question about fleas, worms...

yuna

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hi everyone, about a month ago I discovered a few fleas on my two cats, they are both indoor only so I didn't have them on treatment, but I took them to the vet right away to get started on a treatment for them (and learned my lesson). its been about a month because tomorrow is the day I was supposed to apply the treatment again, and I was holding ziggy in my lap when I noticed a small white thing on his tail, there has been some flakes of sawdust around the house lately because my boyfriend is building stuff (*rolls eyes*) and has been using a saw and wood etc so the white flake I took to be a piece of sawdust because I'm used to seeing that... but then I saw it MOVE! I freaked out, and my boyfriend came over and he confirmed that it was moving (I have serious bug-phobia so I was hoping that it was my bug paranoia at work). we turned him over and found two more of the same things, moving on the underside of his tail near his butt. we didn't find any on the other cat.

I was wondering if my baby has worms (at the vet last month they were both checked for that!) or if this is a flea larva coming back because it is time for their treatment again?

I put the flea treatment on them again right away, but if anyone has any expierence with this and can reccommend if he needs a vet check up tomorrow or not please let me know?

and because of my bug phobia I'm a little freaked out right now so I'm trying to do some google searches if anyone can tell me anything they know about it (please say this can't pass to people!)!!
 

trouts mom

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It could be tapeworm segments..they get that from ingesting fleas..its easy to treat, you need to let your vet know
 
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yuna

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thanks, I think that is exactly what it is after doing some research (and I'm still freaked out). I'm going to see if I need to bring them or if I can just go to the vet and get the medicine. it really bothers me because I was just there a month ago with both cats and they had the fecal exam done and they found nothing.
 

footersownsme

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tapeworms do not show up in a fecal exam. You have to visual spot the tapeworms, and yes i was freaked out the first time i saw them too. You may be able to get your vet to just make up some meds, because you were just seen a month ago. usually 2-4 pills (depending on weight of cat) you give a dose and month later give another dose. Works great mine disappeared after the first dosing.
 

luckygirl

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ok, so how does your indoor cat get fleas? I'm not judging I"m asking out of concern for my 2....I haven't treated them (I know, BAD MEOWMY!) cause they are indoors only....I am always looking them all over, belly's, hiney's, necks, etc. and they have none....but now I'm worried. I guess something like front line would be good, in case a flea got tracked in on someone's clothes???
 

yosemite

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Originally Posted by LuckyGirl

ok, so how does your indoor cat get fleas? I'm not judging I"m asking out of concern for my 2....I haven't treated them (I know, BAD MEOWMY!) cause they are indoors only....I am always looking them all over, belly's, hiney's, necks, etc. and they have none....but now I'm worried. I guess something like front line would be good, in case a flea got tracked in on someone's clothes???
You answered your own question. Fleas can be brought in by us humans and even if our kitties don't go outside they can get fleas. We treat Bijou and Mika for fleas every month from May through to October just to be on the safe side. This year we used Revolution. Last year we used Advantage. I had a bad flea infestation when we lived in our condo and had to have pest control fumigate because we couldn't get rid of the fleas with OTC products. I never want to go through that again.
 
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