3 cats with roundworm advice wanted.

I have 3 cats in my household currently.  My two Rasta and Odie and my foster Cassie.   I noticed a worm in the litterbox hanging out of some feces two weeks ago when cleaning so I had it checked and the vet found roundworm.  I gave my two cats Panacur and my foster (who has a different vet) was perscribed Pyrantel for her.   I also put them all on Advantage same day.   From what I've read around the internet it takes two or more treatments to get rid of worms is this true?  I'm not sure how effective advantage will be either at keeping them at bay.  Should I just plan on giving them all two more treatments and keeping them all on Advantage which will get expensive after a while but I'm willing to do it if it will get rid of the problem and keep it from coming back.

The other concern I have is getting roundworm or already having them myself.  Before I found out about the worms I used to pick up my cats all the time and even let them sleep with me.   I'm a clean person but I work 2 jobs and don't have the time to clean out the litterbox with bleach and change the litter everyday.   I've washed down my floors once a week and vacumed any litter on the floor around their pans.  I can only wash out the pans once a week.  Also I vacumed their cat trees a couple times thoroughly but again time prevents me from doing it daily.   This comes on the heel of having a lot of house repairs I'm trying to do so how clean should I be.   I know I need to wash the curtains on the window they like to hang around.   Should I steam clean the cat trees and carpets in my house or am I getting paranoid?  I wash my hands when I deal with the litter and also after I pet any of the cats.  I feel really awful I think Odie has had the worms since I got him a year ago because I've heard him do the coughing thing everyonce in awhile and he's chubby and has pot belly which they say are signs of an infestation.   I had him check a month ago though when he had diarhea but they didn't find anything in his stool at that time or Rasta's either.  It could be the foster brought them in too I'm not sure she was a stray for awhile and got trapped.  They are all indoor cats by the way and never go outside.   I'm also a clean freak because I hate bugs and live in a slab so I'm vigilant about being clean.

Okay, so first of all, are you certain that it was roundworm in the litter box and not a tapeworm?

I ask because if roundworm (looks like a thin spaghetti noodle) is coming out in the poop, the infestation is quite bad, and will surely require numerous treatments. This takes time to get that bad by the way.

Now if it looked like a squirming piece of rice it was a tapeworm segment. Common and caused by eating a flea.

However they are treated differently.

Panacur is fine but needs repeating, pyrantel will treat roundworm but not tapeworm. Also needs repeating.

The advantage 11 (the 11 is the newest formula and kills eggs and larvae as well so its the best) It's what I use in my rescue group and we all love it.

Advantage will keep away the fleas so they don't get worms again but can be costly, yes.

So what I do is buy the extra large dog size and dose it down according to the cat doses you will need.

You have to use a needleless syringe, a 1.0 ml size, dose is 0.4 mls for a smaller cat, and 0.8 mls for a larger cat.

Did you use the Advantage Multi?  One of the advantages only takes care of fleas.  Advantage multi does fleas, earmites, hookworm, roundworms and heartworms.  Both Panacur and Pyrantel work pretty good for eliminating roundworms, the vet I work for uses Pyrantel.  You will want to repeat the dose in about 2-3 weeks of the Panacur and/or Pyrantel.  Do a good deep cleaning of the litter box with clorox and clean wherever you can.  As for it being spread to humans, I have worked in the Veterinary Field for 20+ years and have never seen a case where it was transmitted.  It CAN and DOES happen, I just haven't seen it happen.  This is a website that talks about roundworms.  http://www.petsandparasites.org/cat-owners/roundworms/ 

I have a question related to this thread.

I rescued a feral kitten from the colony I care for on Black Friday, He was taken to vet and given a dewormer, of course I don't have the name with me.  I just had him back to the vet and his sample tested positive for round worm. She dosed him again and gave me some to give him again in 14 days.  Up until this last week he had been quarantined in a spare room separate from my 3 adult cats, he was only 2 lbs.  He is now out and about with the other cats, as he was very insistent about it!  We are trying to keep them out of his litter box and him out of theirs. BUT I am very concerned they will end up with worms too.  Any suggestions other than quarantine to prevent this? 

Thanks for the advice.  I keep seeing little white bits in the feces so I think they may have a tape worm infection as well.   It's easy to miss because I use the clumping litter which has white specks in it already.   I will stop being so paranoid about getting it myself but continue to keep things as clean as I can.  I'm a clean freak anyway.   All this is just at a bad time as I'm trying to get house repairs done.    I will get feces samples for the vet to check again so he'll give me another round of meds for them. 

Just when I thought I was home free and the latest (poop) samples from my cats showed no roundworm I was cleaning the box and again found a good size worm hanging out....I almost puked it really gross.   I worked both my jobs yesterday and ran the wrong sample to the vet last night and now the vet thinks I'm nuts.   I think it must be the foster who has the worms she was treated with Pyrantel and my cats were treated with Panacur.   I would like to do another treatment to be on the safe side if nothing else but everything is perscription and I'm running out of money fast and can't afford to samples everytime for checking they charge me $16 per cat just to look at the poop and they keep missing the worms.   That's three rounds of checks so far 1 after their yearly shots plus two so far due to the worms and I bought Revolution for them all and the drugs to treat them.   Is there somewhere I can buy the drugs without all the vet costs?  I'm trying to make repairs on my house and I'm bypassing my own healthcare to get them treated.   This is all costing me a fortune :-(

you can buy dewormer otc at walmart, just know that it doesnt always work. Fecals arent always accurate as it depends on where the worms are in the lifecycle.

Right!

You can also buy pyrantel without a prescription from 1800petmeds or other sites, quite inexpensive and the same as many vets, shelters and rescues use.

Repeat in 2 weeks and done with roundworms. (usually)

I did have one little girl who took several treatments to get rid of, using pyrantel. She really had worms bad though.

Pyrantel is VERY safe, mild, can't overdose as it won't hurt them, etc.

catwoman707 said:

 
Right!

You can also buy pyrantel without a prescription from 1800petmeds or other sites, quite inexpensive and the same as many vets, shelters and rescues use.

Repeat in 2 weeks and done with roundworms. (usually)

I did have one little girl who took several treatments to get rid of, using pyrantel. She really had worms bad though.

Pyrantel is VERY safe, mild, can't overdose as it won't hurt them, etc.

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Thanks I will try an order it.   I tried to order drontel but it said I needed a vet ok.   I don't want to over medicate but I'm not rich and my vet charges for everything little thing I still have to take may cat to the vet for a cut on his foot I just just found that needs to be looked out so there goes another $150.   Sorry I'm just getting really frustrated with all these expenses.