how to treat feral cat colony (8 cats) for tape worm

trudy1 · Nov 9, 2012

we have a colony we have trapped and neutered. They are fed every other day....too well apparently..now the tape proglottids are showing up.

we have treated for round worm since thats' just a matter of adding it to a food they really devour but tape worms?

anybody have any suggestions? medicine?

pills are a no way...unless they could be given ground up...anyway need some help

StefanZ · Nov 10, 2012

Bayers products, Drontal is all-round, Droncit is specifically for tape worms. Both are in pills, for once dosage. You can surely crush the pills and have in the food.

I wonder if thay are also in spot on - handy if the ferals allows to come near.

Allround Milbemax is also in pills, even with meat-fragrance...

Both are prescriptions free in Sweden, sold at our Apothece/Pharmacia/chemist/drug store.

I suppose you do have a vet you do consult? If nothing else, the vet who did the spaying?

My tips are big well known international firms and products, but the vet should known what good stuff is easiest to get

at your local market.

trudy1 · Nov 10, 2012

thanks Stefan but I am dealing with the "USA vet syndrome" who wants an office call to treat feral cats. They actually said they needed to get "exact weight" before providing meds but also added they would only charge me one office call fee for each two cats instead of one fee for each! All I have to do is trap them, bring them in, etc.

Is that a deal or what?

The poor cats were traumatized enough when I trapped/neutered them 2 years ago...some are finally getting where I can pet them so trapping again is out!

Thanks for the tip

Sorry, just had to "vent" a little. I spend a lot of money each year with this vet and others to treat my 4 house cats...but I guess, like most of the US medical profession, you can never "feed" them enough...the vets, not the cats!

George

otto · Nov 10, 2012

Spot on profender, if you can get it on them.

Droncit, specific for tape worm, is non prescription. You could try putting it in food as you did the other medication?

Some people swear by food grade diatomaceous earth for parasite and flea control. You could look into that, it also can be put in their food. Make sure you are using food grade DE.

trudy1 · Nov 10, 2012

So tell me more about droncit please
Is the approx dose spelled out.
Any suggested sources.

I plan to put it in their ground chicken....just recently started feeding raw gound chicken supplemented with dry since feeding 8 cats at the barn plus my 4 gets costly.
But they are so cute now that they watch for my old truck and come out to greet me. Of course its' all about the raw now so I can actually feed them each a small amount with the meds in it

Thanks againt

StefanZ · Nov 10, 2012

You can google yourself - which may be best, not sure the packages at your place are exactly the same as in the swedish handbook...

I see also Droncit seems to be in spot on. Which would be best if you can administer it. You will be more sure which dosage they did got, and which they didnt got.

Any way, the pill Prazikvantel 50 mg per pill, 5mg per kilo body weight. Which gives.

A rather big cat 10 kg = one pill, a normal weigh cat 5 kg= half pill.

A little female - about 1/3....

I suppose some overdose doenst matter much, as they write some rare type of tapeworm needs a 8x dose, but you dont want to give them gross overdoses.

Profender is allround.

Willowy · Nov 10, 2012

Droncit is non-prescription now? I need to check that out!

The problem with praziquantel is that it's super bitter, so it's hard to hide in food. I've never been able to sneak it in. If you can get a spot-on, and get close enough to the cats, I think that would be the best option.

Remember that tapeworms come from fleas so you also have to do something about the fleas or the tapeworms will come right back.

trudy1 · Nov 10, 2012

yes, I think droncit is on Amazon as well as generic

but...all the talk about spot on and controlling fleas, etc. is good if i were dealing with tame cats but remember these are a feral colony...I do good to stroke them as they are eating

think I will try the diotomacious earth food grade for a start and add a 2 teaspoon dose to each little ball of ground chicken to see if it works...would be great if it did

tape worms are a mixed bag as I remember from college...if the cats are marginally fed you don't see the proglottids but if they are well fed and fat/happy like I keep mine the tapes grow and ...well you know the rest of the story

thanks

GTO

Willowy · Nov 10, 2012

OK, these SAY they're chicken flavored. . .:
Whether your cats will think so is anyone's guess :lol3:

StefanZ · Nov 10, 2012

trudy1 said:
but...all the talk about spot on and controlling fleas, etc. is good if i were dealing with tame cats but remember these are a feral colony...I do good to stroke them as they are eating

Yes, that is exactly what we do mean. If you can stroke them while them are eating, you can administer the drop on too at the same time. Just a drop in the shoulder/neck, nothing more.

You dont even need hold them. Just do it.

It would be much more difficult with totally shy ferales, but yours arent any longer totally shy for you.

Tapeworms comes a) from prey like taken mices, b) from fleas.

I supposed you do use Revolution on them, which is very good and takes almost all worms and parasites outside and inside, but dont takes tapeworms. And thus, needs a fill up form something anti-tapeworm...

2006hazelmurray · Dec 30, 2013

how do you treat feral cats for roundworms? I heard on another site that water in the dish of wet food, with a few drops of cider vinegar, would help, but do you have a more surefire way? My friend cat made a big brown **** full of roundworms in my raised bed today, and I'd like to help her. I'd also like to keep her out of the bed eventually, but will let her keep at it till I can tell the worms are gone.

StefanZ · Dec 30, 2013

2006hazelmurray said:
how do you treat feral cats for roundworms? I heard on another site that water in the dish of wet food, with a few drops of cider vinegar, would help, but do you have a more surefire way? My friend cat made a big brown **** full of roundworms in my raised bed today, and I'd like to help her. I'd also like to keep her out of the bed eventually, but will let her keep at it till I can tell the worms are gone.

I havent heard about this cider winegar-tip. Diacetomeus (?) earth, DE, shall work. both for outside and inside parasites. So you can sprinkle it in their food yes. Just make sure the DE is of food grade or human grade.

Or, if you can touch the cat, the Revolution spot on, as mentioned above

Welcome to our Forums!

Good luck!

ldg · Dec 30, 2013

Cider vinegar does not kill worms. Diatomaceous Earth will, but to use it in food, it must be FOOD GRADE. Very different than the stuff used for grubs in gardens.

Revolution does treat round worm, but not tapeworm. If your kitty has round worm, your kitty most likely has tapeworm too. I don't know where outside the U.S. this is available, but the spot-on for roundworm, hookworm, and tapeworm is Profender.

Actually, this page has a good chart comparing the spot-on products. Revolution requires a prescription (because it treats heartworm. I'm not familiar with Advocate - but this is a link to an Australian website). http://www.petsvetshop.com.au/products/Revolution-for-Cats-2.6-%2d7.5-kg-Blue-(5.5%2d16-lb).html

julie310 · Mar 6, 2017

I am in the same shoes. I have 5 ferals which are fixed. I need a good wormer that is relatively easy to give to them. There are only a handful of vets that will actually help out knowing your hands are tied.

hbunny · Mar 6, 2017

@trudy1 I am, like others, going through the same scenario.....but I have about 7 ferals I feed that will not let you anywhere near them, and all of them have tapeworms--of that I am sure. I have shelters they sleep in, and I'm finding the segments and small dots of poo inside the shelters.

I've been to the vet and bought round after round of Drontal and the paste wormer too, since they more than likely have roundworms and hookworms too--and no matter how I try to feed it, even in pure tuna, they refuse the food with the meds in it. I've tried crushing/hiding in everything I can think of and they won't touch it. And these are cats that eat anything they can get their mouth on. The food sat out there and went bad and they wouldn't touch it. The vet charged me a lot per pill on the Drontal, and it was just getting ridiculous how much money I was throwing away.

I'm trying something new, I don't know if it is worth anything or if I'm just wasting more money, but I bought a plastic jar of UrthPet (yeah, that's how it's spelled) D-Wormer yesterday. It's a powder in a medium size plastic container with a bright orange label made of papain, bromelain, and pumpkin seed. It's online but everywhere I saw is out of stock on it. I got it at our local feed store, called Stockdale's (it's a chain kind of like Tractor Supply) and they highly recommended it, they swore to me it works on tapeworms and the cats actually ate it. I'm just at my last resort after spending so much money at the vet on the tablets and paste that I couldn't get in them. I'll let you know how it goes. It has high reviews online, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I am having to guess at their weights and I'm putting 1/2 teaspoon in each can of food I put out, but the guy at the feed store told me that dosage and said it wouldn't hurt if one gets a little more than the others. I have to give it for 10 days. I'm just desperate because the worms are starting to take a visible toll on all of them.

The best info I could find online about the papain, bromelain, and pumpkin seed said that the pumpkin seed was what kills the tapeworm. I think this stuff I bought has DE in it as well, it sure looks like it. I guess I'll see how it does.

shadowsrescue · Mar 6, 2017

hbunny said:
@trudy1 I am, like others, going through the same scenario.....but I have about 7 ferals I feed that will not let you anywhere near them, and all of them have tapeworms--of that I am sure. I have shelters they sleep in, and I'm finding the segments and small dots of poo inside the shelters.

I've been to the vet and bought round after round of Drontal and the paste wormer too, since they more than likely have roundworms and hookworms too--and no matter how I try to feed it, even in pure tuna, they refuse the food with the meds in it. I've tried crushing/hiding in everything I can think of and they won't touch it. And these are cats that eat anything they can get their mouth on. The food sat out there and went bad and they wouldn't touch it. The vet charged me a lot per pill on the Drontal, and it was just getting ridiculous how much money I was throwing away.

I'm trying something new, I don't know if it is worth anything or if I'm just wasting more money, but I bought a plastic jar of UrthPet (yeah, that's how it's spelled) D-Wormer yesterday. It's a powder in a medium size plastic container with a bright orange label made of papain, bromelain, and pumpkin seed. It's online but everywhere I saw is out of stock on it. I got it at our local feed store, called Stockdale's (it's a chain kind of like Tractor Supply) and they highly recommended it, they swore to me it works on tapeworms and the cats actually ate it. I'm just at my last resort after spending so much money at the vet on the tablets and paste that I couldn't get in them. I'll let you know how it goes. It has high reviews online, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I am having to guess at their weights and I'm putting 1/2 teaspoon in each can of food I put out, but the guy at the feed store told me that dosage and said it wouldn't hurt if one gets a little more than the others. I have to give it for 10 days. I'm just desperate because the worms are starting to take a visible toll on all of them.

The best info I could find online about the papain, bromelain, and pumpkin seed said that the pumpkin seed was what kills the tapeworm. I think this stuff I bought has DE in it as well, it sure looks like it. I guess I'll see how it does.

Thanks for this info. I have one of my 3 that refuses everything I have tried as well. I bought from Little City Dogs http://www.littlecitydogs.com/6-little-praz-caps.html? and this works well for 2 of the 3 cats, but I cannot get my other one to take it. The capsules are fairly small. One cat ate it in his wet food, the other I wrapped it in some cooked chicken. The 3rd cat I tried everything even sprinkling it into the wet food. No luck at all.

The best thing about Little City Dogs is that they ship very fast and it's quite inexpensive. I may have to try the UrthPet.

hbunny · Mar 6, 2017

ShadowsRescue said:
Thanks for this info. I have one of my 3 that refuses everything I have tried as well. I bought from Little City Dogs http://www.littlecitydogs.com/6-little-praz-caps.html? and this works well for 2 of the 3 cats, but I cannot get my other one to take it. The capsules are fairly small. One cat ate it in his wet food, the other I wrapped it in some cooked chicken. The 3rd cat I tried everything even sprinkling it into the wet food. No luck at all.

The best thing about Little City Dogs is that they ship very fast and it's quite inexpensive. I may have to try the UrthPet.

I don't know how well this is going to work, but I'm at the desperate stage. One smaller female is losing weight and I'm seeing a 3rd eyelid on her at times, she is just starting to look poorly--and I don't think I can trap her to get her in to the vet. She disappeared for a couple of months after her spay trip and was like having the devil in a cage. I thought she left for good after that, but she reappeared a few months later very skinny and scruffy. I had just gotten her fed back up to looking decent and now this!

The guy at the store said a lot of people get this for their barn cats because they can't touch them to poke pills/paste in their mouths. He swore up and down that it works, it just takes dosing them much longer. I have just struggled and struggled trying to worm this bunch outdoors, and I'm afraid these worms are going to take some of the weaker ones down, like the tabby female. I have several small spayed females that are visibly losing weight. I kept worrying and worrying, then started seeing the segments. I had just had one spayed and in for a vet visit (who now has become a permanent indoor resident) that was absolutely full of every type of worm. So I figure since she had all the worms, the rest do too. They won't get anywhere within 50 feet of me, so I can't do a topical.

No matter what I have done I can't get them to touch the food with meds in it, but they gobbled this up this morning when I fed them. So maybe there is hope! I'm going to keep sprinkling it in and mixing it up every morning and observe from afar I guess to see if I see some improvement (and keep looking for those little segments).

keeneland · Mar 6, 2017

think I will try the diotomacious earth food grade for a start and add a 2 teaspoon dose to each little ball of ground chicken to see if it works...would be great if it did

This is what we did but we are mixing it in wet cat food & have it sprinkled about on their bedding were they sleep. So far it seems to be working. We were also finding ticks on our cats and since we have used Diotomacious Earth Food Grade we have not seen anymore ticks. This was by far the cheapest way to try & help these cats as we got 1 lb. for $6 & change at a local health food store.

labsnme · Mar 7, 2017

DE works. Just be sure to get the food grade. I use it gor the ferals for fleas. I mix it with the food so they cant see the white and they eat it. Im not sure it helps for tape worms however. Haven't researched that option yet. Also put some of it on a cat comb with a handle and comb through the cost quickly as they eat. Most are too concentrated on eating and arent bothered.
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how to treat feral cat colony (8 cats) for tape worm

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