Keeping Your Cat Worm Free
Let’s first start with how the indoor cat can get worms. Well,
the most common way an indoor cat can get worms is by fleas
jumping into your house from the outside. Fleas carry tape worm
eggs in their lovely, little black bodies. Your cat grooms
itself all day long, and will eat a flea or two here and there.
The cat obviously doesn’t go looking to flea graze off its own
body, but ingests the fleas when trying to pick them of itself
in the course of grooming. Or a cat will accidentally lap up a
flea while licking its coat. The most classic sign of tape worm
infestation is the appearance of small white tape worm segments
around your cat’s back side or in its litter. As soon as you
notice this you should contact your vet to receive strong tape
worm medication that will eradicate the worm. If you think that
tape worm medication is poison, which I don’t know if it is or
not as of this typing, you can also try herbal remedies. Garlic,
black walnut hull and wormwood, are mentioned in many Internet
sites as cleansing cat bodies of tape worms. Do not use these
unless you have done your own research first and have determined
that it would be safe to administer to your cat. Scientific
evidence of the effectiveness of these natural remedies may of
course be hard to find, because it is very difficult to profit
of off a naturally occurring substance.
The outdoor cat is exposed to a whole range of worms. They can
get tape worms by coming in contact with the fecal matter of
another cat. And this is extremely easy to do, a cat simply has
to accidentally step in some, and then lick its paws to ingest
some of the eggs of the tape worm. It is very easy for this to
happen. That is why you should keep your cat away from areas
inhabited by feral cats, because they will most likely have
fleas which carry tapeworm eggs, and they will have tape worm
larvae in their fecal matter. Another way in which cats come in
contact with worms is by eating other animals, like mice,
shrews, squirrels, birds, and chipmunks. The roundworm for
instance can be consumed by a cat when they eat the flesh of one
of the aforementioned creatures. Roundworms can be transmitted
to humans from cats. So if you have children be sure to keep
them away from any cat you suspect of being infected. And always
keep your kids away from cat litter boxes. The roundworm is a
very, very resilient creature infecting both flesh and
intestines. They are not killed easily, thorough research needs
to be done for the effective treatment of a cat when it is known
to have a ringworm infestation. If you trust your vet, then take
their advice, and put your pet on a course of de-worming
medication.
Cats in general can also get two other types of worms, hook
worms and whip worms. These two types of worms are a bit rarer
and more difficult to find with the naked eye. That is why you
should always have a fecal sample from your cat examined. The
whip worm is a freak of nature, its eggs can survive freezing
temperatures and remain in soil for many years. That is why you
need to manage worms in your cats pro-actively. Worms have life
cycles like no other creature, they infect flesh and intestines
and can actually go dormant for long periods of time within the
cat. Some worms even awakening during pregnancy just to infect
kittens. These are sophisticated parasites and should be taken
seriously. Dispose of your cat waste properly so we can all keep
worms away from our cats.
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