Oddly enough, but worms are everywhere: in the dense green grass on the lawn, in a flower bed, on moist soil and warm sand, in river and lake water, and even in the air. They are also in food: meat, fish, on the surface of fruits and vegetables. It is not surprising that worms live in the body of their beloved pets, even those who do not go out, live well-groomed and eat industrial food or heat-treated.
What then can be expected from stray cats that are used to walking, wherever they want? It’s even scary to imagine! Sadly, many parasitic worms in cats are transmitted to humans. Particularly dangerous species, getting into the human body, eventually reach several meters in length, literally eating it from the inside and destroying the internal organs! To avoid such a terrible prospect, you need to know how to remove worms from a cat and cleanse its body. And most importantly - you should learn to protect yourself from these parasites.
Types of Worms in Cats
To answer the question of whether your cat is a carrier of worms, you need to know the types of worms in cats and the symptoms of related diseases. Even if your pet is still a small kitten that has never left home, this does not indicate its “sterility”, because it could become infected with worms from a cat-mother.
Signs of helminths in a cat can be pronounced and noticeable, such as coughing, vomiting, or chronic diarrhea. And they can be weakly expressed, for example, as apathy and lethargy. In any case, the symptoms are associated with harmful parasitic helminth activity for the animal .
Most often, kittens and adult furry pets are affected by the following types of worms with the manifestation of the corresponding signs: round and tapeworms, flukes. This separation is explained by the difference in shape, size, nutritional characteristics and methods of reproduction. Let's get to know them better.
Roundworms
Roundworms belong to roundworms. These are the most common types of worms in cats. White or brown parasites grow up to 10 centimeters in length, and in appearance resemble thin spaghetti with tapering tips. Helminths of this species can be easily detected in the feces or vomit of a cat.
If kittens are infected with roundworms, then outwardly this can be determined by hypersensitive appetite and an unnaturally thick belly. For some manifestations of the disease of an adult animal, a diagnosis can also be made. These include: chronic diarrhea, vomiting, poor appetite, lethargy, and decreased activity.
It is dangerous that round worms in cats are transmitted to humans quite easily. This can happen if the cat licked its wool, affected by helminth eggs, and after that you kissed and stroked it (and this is done by almost all loving owners), did not consider it necessary to wash your hands once again.
Hookworms are roundworms that live in the intestines of an animal. Larvae and adult parasites feed on blood, penetrate the body through the skin. Enter the esophagus through the oral cavity. Manifestations are: constant thirst, vomiting, diarrhea with blood secretions, barking cough, decreased appetite and lethargy.
Nematodes (pinworms)
Nematodes are also a common type of worm in cats. These parasites feed on substances dissolved in the animal’s blood and can cause anemia. The defeat of the animal organism by nematodes causes a deadly disease and is especially dangerous for small kittens. Adult cats may develop immunity to parasites, and then obvious signs of infection may not appear.
Symptoms of parasitism of this type of worms in domestic cats can be: bloody clots in the stool, diarrhea and related abdominal pain. These worms in cats are transmitted orally to humans.
Toksokara
Long roundworms can reach 4-18 centimeters. The habitat and at the same time the organs that they infect are the esophagus, gall bladder, liver and intestines of a poor animal.
Infection occurs in utero or through the oral cavity. When sick, cats suffer from severe exhaustion, accompanied by vomiting, chronic diarrhea, and a lack of healthy appetite. Toxocaras in the organs of a small kitten grow and multiply so quickly that they can even lead to rupture of the small intestine.
Tape (Flat) Worms
Cucumber tapeworm
Chains perfectly take root in the cat's body and feel just as comfortable in humans. An adult tape parasite in an animal can reach 30 centimeters, and up to one and a half meters in a host’s body! Having settled in the walls of the intestine, he digs into his sharp hooks, feeds on the body and seriously damages the mucous membrane.
Carriers are ordinary fleas and lice-eaters that are swallowed by the animal itself during hygiene procedures. Signs of the presence of chains: thinness, irritability, pain and rumbling in the abdomen, apathy, vomiting and chronic diarrhea, insomnia.
Wide ribbon
A true giant among parasitic worms! If in a small cat's body it can grow up to 150 centimeters, then in a person a wide ribbon grows up to twelve meters! This is a very dangerous worm, which the cat can “catch” from eating raw river fish or accidentally swallowing small freshwater crustaceans. The signs of the disease are exactly the same as when infected with tapeworm.
Cestodes
Small parasites with a length of about 5 millimeters have a flat body and a head on which chitin hooks or durable suction cups are located. The body is conditionally divided into several segments, inside of which there are worm eggs during the ripening period. How do the worms in cats look, you can see in the next photo. They can find themselves in the intestines of an animal by eating mice, hamsters, and rats.
Cestodes are dangerous not only to cats, but also to humans. It is interesting that pets can calmly carry these worms for years without negative signs. But when they enter the host’s body, the worms carry a mortal threat. For a person, the disease has a severe, slow course and is very difficult to diagnose. It entails liver oncology, metastasizing to the brain, lungs and other vital organs. Therefore, it is so important to conduct preventive treatment of cats for worms in time.
Flukes
Flat flukes worms are terrible pests that destroy the internal organs of animals and humans. They grow in length from one millimeter to one and a half meters, and multiply very quickly, sticking to the walls of various organs. With an increase, you can see that they are equipped with "toothy" suction cups located in several rows.
These worms in cats are transmitted to humans, like many other types of parasites. They settle in the internal organs and slowly destroy them: the liver, intestines, bladder, lungs. Non-standard organs, such as the conjunctival sac or the Eustachian tube, can also be affected. If you eat crayfish and poorly fried fish, then there is a great risk of picking up worms-flukes. A cat can become infected by eating raw freshwater fish.
Judging by the name, the liver fluke settles in the tissues of the liver, gradually corroding it. Small individuals damage the pancreas and gall bladder. Vivid symptoms may include: loss of appetite, muscle weakness, painful stomach, vomiting and diarrhea of a pronounced yellow color, fever. In advanced cases, only a long complex treatment will save.
Pulmonary worms can infect a cat that has eaten freshwater mollusks, crustaceans, or has drunk river water. The parasites got the name because the smallest worms, not reaching one centimeter, by their parasitic vital activity provoke the formation of cysts in the lungs, gradually destroying them. The characteristic symptoms of the disease: severe cough, chest rales, fever, fever, poor appetite. And these worms in cats are transmitted to humans, so treatment of a pet is necessary.
General symptoms of worm damage
If you are not lazy to regularly carry out the prevention of helminthic invasion, constantly monitor your pet, then even in a sick animal the signs of the disease will not be very pronounced, since worms in domestic cats will not have time to breed in huge quantities. If we neglect medical measures, then we can allow a rapidly progressive damage to the animal by worms, and often even by several species. Sometimes this leads to the death of the pet.
Well-known common signs of helminthic lesions are: dull and falling out hair, conjunctivitis of the eyes, alternating constipation and diarrhea, lethargy, tight stomach, nonspecific odor from the oral cavity. The disease is clearly reflected in the animal’s appetite: some cats begin to eat a lot, but do not get better at the same time; other pets refuse food, choosing only their favorite treats.
How can you get worms?
Let's summarize where the worms from a domestic cat come from. Firstly, being a predator, it eats prey (birds, rodents) along with parasite eggs. Even after catching a bug or a fly, the animal can become infected with any helminths.
Secondly, the cat swallows helminth eggs with raw meat, raw freshwater fish, river water, so it is better to protect pets from such a diet. Thirdly, most worms are carried through stool. Fourthly, when a cat licks, it swallows the eggs of parasitic worms, adhering to the fur and paws even at home, because people bring parasites into the house on their shoes and clothes. A person can get helminths from a cat most often through saliva and feces.
Why are worms dangerous for cats and humans?
It can be assumed that what kind of worms in cats, such parasites are transmitted to the owner. The danger of worms that have settled in the body is that they actively feed on blood, lymph, tissues of various internal organs, which leads to the inevitable depletion of the sick person's vital forces.
Any parasitic worms poison the body of an animal and a human with toxic substances, which are the result of their vital activity and death. Decomposition products also lead to allergic reactions and severe poisoning. In addition, parasites injure organs with suction cups and fixing hooks, causing vascular ruptures and necrosis.
The onset of symptoms of helminthic infestation, such as constipation and bloating, may indicate intestinal obstruction. If a cat has a lesion, then it can die, because a huge number of worms block the intestinal lumen of a poor animal, and it cannot be emptied naturally. And this is not all the reasons why the worms of a cat are so dangerous; treatment in any case should be immediate.
Veterinarian treatment
Treatment of worms in cats should be carried out under the supervision of a veterinarian. It can not be carried out independently. Despite the fact that special anti-worm products for cats are on sale, which can be quite effective, at the same time, they can cause additional digestive upsets in the animal, as well as not completely release the cat from the worms.
Before you try to rid the animal of helminths on your own, you should definitely consult a veterinarian so as not to harm the pet and quickly cure parasitic worms. After all, sometimes you don’t even know the correct diagnosis of what worms look like in cats - what can we say about medicines. And the situation is quite dangerous, because if there are too many large individuals that, when killed, decompose, the animal can die.
Only a specialist can determine whether the identified symptoms are associated with helminth damage, or the reason is different. The veterinarian will teach you how to remove worms from a cat without harming it. Complex treatment with special drugs that will help cleanse the body during intoxication, as well as antihistamines, will be prescribed. This is done not at random, but only after laboratory testing of feces. Remedies for worms for cats may not always be suitable for a specific situation, since they contain a certain amount of active substances.
Treatment of cats for worms at home
If you are sure that the cat has worms, the veterinarian should still prescribe the treatment, and you will need to strictly follow all his instructions. Correct diagnosis is too important, and you can, of course, give yourself the prescribed therapeutic and prophylactic drugs to your pet.
There were tragic cases when, having read the wrong information about how to combat helminths in cats, the owners fed the medicines to sick animals, and they died from poisoning. For example, some worm remedies for cats are effective in controlling tapeworms, while others are effective against roundworms.
Worm Control Tips
In the fight against parasites, drugs are effective and almost have no side effects: Fenasal, Dirofen, Phenalidon, Praziquantel, Cetovex, Pirantel. Before use, it is necessary to carefully read the annotation to prevent overdose. A few tips for "anthelmintic":
- after taking the medicine, the cat should be given 1-2 tablets of activated charcoal;
- follow the cat pot - after taking the drug, the animal must empty its intestines so that there is no poisoning.
Protection and Prevention
To completely protect a pet from helminths is unrealistic. But you can stop their reproduction, while maintaining their health, because the worms in cats are transmitted to people. Domestic cats are given every 4 months, and street cats are given complex preparations every 3 months. Glistening of adult animals is done no later than 2 weeks before vaccination. Effective from worms for cats drops "Profender", which are applied to the withers. You can also use drugs "Kanikvantel", "Prazicide", "Drontal" and others.
It is necessary to observe hygiene measures: after emptying the beloved animal in the home pot, remove the feces immediately; After cleaning the pot, wash your hands. In addition, it is advisable to exclude cheese, raw meat or fish from the cat's diet.
A loving owner is always sad if his pet is sick, because he treats him like his child. Therefore, you should always try to prevent an unpleasant and dangerous situation and monitor the health and behavior of the cat, not forgetting the periodic prevention. If you are not lazy, then your pet will always be healthy!