My kitten has worms, advice please!

Hi everyone,

I bought an eight week old kitten last week. He was living in a barn with his sister as his owner had dogs living in the house. He seemed fine when we got him home, although he sneezed quite a lot, was very hungry and was using the litter tray about eight times a day for a poo!

I took him to the vets on Saturday for his first injection and the vet told me that he had a slight case of cat flu and that it should clear up. I wasn't overly surprised as he had been sneezing since we got him. The vet then noticed that the kitten had lice! He gave him a dose of Spot On on the back of his neck and said that it should clear them up but I would have to comb out the eggs.

Whilst there he asked if the kitten had been wormed and I said no, as the original owners had not mentioned it and I wanted to get the vet's opinion before I treated the kitten with anything.

Anyway when i went to clean his litter tray this morning there were worms in his poo!! There were three altogether about 4cm long each. They were all dead.
Now I'm worried that I may have picked them up as I wasn't aware he had them. Is this possible?? What is the best thing to do? Should I clean his bedding? Should I wait for more to come out? Is it likely that visitors have picked them up? Please help!! I've never had a kitten before and am really stressed at the moment.

Thank you so much

Oh, I forgot to say! He is eating far less now than he was, does this mean that he's getting better?

Hi there, I actually had 3 kitties all at once that had worms. This was my experience with it: You'll want to take him to the vet asap. The vet will probably prescribe a pill for him and that's usually the end of that. Of course, this also probably depends on the type of worms he has.

We cleaned the house and the kitties beddings regularly during this. Also treated everything for fleas. (Which is possibly how your cat got the worms.)

I'm by no means no expert, but that's what happened with my kitties. Good luck!

I'd clean the bedding more for the presence of the lice then the worms. I'm surprised that the vet didn't take a sample and give him worm medicine. Don't use over the counter worm medicine - take him back and have the vet look at him and give him what is needed.

I seriously doubt that the previous owners wormed any of the barn kittens - its not done on a routine basis.

And 8 weeks old is really too young to be away from mom/siblings, but since they are barn cats, if they are not taken sooner, they usually are not very social cats. Is this the only kitten? If so, you may want to consider (when he's better health wise) to adopt a 2nd kitten about 12-16 weeks old so they grow up together.

Kittens younger then 10-12 weeks old when taken from mom can develop some emotional/social behavior problems.