Found a round worm today

I am currently helping care for my elderly mother, who was recently put on hospice. She has one cat, a 6 year old long hair dilute calico named Molly. My elderly cat Tigan a 17 year old seal point tonkanese, has been staying there for six months now, and when i moved in to help with her, I brought my four year old  long hair cream cat, Andy with me. These are all and have always been indoor only cats. My two were wormed two years ago when we had a puppy in the house with worms, never wormed them since. Hers was wormed as a kitten.

They have been throwing up alot, they eat Purina Naturals cat food, but we are switching to blue buffalo as we felt it might be the reason for the puking. Other then that, there has been no sign of illness. Today mom found a round worm near the bathroom window where they sit at. It looked like it had been in puke, but might of been caught in the hair around the butt.

We will be going out first thing tomorrow to get wormer, and are wondering which one is the best, and how to go about making sure each cat gets its own? I am thinking its going to have to be with a syringe as her cat is really picky about what it eats and wont even eat any kind of canned cat food. And only picks at her dry food.

So what would be the best form of liquid for syringe wormer? or is there a good kind of pill form that I could make them swallow? I know how to do both.

thanks in advance!

Melissa

Most OTC de-wormers aren't any good, and may be dangerous. You can get some of the decent brands OTC now but they don't usually have them at regular pet stores. If you can find pyrantel pamoate liquid, that will work. Farm stores might have a better selection. Drontal is a good pill, but usually you have to get it from the vet. I do think that calling the vet would be better than trying the store products. Most vets will sell you de-wormer without making you bring the cats in.

A very safe, extremely effective parasite eliminator is food-grade diatomaceous earth.  I put about 1 T. of it in my pets wet food, once/twice a month to keep all the parasites at bay.   You can read more about it here:  http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth.html
 

Are you sure it was a round worm? Was it dried up or still moving?

If this cat has been seen by a vet you might be able to call the vet and tell them about the worm and give the cats weight to them. Some vets will go ahead and give you the wormer if you just bring in the worm if the cat has been seen by them before.

If the worm was flatter and dried up to look like a small grain of rice then it was in all likely hood a tapeworm segment, they will get caught in the cats fur and found around bedding. Round worms can be several inches long and look like spaghetti noodles.

The tapeworm medicine can now be bought without a script from most big pet stores now and is called praziquantel, they make doses for dogs and smaller doses for cats, I used it a month ago and the tapeworm was gone in 24 hours.

The Pyrantyl for roundworm is cheap from the vet if you can get it.