Yesterday, Kitty Maya was in for most of the day, snoozing on the chair in the living room. She was adopted a few years ago as a stray, and it’s like torture (for both of us) to keep her in all the time, so she wanders in and outside. After she left the comfy chair yesterday, I noticed little yellowish rice-pellet things left behind on the cushion. Today, I do an internet search and discover they’re the leftover stuff of *INTESTIONAL WORMS! * :eek: :eek: :eek:
Last night, I vaccummed and vaccuumed and washed the blanket that was also in the chair, but I still feel buggy. Tomorrow, she goes to the vet to get dewormed, but this is the first time I’ve ever encountered this and it’s driving me nuts.
She sleeps with HallBoy on a somewhat regular basis, except for last night. Should I be checking him for worms, or what? Are they transmitted to humans? If so, how in the heck do I know if he has them? Anything I should be doing to my house (other than vaccuuming every surface I can get to, and washing anything Maya may have laid upon)?
Specifically…they are tapeworm segments. They can be transmitted to humans via the dreaded fecal-oral route. So…if kitty kisses are common (I mean person’s mouth contacting contaminated kitty in contaminated regions, remembering that kitties bathe) then it is possible. Also not unheard of is kids of the drooling on toys stage getting the segments stuck on said toys from the floor and then slurping them off. Also, treat for fleas and treat for worms twice (3 weeks apart, IIRC)to get other life cycle stages. In humans, you will see the segments in stool or in undies just like you saw out of the cat, so look for them. Also, a ravenous appetite with weight loss, anaemia, etc. of they’ve been around for a while.
Treatment for tapeworms must be done with prescription meds and it is critical that you also get a plan for dealing with the intermediate hosts. Usually these are fleas so that must be considered. The life cycle is the cat passes the egg sacs. The sacs dry and the the eggs burst forth then these are ingested by fleas or some other intermediary. The eggs hatch and become cysts until this host is consumed in due time. from here the cysts mature and the pet is re-infected. I have heard of cycles up to a full month.
Human are infected in the same way. So nuzzling you pet and ingesting the eggs, not so bad. Nuzzling you pet and ingesting the fleas that have eaten the eggs… well good luck with that.
It is not true that humans can be infected with tapeworm by ingesting segments or by ingesting fecal remnants that contain segments. They can only be infected by ingesting fleas that contain tapeworm eggs. The eggs must go through the intermediate host - the flea.
It is not very common for humans to catch tapeworm from pets. Tapeworm, on the whole, is not a very dangerous worm for pets to have either; certainly less of a problem than roundworm, hookworm, or whipworm. Unless the infestation is particularly bad, they can live comfortably with very little effect from tapeworm.
Getting rid of them is very easy. Take the cat to the vet and get a dose of Drontal. The usual worm-prevention medication, Strongid, doesn’t get rid of tapeworm. Well, perhaps with a double or triple dose, but Drontal is better. You would usually give 2 pills 2 weeks apart. Plus you have to make sure to vacuum thoroughly and wash bedding to kill any lingering fleas.