Tapeworm but no sign of fleas?

mai_kitties

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Is it possible for tapeworm eggs to survive inside the digestive tract after a cat has been treated for tapeworm?

Our kitten appears to have tapeworm for the third time in 10 months. The frustrating thing is that there is no sign of fleas at all. When we first got her she had a few fleas on her, which we took care of promptly. So when she got tapeworm for the first time we just assumed she had gotten it from one of those fleas.

The second time she got it (a few months later), there were zero signs of fleas and to top it off she was on Frontline. We just assumed that an infected flea may have gotten into the apartment by hitching a ride on our clothes and then hopping on her.

So here we are again with zero signs of fleas, one Frontlined kitten, and a male cat who has never had a tapeworm or flea problem ever. So how does she keep getting them??? We are seriously considering renaming her worm butt.
 

laureen227

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is your male also on frontline?
do you have carpeting? i ask, because flea eggs can stay dormant in the carpeting until something edible appears. had that happen w/Pixel & Mouse in my apartment. that's one of the reasons i don't have carpeting in my house.
 

althekitty

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Hi, my cat had tapeworm but no fleas! When I treated him for the tapeworm my vet advised that I gave him the tablet and then give him another one in a month later. This is because the tabs will kill the worms but not the larvae eggs that could still be growing into worms. That could be a reason why they keep coming back.
 
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mai_kitties

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We do have carpeting but we also vacuum a lot thanks to our boy shedding enough to create five other cats.

Both our kitties get Frontline every three months since they are indoor only.

Thanks Althekitty... that was what we had suspected since we only gave her the one dose and our vet did not mention treating her again. When I go pick up her tab this time, I will ask for a second dose to give her in a month.
 

rockcat

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It is possible that your cat has a different type of tapeworm. Tripod had a type that was caused by injesting a parasite that can be found in raw fish. I don't know if the parasite is found in other raw meats. Before we found Tripod, he had been living around where I work. There was a guy across from us that went fishing regularly and threw out the raw fish heads. Apparently Tripod had been eating them.

Our vet had to treat him with 32 times the usual amount of Droncit!

Prior to that I had been arguing with the receptionist about fleas. I knew he didn't have fleas. My vet and I researched it together. Neither of us could understand why the tapeworm kept comming back. The tapeworm is still at the clinic in a bottle of formaldahyde.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Mai_kitties

We do have carpeting but we also vacuum a lot thanks to our boy shedding enough to create five other cats.
cut up an OTC flea collar & put it in the vacuum bag, too.
 

mermaid

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Your cat can also get tapeworms from eating a mouse that has tapes. Any chance of that?
 
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mai_kitties

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Well she got her Droncit and is now a worm free kitty again. We are pretty sure she most likely got it from a flea that hitched a ride into the apartment. It most likely died after it bit her and she has a tendency to eat anything that even remotely looks like it could be an insect.

Yesterday the tiniest little bug got into the apartment and before we could even stop her she gulped it right up. She is an insects worst nightmare.

Unfortunately the place where we live has a lot of stray cats and outdoor cats that hang around so its a losing battle when it comes to fleas in the yard. There is no infestation in the yard, its just that with so many cats that come and go, fleas are bound to be around. We just have to do our best with keeping them up on their Frontline and vacuuming.
 

misskiwi67

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Originally Posted by laureen227

cut up an OTC flea collar & put it in the vacuum bag, too.
When the vacuum heats up, this will release toxic fumes from the plastic as OTC flea collars are not designed to be warmed up. This sounds like a good idea in theory, but its really not.
 

yosemite

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Originally Posted by Misskiwi67

When the vacuum heats up, this will release toxic fumes from the plastic as OTC flea collars are not designed to be warmed up. This sounds like a good idea in theory, but its really not.
We usually recommend that if you are vacuuming for fleas that you empty your container outside after EACH vacuuming which probably would not cause the pieces to heat up enough to do any damage to anyone. Besides, I doubt if the dust bag would get that hot - if it did it would cause the dust bunnies and stuff to catch on fire I would think.
 
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