What Kind Of Animal Is A Worm

Intestinal parasites, or worms, commonly occur in kittens and cats. These nasty pests are acquired in a number of ways. Kittens can pick up worm eggs via their mother's milk, young cats may go hookworm infections via their pare, and tapeworms are caught by ingesting fleas, infected rodents and rabbits. Because worms are so prevalent in cats, information technology is important to exist able to recognize the signs that your true cat has worms and then that y'all can get it the treatment it needs every bit presently equally possible.

1
Take annotation if your cat develops a potbelly. A cat with a heavy worm burden (which ways that they take a lot of worms), tends to have a potbelly but little fatty cover over the spine or pelvis. A typical potbelly looks like a swollen stomach, round and full, and often the swelling is carried down low on the true cat'due south body (the cat may even look pregnant).^[i] The divergence between a potbelly and a fatty cat is the rest of the cat'due south body is likewise in poor condition.
- Roundworms are the most common cause of a potbelly, though other worms can also cause this symptom.
2
Bank check your cat's trunk for fat pads. When you run your fingers over a healthy cat'due south backbone, you lot will about likely be able to feel bumps along the spine, simply should non exist able to feel sharp, angular basic. This is considering at that place is a fat padding over the cat'southward bones. Cats that have a lot of worms will not have these fatty pads. When you stroke the cat's dorsum and pelvis, you may find that you can feel each sharp, angular bone.
- Body "condition" is a matter of assessing the fat cover over the cat'due south basic. Landmarks such as the spine, hips, and pelvis are especially useful for this.
3
Await at the condition of your cat's coat. Intestinal parasites steal much of the nutrition out of the cat's diet. This ways that your true cat does non get the vitamins, minerals, and proteins that they need to maintain a healthy coat. Check your cat for:
- A dull coat.
- A coat that lacks any sort of gloss.
- A disordered coat.
4
Pay attention if your cat experiences vomiting or diarrhea. Worms tin can physically irritate the breadbasket and intestinal lining, causing diarrhea and airsickness. A very high worm burden tin physically obstruct the bowel and cause profound airsickness that is potentially life threatening. Cats tin even vomit up a bundle of worms which look like squirming spaghetti.^[2]
- If your cat begins vomiting uncontrollably, bring him or her to the veterinarian clinic immediately.
five
Look at your cat's gum colour. Some worms, especially hookworms, can make your cat'due south gut drain, which tin can result in deadening but steady blood loss. This blood loss tin pb to anemia, making your cat sluggish and weak if it is severe enough. In kittens it can be mortiferous.^[three]
- You can recognize anemia by lifting you true cat's lip and looking at her gums. If your cat's gums are salubrious, they should be pink in color. If the cat is anemic, the gums will exist white, grey, or a done-out pink.
vi
Pay attending to signs of worms in kittens. Kittens with worm infections tend to be lethargic and fail to thrive. This means that they do not abound besides as their other litter mates. They are smaller, less vigorous, have irksome coats, potbellies, and less fat over their ribs and courage.
- If you lot exercise non have other kittens for comparison, this can be hard to assess but a fit, salubrious kitten should be bright, playful, plump, and should have a soft, glossy coat.
- Heavy worm burdens in a kitten can have life-long ramifications causing ill health throughout its life.
7
Check your cat for fleas. This is relevant considering fleas conduct tapeworm eggs. When a cat grooms itself, information technology may eat fleas infesting its coat, which allows the tapeworm eggs to enter into the cat'southward system.
- It may be easier to look for flea dirt, rather than the fleas themselves. Flea dirt is dried blood excreted by the flea and is oftentimes present in the coat of infested animals.
- To look for flea clay brush a section of the glaze in the incorrect direction and look for small nighttime dots almost the base of your cat's hairs.
- To bank check that the specks you discover are flea clay rather than merely dust or dander, take a damp slice of white tissue and place the dirt on it. Because flea dirt is dried blood, when it comes into contact with the moisture the dirt volition go out a cerise or orangish stain.
- If yous find fleas or flea dirt you lot need to treat the cat for the fleas and the surround (ie the firm and bedding cloth) to rid the cat and dwelling of fleas.

ane

Understand why y'all should try to identify the worms. If you doubtable your true cat has worms, the next pace is to attempt to identify the type of worm. This helps you lot to know what sort of medication is going to be effective in getting rid of the infestation.
2
Look for migrating tapeworm egg packs. Expect under your cat's tail. Tapeworm egg packets drift out of the true cat's anus and go stuck around the fur well-nigh the rectum. The egg packets are a flossy-white color and are variously described every bit looking like rice grains, cucumber pips, or sesame seeds.^[4]
- The egg packets may too get stuck to the cat's bedding, so take a quick look at your cat'southward bedding as well.
- If you lot find these, take your true cat to its veterinarian to get treated for tapeworm.
3
Check your cat's feces for tapeworms. This is much easier to do if your true cat uses a litter tray. Examine the feces for the presence of worms. Sometimes these are visible on the surface of the stool, but more likely you volition need to put on plastic gloves and use a disposable tool to intermission the pellet open and look for worms inside.
- Tapeworms are a creamy white color, flat, and segmented. They boilerplate around iv to 28 inches in length.^[5] ^[6]
- Dipylidium caninum: The cat can become this type of tapeworm by eating fleas infected with tapeworm eggs.^[7]
- Taenia taeniaeformis: Cats can get this blazon of tapeworm when they hunt, catch and consume rodents infected with this kind of tapeworm.^[viii]
4
Recognize roundworms. Roundworms are very common and look like spaghetti or noodles. On average they are 2 to four inches long, but can grow up to five inches in length.^[9] There are 2 unlike kinds of roundworms, both of which tin be picked upward in unlike means:
- Toxocara cati: These worms can be picked upwardly via the female parent's milk, and near kittens are infected at birth. These are commonly responsible for pot-bellied kittens, and crusade vomiting and diarrhea.
- Toxascaris leonine: These roundworms are acquired from contact with infected cat or rodent feces. The worm is sometimes vomited upwardly whole, or passed out in the stool.
5
Identify hookworms. Hookworms are small (0.5 to i centimeter), curly worms that have a hook-like mouth. They are very hard to meet with the naked eye. Ancylostoma duodenalis can be found in a mother cat's milk, though kittens can besides be infected by this kind of worm by walking on soiled, infected bedding.
- The molar-similar oral fissure parts attach to the lining of the modest intestine and release an anticoagulant that causes blood seepage into the gut. Infected kittens tend to be anemic, lacking in energy, and grow poorly.
half-dozen
Ask your vet to check your cat for heartworms. Heartworms are much more common in dogs than in cats. That said, information technology is still possible for cats to become infected. This sort of worm is establish in blood vessels rather than in the intestine, which means that you lot will have to get a vet to check your cat for these types of worms.
- Dirofilaria immitis: Infected mosquitoes can transfer dirofilaria eggs into your cat'southward bloodstream. The signs are nonspecific such every bit lack of free energy, weight loss, and a cough. Sadly, some cats evidence no symptoms and die suddenly, because of a blockage in a master blood vessel to the centre.
vii
Take your vet accept a fecal sample for analysis. The best way to cheque for worms (excluding heartworms) before they become a huge health liability is to have a fresh fecal (stool) sample to your veterinarian's function. Adult worm volition lay eggs while living in the true cat's intestinal tract. These eggs will frequently (but non always) be passed in the stool and tin be seen after special preparation and exam nether a microscope.^[10]
- The eggs of different worms have a unlike physical appearance which aids in their identification.
- If the examination of your cat and its carrion proves fruitless, this does not mean that your true cat does not accept worms. Information technology only means that no worms were passed out of its body. Some cats tin can harbor big amounts of worms and not laissez passer any out. The just fashion to exist certain is to collect a fecal sample to take to your vet for analysis.^[xi]
Practiced TIP

Brian Bourquin, better known as "Dr. B" to his clients, is a Veterinarian and the Possessor of Boston Veterinarian 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 dispensary besides provides specialty services in beliefs, diet, and culling pain management therapies using acupuncture, and therapeutic laser treatments. Boston Veterinary Clinic is an AAHA (American Animal Hospital Clan) accredited hospital and Boston'due south starting time Fright Costless Certified Clinic. Brian has over 19 years of veterinary experience and earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell Academy.

Brian Bourquin, DVM
Cat Veterinarian

Our Adept Agrees: Getting your cat's carrion tested twice a year is the best way to regularly check for worms. This is particularly important if your cats spend most of their time outdoors, though indoor cats are as well at risk for worms.

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Question

Can worms transfer to humans? How would they transfer if they can?

Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinarian with over thirty years of feel in veterinary surgery and companion animate being practice. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery. She has worked at the same animal clinic in her hometown for over 20 years.

Veterinary

Adept Reply

Yes. Passage of worms from cats to people is less common than from dogs, but it does happen. Children are most at risk as they are most probable to put their fingers in their mouth afterward playing in soil, contaminated with cat carrion. Roundworms are defenseless by contact with infected feces, tapeworms past ingesting egg packets from fur or eating an infected flea, whilst hookworms pass from carrion into the soil, and in moist conditions penetrate man skin to cause infection.
Question

My true cat has lost weight, isn't eating, and has a bloated stomach. What does this mean?

Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinary with over 30 years of experience in veterinary surgery and companion animal exercise. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery. She has worked at the aforementioned animal dispensary in her hometown for over 20 years.

Veterinarian

Expert Reply

Most people call back of a 'wormy cat' as having a pot belly, indeed this is often how 'wormy' kittens wait. However, in an developed true cat there are lots of other possible explanations such as heart illness, feline infectious peritonitis, liver affliction, and unfortunately cancer. If you take already wormed the cat and the signs persist, then the cat needs a vet check.

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Knowing what blazon of worm a cat has is not just an academic exercise because dissimilar worms demand different types of anthelmintic (a medication that kills worms) to kill them. However, in the kickoff instance it helps if y'all, equally an owner, are suspicious that your true cat has worms.
When identifying worms information technology helps to know if your true cat is probable to option that type of worm up in the first instance.
A true cat with a swollen belly, little body fat and has not been wormed in the by six months is suspicious of conveying a high worm brunt. All the same, medical conditions tin also cause these signs, and then if in doubt, cheque in with a veterinarian.

Aside from heartworm, at that place is non skillful preventative for worms aside from minimize a true cat'due south exposure to infection.
E'er wash your hands—and take children wash their hands—afterwards handling kittens and cats with unknown worm status. While cat worms don't live in humans intestinal tract they can get under the skin and cause damage, especially and so if they travel to the center.
Identifying if your cat has worms, and what types of worms it has, will help your kitten or cat have the healthy life possible. In addition, some of the worms tin can also be transmitted to humans, peculiarly children who are not as careful to wash hands later playing with kittens and cats. With a petty attention to your true cat's health and litter box and by having a fecal examination done on your kitten or cat once a year you can continue your true cat and home worm costless.

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Article Summary Ten

It's very mutual for cats to pick up parasitic worm infections. If you recollect your cat has worms, try not to worry. Most types of worms are easy to care for with the right medications. Notwithstanding, it'due south important to get your cat to the vet right abroad if you notice mutual symptoms, such as diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, pale gums, and a dull or matted coat. A cat with worms may appear sparse and bony, but have a round, swollen belly due to the large amount of worms in its intestines. To identify specific types of worms, yous may need to examine your true cat's poop or vomit. For example, if y'all find stake worms in your cat's poop that are long, flat, and segmented, these are likely tapeworms. You might also detect tapeworm egg packets clinging to the fur around your cat's anus. These look like minor grains of rice or sesame seeds. Cats with roundworms may laissez passer the worms in their poop or vomit. Roundworms look similar to spaghetti noodles, and are usually about 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) long. Some kinds of worms, similar hookworms and heartworms, probably won't show up in your cat's poop or vomit. The all-time way to tell if your cat has whatever kind of worms is to ready an date with your vet. They tin run tests to decide exactly what's going on and how to get your furry friend feeling amend once more. For tips on how to identify roundworms and how to spot worms in kittens, read on!

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