Is it worms??

spookzilla

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Hi all,

I was horrified this morning to discover a piece of *something* on the floor--it was about 1 inch long and kind of curled over so if it was flat it would be about 1/4" to 1/3" wide. It also had ridges on it (like an earthworm). It was bloody and I assumed it came from one of my cat's butt. I looked at my 9 month old and her anus has blood on it. We've had her for 4 months and she was dewormed before we got her and this is the first sign of anything. I've never seen anything strange in the litterbox and she's been fine. I saved the thing and was thinking of taking it and her to the vet. Does this sound like worms? Could it be something she ingested? Would that show up bloody? If it is worms, can the vet give me meds for my other 2 cats or will I likely have to take them in too?
 

courtney_ou

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sounds like a tapeworm. id call the vet to be sure but id worm them all because thats a pretty good sized piece of tapeworm. theyll tell you if you have to take them all in. you just might with one that size; just depends on the dr.
one things for sure: youll be scrubbing the litter pans lol

sometimes it takes more than one worming to get all the worms. i HATE when my kitties get worms!!!
 
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spookzilla

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Well I called the vet and they told me to bring "it" in so I did...they took one look at it and said it was a piece of an earthworm that she must have ingested or at least chewed on for a while. Even though she's an indoor cat we've had a lot of rain lately and one must have come in somehow and she tends to eat everything she can get her paws on. I asked them "are you sure??" and they said yes.
 

cc12

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Thank Goodness. But yucky.
Once I dewormed my RIP Oliver and I saw wiggling worms come straight out of his bum. It was so disgusting. I ended up throwing the whole pan out.
 

courtney_ou

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thank goodness! i was trying to imagine the size of the tapeworm swimming around in your baby LOL not to mention totally gagging
 

coaster

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Shelters here deworm cats that come in with Strongid, which doesn't kill tapeworms. I would imagine that's pretty common, because the dewormer that kills tapeworms is more expensive. And most cats that come into shelters have roundworms. So it's entirely possible that a cat dewormed before adoption and kept as an indoor-only kitty could be found later to have tapeworms. It happened to me.

Tapeworms are no big deal, but I'm glad it was just an earthworm.
 
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