Tapeworms causing an intestinal blockage?

Hi everyone,

I'm having issues with my cat Noah.  A few days ago I noticed he was having liquid poop stuck around his butt.  So I cleaned it and didn't think much of it.  The next day he had the same issue twice.  The first time I cleaned him, I found little rice like objects.  The second time I cleaned him up, I found a live tapeworm. 

So I got a prescription for a dewormer that you can apply between the shoulder blades and gave it to him the next morning (Saturday).  After that, the amount of lliquid poop around his butt area decreased.  He also produced a small piece of poop.  However, I still see him going to the litter box and not being able to push anything out except a small amount of liquid poop.  This even happened as early as today (Tuesday).

He does have mega colon but he has been doing really well the last few months taking 1/2 tsp of miralax every night.  He is acting pretty normal as far as I can tell and is still eating.  I just want to see him produce a bowel movement. Today I also put on a pair of gloves, lubricated my pinky finger, and felt around the last two inches of his rectum and couldn't feel any poop stuck in there. 

Does anyone think the tapeworm infection caused this? Could the dead tapeworms be causing a blockage?  What should I do?  I was thinking about maybe giving him a enema with mineral oil but I'm not sure.

I also posted this at the Mega Colon Yahoo group forum but there is such a long delay from when you post something and it actually shows up and I'm getting really anxious.

Thanks so much for any help

Natalie

Natalie - so sorry for the delay in someone responding to your thread. I would be very concerned about this especially since you mention Noah having Mega Colon. Do not try to attempt doing an enema on your own especially since there could be a blockage of some sort. I hope that you have brought Noah to the vet for a check up OR that by the time you read this, Noah has pooped. You could try some Plain canned Pumpkin. 1 Tbsp. Some cats will readily lick it off your finger others need to be gently syringed. Still, check with vet on this right away. Hope to hear some good news back. :cross:

p.s. I am assuming the vet used Profender? This should work very well on the tapeworm as well as rounds and hooks.

No worries  .  It was kind of a weird question and the wonderful people in the MegaColon Yahoo group have been helping me out.  I brought him to the vet and he had another clean out.  Now I'm on poop watch, lol.  Hopefully, there will be a bunch of dead worms in it.  Thanks for the tips .

I think it takes up to 3 days after a clean out before they will have a bowel movement.  I hope your kitty is okay now.

Just to add, there is only one tapeworm when they have "them". One worm that drops segments from it's end which is the squirmy rice. These pieces are filled with eggs, which pass along to other cats via litterbox and bed.

So don't expect to see lots of worms, if you do, it will be roundworms

Thanks for the good thoughts!

And thank you for that info about the worms.  I did a search and found conflicting information as to whether there is just one tape worm or a bunch of them.  I saw one of the egg sacs around his butt which was long and moving around so I thought it was a baby or something.  I guess the eggs can move around which is gross.

Yeah, the squirmy tape worm segments are so gross, eeew.

Repulsive.

I went searching to find info stating that once a tapeworm has taken up residency in a pet it won't allow another to, which means just one at a time, but despite my now being so grossed out by the pics I just saw, did not find that site.

If there is an actual tapeworm in stool or vomit, it is because occasionally, the worm will let go of the intestines and move on to the stomach where it will come out, one end or the other.

If you deworm and see multiple worms, those are roundworms.