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My cat has tape worms, what should I do?

Dec 04, 2008 by ghostlystate | Posted in Cats

My husband and I adopted a wonderful female cat from our local SPCA two days ago. She is 1 year and 3 months old. She has been fixed (which was only three days ago) and is recovering very well. She has been vaccinated twice, two weeks apart with Strongid-T (for round and hookworms) and Fel-O-Guard+3 (for more serious feline illnesses).

Last night I noticed a 1cm long worm, white in colour coming out of her bum. I removed it, cleaned her litter box but did not notice any worms in her poop. This morning she had a pee and a worm came out so I removed that from her litter box.

I have done research and it sounds like these are tape worms. They let out egg sacks which then are passed through the bum and then they are ingested by fleas and the cat eats the fleas and the whole cycle starts again.

Our cat has a vet visit tonight for a free vet check provided by the SPCA to show when we adopted her she had a clean bill of health, however, this is not the case. Anyways, I have read that our cat will need a vaccine called Droncit for tapeworms. I believe it comes in a pill form. Has anyone else ever dealt with this with their cat? Can these worms make me or my husband sick? We wash our hands very well after touching her now that we noticed she has worms. We are keeping her upstairs to help avoid the spread of these things.

I have also been reading up on medication to control fleas which will stop these tape worms from coming back after being vaccinated. I have found Revolution Blue for Cats, Frontline Plus for Cats and Advantage for Cats. Does anyone use any of these products? If so do you find they work and are cost effective?

Our cat is an indoor kitty only. We do not have any other animals.
I just called the vet and SPCA where we got her from and these are common in cats. She will need a different vaccine and all will be good. She goes in tonight. Thank you for all the helpful advice.

You are correct, cats (and dogs) get tapeworms from ingesting fleas. I use Frontline to protect all my critters from fleas. One year I tried to save money by using BioSpot, what a waste of money that was. I ended up spending lots more on proper flea preventative (Frontline) as well as the tapeworm meds to treat my 6 cats and 3 dogs! So yes, Frontline or Advantage (I've never used Revolution) are a good way to go.

The medicines used to get rid of rounds and hooks doesn't do anything about tapeworms. Droncit requires a prescription, and if you're taking kitty to the vet anyway that's the way to go. It contains praziquantel which is what takes care of the tapes. I've bought praziquantel pills from my pet supply store and used that with great success.

And I've read that tapeworms can be transmitted to humans but have to say, I worked in an animal shelter and own lots of animals and have encountered tapes many times, and never had any problems myself. Just practice good hygiene like you already are. I wouldn't say kitty needs to be sequestered.

Best of luck - and by the way - you and your husband are AWESOME PEOPLE for adopting a homeless pet!

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Siamese cats get two conditions that might explain what you are seein

by admin

Question: Dr Richards   Our siamese cat Jamie, 5 years old, chocolate point, recently started to  become less “chocolate” around the nose, and paws. There are many white hairs  growing, between the dark ones of the snout and paws. It looks like him becoming  very much older than he is. I thought the dark color of the points was due to  the lower temperature of the skin, so may be the decoloration is because of  warmer temperature. But it is not warm here (The Netherlands, in Europe, in winter). Furthermore he hasn’t got fever. My local vet doesn’t know the answer.  Do you? Evert

Answer: Evert-

Siamese cats get two conditions that might explain what you are seeing.

One of these conditions is vitiligo. This is a loss of pigment that usually affects the facial area and the feet. This condition has only been reported in female Siamese cats according to “Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology, 6th ed.” by Scott, Miller and Griffin and would have to be considered rare, since only a few cases have been reported. The small number of reported cases also makes it likely that the condition could occur in males and just hasn’t been proven to have occurred in one, yet.  From your description, this seems possible.  As far as I know, there is no harm in having vitiligo.

The other condition, which is seen more commonly, is referred to as periocular leukotrichia. As the name implies (periocular = around the eyes), this condition normally affects the face. It sort of looks like the cat has goggles on or has a reverse pattern compared to a raccoon (lighter around the eyes instead of darker).  This  condition occurs in both sexes and at varying ages. I have not seen a reference to it affecting the feet. This condition may be associated with Horner’s syndrome (constriction of one pupil, prominent third eyelid) and sometimes with frequent upper respiratory infections.

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