Dewormer: Pumpkin Seeds

Hello -

Please note: Ask your vet before doing giving this to your cat. This email does not intend to diagnose or treat any disease or condition; I am seeking personal experiences only, as this is very common in Brasil, but I haven't seen it in this forum yet.

In Brazil Pumpkin seed is a very popular natural dewormer, especially for tapeworms - has anyone here ever used it on their cats? Below is the recommended quantity and instructions:

Pumpkin seeds, freshly ground: Try to grind up pumpkin seeds finely right before feeding as opposed to grinding them several days in advance. If you must grind them in advance, keep them in a sealed container in the freezer and take out a day's portion right before feeding. You don't want moisture to enter the seeds. The seeds need to be raw, not baked and salted. Give 1/4 to 1 teaspoon per meal to your animal, depending on size (a cat will get 1/4 teaspoon, but a German Shepherd would get 1 teaspoon). This is effective against tapeworms and very safe.

I would say ask a vet prior to trying this...

I have eaten raw pumpkin seeds ( very tastie) with disasterous results


1. No online advice can replace direct veterinary intervention. If you suspect that your cat may be ill, please contact your vet immediately. You are welcome to look for advice in the health forum while waiting for that appointment, but never delay proper veterinary care waiting for Internet advice. Remember that cats, and especially kittens, are very adept in keeping pain to themselves and delaying treatment may cause irreversible damage.

Originally Posted by carolinalima

This is effective against tapeworms and very safe.

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So is praziquantel, which is what vets use on tapes.

Before the current dewormers were developed, pets and livestock suffered and died due to worm infestations. PEOPLE suffered and died. People who live in areas that don't have access to these meds STILL suffer and die.

The current deworming medications are incredibly safe and incredibly effective. There is simply no reason not to use these medications.

It's one thing to be in the jungle with no medications available, and to use something that has (at the very least) limited effectiveness and limited safety. It is completely different to have these medications available and CHOOSE to use something that is considerably less effective and possibly less safe than the prescribed medication.

Natural does not = better.

Originally Posted by Simkie

So is praziquantel, which is what vets use on tapes.

It's one thing to be in the jungle with no medications available, and to use something that has (at the very least) limited effectiveness and limited safety. It is completely different to have these medications available and CHOOSE to use something that is considerably less effective and possibly less safe than the prescribed medication.

Natural does not = better.

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Excuse me??? Brasil IS NOT A JUNGLE, just an FYI. It is a country as big as the US, with just about the same population, and with the 2nd largest city in the world.
PLENTY of times natural medicine IS BETTER than chemicals. Actually the combination is the best, that is why there are holistic doctors in the world.
It IS a matter OF CHOICE.

Basically what it does is shed the tapeworm because the seeds represent fiber- similar to feeding cats organic catnip to get rid of tapes, something caretakers do when they are dealing with large colonies of cats and are unable to safely deworm them. It will get rid of the segments of the tapeworms, sometimes though not the adult which really defeats the purpose. But with ferals it is difficult to pill each cat. It will not get rid of roundworms, hookworms or whipworms though- just the tapes and not the fleas which cause tapes in the first place.

Brazil's population is about 190,000,000. The US population is 300,000,000+, so Brazil is 2/3 our population.

If you go by population of the actual borders, Sao Paulo is the fourth largest city in the world with 17,000,000, after Tokyo, Mexico City, and Mumbai.

But if you go by the metropolitan area, Sao Paulo is #7, after Tokyo, Seoul, Mexico City, New York City, Mumbai, and Jakarta.

Brazil is a great country, and has done some great things, especially in replacing much of their use of gasoline.

But "holistic" and "natural" medications have to be examined carefully. Many modern medications developed from such sources; digitalis, for heart disease, is probably the single best example.

Most modern worm medications work one of two ways. They put the worm to sleep (not killing it), so it loses its grip and is flushed out of the system, or it dissolves the outer layer of the worm, so it is redigested. Successive generations of vermicides have gotten more and more specific, and less likely to harm the host animal.

Just as an aside, farmers used to give their horses snuff to kill worms. Not sure how that worked, offhand.

Originally Posted by Carolina

Excuse me??? Brasil IS NOT A JUNGLE, just an FYI. It is a country as big as the US, with just about the same population, and with the 2nd largest city in the world.
PLENTY of times natural medicine IS BETTER than chemicals. Actually the combination is the best, that is why there are holistic doctors in the world.
It IS a matter OF CHOICE.

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Great minds think alike. I treat my cat naturally. He eats plain pumpkin from a can that is great for normal bowel movement. He also eats ground flax meal for healthy heart. Pumpkin seed is a natural medicine given by God. I have had better success treating my cat naturally than with chemicals. Whenever I've treated cats with chemicals they become sick. To put it kindly, some people don't have the knowledge of natural remedies; one day they might .

Originally Posted by teaser

Great minds think alike. I treat my cat naturally. He eats plain pumpkin from a can that is great for normal bowel movement. He also eats ground flax meal for healthy heart. Pumpkin seed is a natural medicine given by God. I have had better success treating my cat naturally than with chemicals. Whenever I've treated cats with chemicals they become sick. To put it kindly, some people don't have the knowledge of natural remedies; one day they might .

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Would it be "natural" for cats in the wild to eat canned pumpkin in order to get "normal" bowel movement ? I thought the natural state of things was that cats were obligate carnivores and as such get their roughage from the prey they eat. But obviously I was missing out on the divine plan to make them so imperfect as to require ground flax seed and such things.

There is nothing really "natural" about giving obligate carnivores canned pumpkin and ground flax. A well balanced diet along with good vet care is usually all you need to keep most cats healthy for years.

Let me just say I am in no way against natural remedies and herbal treatments, they absolutely have their place and many of us could learn a great deal about them.

Science has progressed to a point where people no longer need to rely on roots,herbs and other remedies. If you take a look at history, people and animals died more often than not with these "natural" cures.

Originally Posted by anita1216

There is nothing really "natural" about giving obligate carnivores canned pumpkin and ground flax. A well balanced diet along with good vet care is usually all you need to keep most cats healthy for years.

Let me just say I am in no way against natural remedies and herbal treatments, they absolutely have their place and many of us could learn a great deal about them.

Science has progressed to a point where people no longer need to rely on roots,herbs and other remedies. If you take a look at history, people and animals died more often than not with these "natural" cures.

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You will find about 95% of vets disagreeing with you... and many on here who through yrs of experience have found certain things that work as cat s are NOT in their normal environment eating a natural diet( even raw food is not a true natural diet for a cat

I think people tend to forget or perhaps don't realize that the the vast majority of the scientific "cures", pharmaceutical drugs, come from nature.
Nature creates them in the first place, men then work on stabilizing it to make it available in pill/injection forms.
Penicillin is nothing more than a derivative from a fungus. Yep, a fungus.

So before saying that "natural remedies" don't work, think again.

I worked a very long time in University doing just that - trying to stabilize very effective anti-cancer agents taken from trees; more effective than a bunch of so called drugs available on the market...
The thing is, nature is still more perfect then men, a lot of these agents are still stable while in plant form, but once you purify it outside of it, it loses its properties and not always you are able to synthesize it. Men are great, but are not God.

There is a world of natural remedies out there there are much, much more effective then any drugs in the market - you might not know about it, because the pharmaceutical companies are not putting an ad on TV to rip you off of your hard earned money; it doesn't mean they do not work.

Do not think for a minute that men are out there creating things out of thin air - that is simply not true... We are just tweaking what is already in nature a little so that it is more readily available....... and salable.

Originally Posted by sharky

You will find about 95% of vets disagreeing with you... and many on here who through yrs of experience have found certain things that work as cat s are NOT in their normal environment eating a natural diet( even raw food is not a true natural diet for a cat

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Interesting. I have several vets for different species and I have yet to find a vet that feels my views are wrong or that far off the mark. Then again, they dont know it all.

I also find it interesting that you would remark about cats not being in their natural environment, I agree with that. Any domesticated animal is no longer in a natural state. Anything caged or housed outside its natural environment poses a problem as far as feeding and husbandry is concerned.

I also have a couple decades of experience with cats and other small mammals, been through it all and then some. I know what works for "me". I just dont know that advocating a more natural approach is best without consulting a vet first.

Interesting. I have several vets for different species and I have yet to find a vet that feels my views are wrong or that far off the mark. Then again, they dont know it all.

I also find it interesting that you would remark about cats not being in their natural environment, I agree with that. Any domesticated animal is no longer in a natural state. Anything caged or housed outside its natural environment poses a problem as far as feeding and husbandry is concerned.

I also have a couple decades of experience with cats and other small mammals, been through it all and then some. I know what works for "me". I just dont know that advocating a more natural approach is best without consulting a vet first.

Carolina-

Those cures made from nature? Many would not even be possible without science tweaking them. Those fungi would likely have been deadly to humans without the help of science. There is much to be said about herbal lore and other natural approaches, but those that do not understand it or have no practical knowledge should not be using it.

Originally Posted by anita1216

Carolina-

Those cures made from nature? Many would not even be possible without science tweaking them. Those fungi would likely have been deadly to humans without the help of science. There is much to be said about herbal lore and other natural approaches, but those that do not understand it or have no practical knowledge should not be using it.

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I am sorry to say but as a Chemist of Natural products myself, I will have to disagree with you. The main reason men "tweak it" is to make it stable outside of plant form, and to find a form to synthesize it to make it available to the masses. Unfortunately, the great majority of wonderful meds available by nature, and that scientists know to have powerful properties against horrible diseases (and have worked on it) end inside of books due to bureaucracy, lack of funds for research, and a series of difficulties scientists have to go through to pass anything through the FDA. But it is already there, in nature, nonetheless. Also, there are many substances that work much better in plant form, because of the other substances that are in the plant with it, working in synergy and science as developed as it is, can not duplicate that yet... Sometimes, even if you identify the majority of substances that are inside of a plant, you can't quite understand how those hundreds of different substances interact with each other at the same time; and forget about duplicating that effect... For more that you want, nature is still much bigger than men.
Sure, you will not go around eating plants that you don't know what they are, the same way you wouldn't take medicine not knowing what they are for - but that is not what we are talking about here... To say that natural medicine does not work is very very far from the truth.
I am not saying that science should not be present, otherwise why would I have chosen to go to university for that in the first place - that would be pretty dumb on my part...

Originally Posted by anita1216

Interesting. I have several vets for different species and I have yet to find a vet that feels my views are wrong or that far off the mark. Then again, they dont know it all.

I also find it interesting that you would remark about cats not being in their natural environment, I agree with that. Any domesticated animal is no longer in a natural state. Anything caged or housed outside its natural environment poses a problem as far as feeding and husbandry is concerned.

I also have a couple decades of experience with cats and other small mammals, been through it all and then some. I know what works for "me". I just dont know that advocating a more natural approach is best without consulting a vet first.

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I too have decades working with mammals, reptiles , fish ... And so far NO vet has totally not thought to or known how to use some form of natural medicine... Carolina has the heavier duty education thus I will let her explain...

As for western conventional medicine being better ... it has nearly killed me 6 times in my life( prior to age 21 ... I was the one who saved me which to me is Highly critical of the conventional methods)... and has caused a number animal deaths over the years

I can tell from your comments you Did NOT read all the posts in this thread... the first thing was consult a vet ... which we all would expect anyone to consult the vet prior to ....

When giving pumpkin seed to your cat, Do you extract the seed from the shell first?

Kathylin said:

When giving pumpkin seed to your cat, Do you extract the seed from the shell first?

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Kathylin, please discuss this with your vet first, ok?
While I give my cats herbs quite often, I discuss all of them with my vet, and always get his approval first - that is VERY important.
As per the instructions in the first post and for what I remember in Brazil, you do not remove the shells

I buy raw unshelled pumpkin seeds from Amazon. Do a search on their site, read all the reviews before buying and you'll end up buying ultra fresh seeds.I just bought my first bag for a feral cat I take care of and was very happy with my purchase. Good luck

This is a very old thread and your are unlikely to hear from any of the previous posters.

I am an outside source looking to utilize both natural remedies and vet recommendations chemicals/pills for my cats worm(tapeworm) problem to maximize progress and their overall health and immunity. I am guessing it is more effective to use natural remedies, such as pumpkin seed for example, with the pills to double the attack on the worms and boost immunity. My question is why are many of you so worried about bringing your cat to a vet to make sure they could eat something it is known cats can eat? Like do you take your cat to the vet for every different ingredient of food and make sure it can eat it? What would the vet even do to ensure your cat can eat pumpkin seeds? Its not like they know if your cat would be allergic to it.. Excuse my ignorance I am just trying to help my cat with multiple methods, not just a pill of praziquantal. But Once again what is the vet going to do that would make sure my cat can eat pumpkin seeds? I have a bunch of food allergies myself. What would they do , give her a caterpillar ?? Its not like they did anything to know my cat can safely consume praziquantel...  And are there other effective herbal supplements or natural methods to help my cat? I think this is a great thread and it is very important to not just follow what doctors and common mainstream medicine tells you. We all know its not at all perfect. But nature? The only imperfection about that is our understanding of it.