Kitty w/ Worms Please Help!!

I have a 6 month old kitten with worms. I have had him for about 2 1/2 weeks now and tonight was the first sign of them. What kind of OTC(over the counter) Dewormer should I get?? I need to get this done asap because I have another cat in the house. I do not want him to get worms. Do I need to seperate them until it's all gone? Do I need to resanatize my house now?? Help not sure what to do. He has only been here in my house for about a week now.

I would not recommend over the counter wormers...for one thing, unless you are familiar enough with every worm to correctly identify what your kitten has, you need to take in a stool sample to your vet for them to identify exactly what your kitten has, and to then give you an effective medication guaranteed to take care of it.

Depending on what kind of worms these are, will affect what you need to do. I would seperate the kitten from your other cat until you know exactly what kind of worms...they should have seperate litterboxes. I'd get a new one for your cat, use the one they'd shared for the kitten *just* until you know what kind of worms..if tapeworms, i'd keep this old box, but if round worms, frankly, I'd ditch this box as soon as the kitten is being treated.

Roundworms can be contagious via a shared box, tapeworms means the presence of fleas and unless your cat is on a flea tx such as advantage which would protect it against any fleas the kitten might have brought in (*if it has tapeworms, it has fleas), you'll need to have both the kitten and your cat treated for fleas, and use a safe tx for your home.

hth,

You need to take your kitten to the vet anyway asap for a check, shots etc. And it is a good idea to keep the two cats isolated until then just to be sure the new one doesn't have anything else that is nasty.

Taking the kitten to the vet is the best choice, sometimes kittens (and puppies) have more than one kind of parasite. So just because you are seeing one kind of worm does not mean that is the only parasite she has. Yes, keep them separated as much as possible untl your kitten is checked out, and clean the litterbox after each time the kitten uses it (wear gloves and or wash your hands after you do it, some parasites are transmissible to humans).

OTC medications sometimes do not work, or if used incorrectly can seriously harm even kill your cat. You need to, as Pat says run a fecal into the vets. If you cat has tapeworm, one pill is $7.00 (at least here) and one treatment is usually all it takes. If your cat has roundworms hookworms or whipworms the treatments are more extensive. But please don't self-medicate your cat take it in to the vet where they can treat it safely and effectively. If your cat has tapes, be sure the vet applies a flea treatment after worming your cat.

Found out that the kitty has tapeworm. It will take several weeks to get my kitty into the vets. Its a military vet and they are quite busy. They are the only vet that I can afford here in San Diego. Thanks everyone.

Call the clinic and tell them your cat's weight- if they have seen the cat they will give you the medication as soon as the vet approves it.

Your kitten may have tapeworms that are visible, but he may have other worms, too. There are prescription pills that treat both kinds safely. Even if kitty can't be seen by the vet you would like to use, maybe they will do a fecal exam and weigh him so that he can be treated now for these parasites. Becky

My last vet visit and medication cost for testing and treating Annabelle for tape worm was under 25$, so it really isn't all that pricey. Her treatment was easy, she had a pill and a half to take over the course of three weeks.

Well the problem is that I live in SAN DIEGO. IT is wayyyyyy expensive for the visit and the shots and the pills. My husband is in the Navy and do not have the money to take kitty to the vet right now. Now please do not give me a hard time about money or anything like that. We just DO not have money. We are barly living off of what we have now. That is enough for my husband to put gas in our car to get to work eveyday. I know that pets are not cheap. WE are just going thru a REALLY REALLY bad spot right now. I know that everyone has gone thru tough times before. Right now it is us. I really wish we could take him to the vet right now but it is just going to have to wait. The military vet is the cheapest out here in SAN DIEGO. I hate the cost of living out here. Anywho sorry for rambling. Thanks for caring so much and for all the information. I will get my kitty to the vet as soon as I can.

Check your PM. Private Message at the top of the page. Becky

Well, I just found worms on my computer desk (ick). They're coming from the new kitten. The worms look like they have a head and a tail. There also some orange gunk that i found with these things. Any idea as to what kind of worms they might be?
I'm trying to get a hold of my vet to make an appointment for as soon as possible in the mean time.

I need a better description. Basically, tape worms are in little segments that are flat and squarish when moist and dry to look like grains of rice. If there are several segments that are connected, it looks more like a shoelace or a segment of fettuchini (sorry). Roundworms are usually about 4 inches long and look like skinny spaghetti ( sorry about these food references) You can take the "specimen" to the vet for proper ID and treatment. Becky

Originally Posted by zanniesmom

I need a better description. Basically, tape worms are in little segments that are flat and squarish when moist and dry to look like grains of rice. If there are several segments that are connected, it looks more like a shoelace or a segment of fettuchini (sorry). Roundworms are usually about 4 inches long and look like skinny spaghetti ( sorry about these food references) You can take the "specimen" to the vet for proper ID and treatment. Becky

Click to expand...

I started a thread about it already and Hissy gave me some advice. Already had it ID'd. Thanks though.

I called the shelter I got her from and they're going to give her a shot tomorrow. I don't recall exactly what it is, I just have to take her up there. Pluse she has a vet appointment on Monday too.

I think we're going to survive.

I would wonder now after reading your description if what you are seeing isn't tapeworms at all but flea larvae? It does sound like flea larvae, they look like tiny worms, they have legs, they move quickly. The tapeworms look like small grains of rice, not distinct at all. I would suspect you have a flea infestation. But put one of these "worms" in a jar with a lid and run it to the vet they will tell you what it is.

These don't move quickly at all. They just kind of wiggle around on the desk. They do look like grains of rice however and have no noticable legs.

Sounds like tapeworms to me. They do wiggle a bit, after a couple of hours (I think) they "curl" and look like sesame seeds.

They were. She got treated with Doncrite (sp?) .03. Poof! They were gone. Thanks for the help guys.

Yup, that's the cool thing about Droncit. It causes the protective layer on the outside of the worm to degrade causing the worm to be digested. You just never see any more. Becky