One of my kittens has worms! :(

We got two kittens for Christmas, a boy (Pluto) and a girl (Nagini) from the same litter.  They were born 11/1, so are about 9 weeks old.

I just pulled the second tiny rice-like bit off the hair near Pluto's bottom.  (The other was yesterday but I didn't think much of it.)  I hopped online to do some quick research about worms and it certainly looks to me as though he must have tapeworms.  I know that they have not had any shots yet, or been to the vet, as we got them from a woman who took in a pregnant stray.

Obviously they need to be treated, but my question is this:  They have their first vet appointment (initial exam and first shots) already made for this coming Friday afternoon.  Is it safe to wait till then for treatment?  Nagini doesn't seem to be affected, though considering the way that they snuggle and love and clean one another, she probably is, and both seem otherwise healthy - sleeping, playing, eating like horses.  Provided we take precautions like handwashing and so forth, is it okay if they don't get diagnosed and treated for another 5 days?

Also, if it is safe for them to wait till Friday, should I bring stool samples with me or will the vet be able to tell from looking/my description?  How fresh does a stool sample have to be?  If it can be a few days old, it will be easy to get one from each and know which is which, but if it has to be really fresh I don't know for sure that I would be able to do that.

I would ask the vet we've chosen but they're not open on Sundays.  There is an emergency vet we could go to if we had to.

Hi Lilywhite. Don't worry about your kitties. Almost all kittens are born with worms. You want to take care of it but it's not an emergency and can wait until Friday if that is your appointment.

Try to get the freshest sample you can. It doesn't matter if you know which is which because both cats will need to be treated. If one has worms, the other does too.

Don't worry about getting the worms yourself. It is next to impossible to get tapeworms from your cat.

lilywhite said:

We got two kittens for Christmas, a boy (Pluto) and a girl (Nagini) from the same litter.  They were born 11/1, so are about 9 weeks old.

I just pulled the second tiny rice-like bit off the hair near Pluto's bottom.  (The other was yesterday but I didn't think much of it.)  I hopped online to do some quick research about worms and it certainly looks to me as though he must have tapeworms.  I know that they have not had any shots yet, or been to the vet, as we got them from a woman who took in a pregnant stray.

Obviously they need to be treated, but my question is this:  They have their first vet appointment (initial exam and first shots) already made for this coming Friday afternoon.  Is it safe to wait till then for treatment?  Nagini doesn't seem to be affected, though considering the way that they snuggle and love and clean one another, she probably is, and both seem otherwise healthy - sleeping, playing, eating like horses.  Provided we take precautions like handwashing and so forth, is it okay if they don't get diagnosed and treated for another 5 days?

Also, if it is safe for them to wait till Friday, should I bring stool samples with me or will the vet be able to tell from looking/my description?  How fresh does a stool sample have to be?  If it can be a few days old, it will be easy to get one from each and know which is which, but if it has to be really fresh I don't know for sure that I would be able to do that.

I would ask the vet we've chosen but they're not open on Sundays.  There is an emergency vet we could go to if we had to.

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Hi Lilywhite and welcome to TCS! :hi:

Kittens with worms is common. You can wait until Friday for the vet visit and make sure they are treated by the vet. Try to take a stool sample with you. Both kittens will need to be treated. In the meantime try to keep their litter, beds and food areas as clean as possible. They will be fine until then. *IF* you do, or already have treated them with an over the counter product, be sure to tell the vet what you gave them. If you have not done this, don't sweat it, the vet will be able to get ride of the worms for you :nod:

Thank you to both of you!  I have not treated them with anything OTC because they are so small.  I've been checking his bottom frequently since my last post and haven't seen anything, so maybe he doesn't have too many.  I've only ever had older cats (not strictly rescue cats, just rescued from irresponsible friends), so this came as quite a gross surprise!  You've set my mind at ease so much about waiting till Friday.

Sounds like they have tapeworms, which come along with fleas.  I would call the vet and ask about giving them Capstar or if they recommend something else.  Have you treated them for fleas?
 

Tapeworms are not usually a serious concern in cats (or humans, for that matter).  You can't get them directly from the cat; they have to go through an itermediate host, first.   They certainly very high in the "ick" factor, though!

Depending on where you are, your vet can treat your kittens with Revolution for fleas and most worms, and another drug (possibly Drontal?) for the tapeworms.  I believe one treatment takes care of the tapeworms, although you need to treat twice for the other worms.

As another person said, this is common in any cat that goes outdoors, or any kitten whose mother went outdoors.
 

smitten4kittens said:

Don't worry about your kitties. Almost all kittens are born with worms.

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Hello, I had a question after seeing this comment, Let's say you have a kitten about a week old with possible worms, am I supposed to wait until they're old enough for a vet to get it taken care of? His stomach is slightly bloated.. when I hold him on his back he's about the width of a golf ball, and he has had a spot or two of what looks like blood when I stimulate a bowl movement. I'm concerned and not sure on what to do because of his young age. He is eating very well, but has been sleeping longer the past 3 days. He used to be up crying every 4 hours to eat, and now he sleeps anywhere between 6-8 hours. (he's been eating more since sleeping longer as well)

I have not treated them with anything at all.

I don't know if the worm problem has gotten worse or if I just wasn't noticing it before and am noticing because I am checking obsessively now.  I clean off his bottom and that's fine but then if he sleeps for a while when he wakes up and I check he has a ton of yucky worm-bits all around and in his anus.  They won't even all come off with a wet paper towel.  When I clean him off with the paper towel, he gets pissed off at me and cleans his own bottom (GROSS!), and then it goes back to looking normal.  But the number I can see after he naps is really alarming.

He doesn't seem to itch or anything, and he's not bloated, has no diarrhea, is active and playful, and eating and drinking well.  His anus did look a little ... for lack of a better word, bulgy.  Totally closed, not red or irritated, or anything, just bulging out a little?  I've gone over both of them very thoroughly and can't see any fleas or flea detritus.

If I called the vet tomorrow do you think they might be able to give me some medicine even though he hasn't been seen?  Maybe they would be willing to move up my appointment, but it's so hard for me to get time off of work (which is why it's taken this long to get them to the vet).

Poor babies!  And poor me - I've got the creepy-crawlies, LOL, and am psychologically itchy EVERYWHERE!

To mrblanche in particular: what would an "intermediate host" be?  I have to admit, the whole thing is sicking me out an awful lot, and I'm worried that the eggs will transfer to something that, gag me to death, might be ingested.  Ew!

Humans have probably lived WITH worms for a lot longer than we've been without them.  Yeah, it's icky.  We modern people are pretty far removed from the "chain of life."

You could probably get the tapeworm medicine from the vet, although it IS available over the counter at such stores as Petco.  Not cheap, however.

Look up the life cycle of tapeworms.  They shed the section that you are seeing on your cat, and that dries up and falls off in the grass or your carpet.  If it's one type of tapeworm, it will be ingested by flea larvae.  They then hatch into fleas, which get on your cat.  In grooming, the cat ingests the flea, with the tapeworm larvae in it, and the infect the cat again.  If it's another type, it's ingested by small mammals, such as mice or rabbits, where they larvae develop.  When a cat eats the small mammal, it ingests the tapeworm larvae, and is reinfested.

Now, you can see that a regimen of flea treatment and keeping the cat from eating wild prey is important in keeping down these infestations.
 

Just back from the vet!  I called on Monday and they agreed with everyone here that the kitties would be fine till Friday, but I called on Tuesday and said Please get them in sooner - they might be fine but I won't be!  LOL  Apparently I'm more squeamish than I thought, because I didn't even want to hold them and they are both such snuggle-bugs!

So the vet got us in today and everything went great.  Pluto is almost 3 pounds; Nagini is 2.  They tested negative for FIV and FeLV.  They weren't shy at all and they were very well-behaved for blood draws and shots.  Everyone made quite a fuss over them!

No fleas, no mites.  Other than the worms, clean bill of health!  So they gave them a pill for the worms and gave me a second dose to take home and give them in two weeks.

Thanks so much to everyone for answering my questions and helping me to feel better!