworm Disease

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease in pets in the United States and many other parts of the world. It is caused by foot-long worms that live in the heart, lungs and associated blood vessels of affected pets, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body. Heartworm disease affects dogs, cats and ferrets, but heartworms also live in other mammal species, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, sea lions andin rare instanceshumans. Because wild species such as foxes and coyotes live in proximity to many urban areas, they are considered important carriers of the disease.

The dog is a natural host for heartworms, which means that heartworms that live inside the dog mature into adults, mate and produce offspring. If untreated, their numbers can increase, and dogs have been known to harbor several hundred worms in their bodies. Heartworm disease causes lasting damage to the heart, lungs and arteries, and can affect the dogs health and quality of life long after the parasites are gone. For this reason, prevention is by far the best option, and treatmentwhen neededshould be administered as early in the course of the disease as possible.