New Kitten Has Worms. Isolation?

Hi all!

I'm new to the forums but a longtime cat owner. We had three cats (just adopted a kitten last summer) until Friday, when my husband found a kitten at a local gas station. Initially we were going to find him a home, but he's such a sweet boy we've decided to add him to the family!

The morning after we found him we took him to our usual vet, who found he was in good health (though big for his age - around 3 months) except he had roundworms. Not uncommon, but I've been lucky enough to never have had to go through the deworming process with a cat. She gave him a dose of Profender and recommended we bring him back after two weeks to confirm they had cleared up.

Due to this, we've kept the kitten - now dubbed Captain - isolated in our basement since. He and we are both anxious to integrate him more into the household. I hate having to keep him in a location where he can't be social in the evenings, though I definitely don't want my other pets to catch roundworms. We've been visiting him down there a few times a day for play and snuggles, but I'm sure he's not as happy as he could be. Two weeks seems like a long time and I don't want the lack of full socialization to hurt his personality either.

I'll probably call the vet on this, but wanted some opinions - how long does it take for the Profender to work and completely deworm a cat? Would it be safe at all to allow Cappy upstairs for short periods, as long as he doesn't share litter boxes or bowls with the other kitties?

Oh, and here's a pic of our new boy!

He's beautiful though I hope there isn't someone desparately looking for their kitten...  Have you checked whatever the usual places are to see if he's reported missing?  In the UK that would be the RSPCA, CP and any local rescues, the local vet surgeries, and putting an ad in the lost & found in the local newspapers.  They all seem to do that sort of ad for free.  I take it the vet has checked for a microchip.

It's very advisable to keep a new cat from this sort of unknown background in isolation for a couple of weeks as he could have an infection about to show and it could pass to your other cats.

Also the other cats need time to adjust, and if he's in a room on his own they will get used to the idea there's another cat in the house.

I would wait until the 2nd vet visit to start integrating him, and of course I'd spend time with him in the meantime.

He also needs vaccinations and I always get my cats chipped, even if they don't go out.  One day they did give me the slip (I was recovering from very major surgery) and whilst I got the missing one back through leafletting, had he been handed in to a vets or rescue the chip would have lead back to me.

Oh yes, we checked into all of that, no worries. We live in a very small town, so I called the gas station and found out that a stray cat had a litter up there a while back - some kittens were caught, but he thought they likely missed this guy. You could tell Captain had always been outside, but socialized since he's so affectionate and sweet. Anyway, they were happy he had found a home and was out of harm's way.

I also failed to mention we had him tested for FelV/FIV and it was negative. We also started his vaccines - he'll get the second round at the next appt.

I'm sure the isolation is a good idea, it's just difficult when you feel like you're punishing the poor fella. But I'm a softie! I'm fairly certain that the roundworm is his only health issue at this point, so that's my main concern when it comes to the others. I can tell that the Profender has worked, as he seems to feel great, no pot belly, good looking poo, etc. - so that's good!

Aw, what a cutie! Thanks for rescuing this little guy!

When we were actively rescuing, we didn't have any place to isolate rescue babies. Of course, this meant that our other cats ended up being treated for upper respiratory infections, because inevitably the newcomer is carrying some kind of virus - even if they're not sick with it.

The ONE thing we didn't worry about was passing on roundworm. Again, rescue cats inevitably have internal parasites (if not external ones too). But frequent scooping of the litter box is really all that's needed to ensure those round worms don't get passed on from cat-to-cat. The other thing you can do to be extra sure is empty the litter boxes weekly, bleach them, and put in new litter. But that extreme usually isn't necessary.

I don't know if your vet told you, but it really is best to give him three treatments total, each three weeks apart. No matter what medication is used, most do not kill each phase of the life cycle of the parasites, and some really only kill the adults. So to ENSURE you've rid a cat's system completely of the internal parasites, that third and final dose is always a good idea. :nod:

Enjoy watching your new baby blossom under your care! :rub: :heart3: