An update on new kitty....Also, fleas!

Hi!
Thank you to everyone who asked about how "kitty" came out....
Of course, he is as cute as ever!!!! And he is being a REAL kitty now!

As it turned out, he must have eaten or licked something he shouldn't have and he is perfectly fine!!!! Yea!...EXCEPT for one thing.....He is INFESTED with fleas! I thought I saw a flea, but he has FLEAS...A lot of them! Talk about the "eebie jeebies".

I am starting him on "Frontline". It is okay for kittens over 8 weeks old and he is approx. 10 weeks old. It kills the eggs, fleas in all stages.

We have several pets, and have never had a flea problem, so I never even would have thought to check him for fleas before bringing him in.

I actually know nothing about it...Like, have I already infested our home? What about the chair that he has claimed as his own? I guess I should treat the other two dogs and our other cat, too.

Then my sister-in-law who works at a vet clinic let me know that if he eats the fleas then he could get tapeworm....Ugh!

Anyway, my kids still call him "Vash" or "Vash The Great". My two year old still suggests we call him "Kitty"! Well, "Vash" would never have been my choice, but since they are SO in love with him I don't want to hurt their feelings! I guess we'll see. My older son offered "Snoozer" as a name, because he thinks it is funny that kittens sleep so much! Twice today he was sleeping on the top of our easy chair (his chair), and rolled over and fell off...all the way from the top! We didn't know whether to laugh or not....Poor thing!
I'll take the name "Snoozer".

Anyway, I'll stop babbling on again!
Have a good evening...
Lisa

Treat ALL the pets AND bug bomb the house. I've adopted flea-ridden cats, before. They, also, got tapeworms.

Fortunately, its (usually) an easy and fairly inexpensive fix.

I shut all the cats up, in one bedroom, stuffed a towel under the door and bombed the house. After that's done, let them out and bomb that room. Make sure that there's no uncovered food, left out. Wash down counters, cupboard doors and appliances.

It took only one treatment, for a four-bedroom house.

Good luck.

I am glad to have gotten some advice on that.
I was afraid that I would hear that! I was thinking that I may have to put it off for a few months....or maybe leaving the house for a while would suffice, but I am pregnant and I don't want to do anything to hurt the baby...But, I definitely don't want my house filled with fleas either.

Another question...
Do you or anybody out there know how huge the risk of my kids getting tapeworm if the kitty gets it? Like, with normal handling, etc. They have, of course, smothered him with lots of love the last two days...before I realized the flea problem. How worried would I have to be of them getting tapeworm? (As you can see, I am no expert on this subject!!!)

Thanks again!
Lisa

Catmommy:

I am moving this thread over to the Health and Nutrition forum.

As I understand it, your kitty gets a tapeworm from ingesting an infected flea. You will know he has a tapeworm if you see little white specks near his butt that look like grains of rice. Those are sections of the tapeworm being eliminated. Kitty will need to see the vet. The medication is a one pill dosage that takes care of it. Both of my cats have had it. The kids cannot get a tapeworm from handling the cat.

The only parasite that you and the kids can get that the cats have are roundworms and ringworms. Your best bet is for you to be the one to scoop the litterbox (if your kids are really young).

Make sure you wash the box out with a mixture of bleach and water, dry it completely. I always have a pair of rubber gloves near my litterboxes, and put them on when I am changing scooping litter and cleaning litterboxes. Also wash your hands well after all litterbox handling and groom your kitty daily. I scrub my boxes everyday, but that is just my choice since I have new cats arriving all the time.

When you fleabomb- it would be a lot safer to remove kitty from the house for at least 4 hours afterward instead of just confining him to one room. Those flea bombs are pretty toxic. Good luck and Snoozer is a cute name- but as he grows he is going to get quite active!

Not to be gross....but if a human did get worms from their cats, would it be evident the same way it is with the cats? I mean would you see it in the bowel movement?
Some of my kittens got worms, and I of course have been worming them, but I worry about that stuff....I would hate for me or the kids to get them...YUCK!!!!

Yes deb you would get them the same way. That is why it is essential to have good hygiene habits when you are cleaning out litterboxes. I have a friend who wasn't so diligent and she caught roundworms from one of her cats. All I can say, is what Pam had to go through was nasty.

I don't wear gloves when changing the litter pan, but I do wash my hands very thoroughly afterwards. I shouldn't be changing the litter pan at all, since I am pregnant, and my Dr. told me not too, but I have to...my husband won't do it. I am very careful about turning my head, so as not to breathe in the dust, and like I said, I wash up right away.

Hi!
I also am cleaning the litter box while pregnant. I try to wear gloves and always wash up good afterwards also. BUT, when I was pregnant the first time, I told the nurse that my husband doesn't clean the litterbox and so I have to. She asked me if I have had cats for a very long time. I told her "yes" that I have always been around cats. She told me not to worry that I was most likely already immune to the toximity problem that the litter box ordeal poses. (I think I may have even been tested for it, but I can't remember exactly).
This pregnancy, though, this nurse gave me a big "NO NO". Through my reading, I am pretty sure that if you have living with cats for a long time, then you have most likely been exposed and probably immune. Once again though, I am NO doctor

I still have the "eebie-jeebies" with the whole tapeworm thing. I am more just annoyed with the flea problem, but the tapeworm issue I just cannot get used to!!!! I am SO afraid that my kids can get it, but the above posts make me feel a little better.

Well, I hope this all gets better soon!!!

-Catmommy

Catmommy....I had the doctor test me for this when I first got pregnant, thinking that since I have had cats for quite awhile, I might be immune and not have to worry about it...but no such luck...the test results showed I had never had this. But from what I have read, the cats get it from eating mice, and the only cats I have in the house are Merlin, who will kill a mouse, but wouldn't eat it, he's way to finicky, and the kittens, who are rarely outside. I am waiting for them to get older before they go out. They do go out some during the day, but I don't think there's much danger of them catching a mouse.

Oh, and also, from what I read, it is more from breathing the dust of the litter in, than actually handling it, and I try to turn my head and hold my breath until I'm done.

HI Debby,
Bummer about not being immune. I was thinking that I had been tested and told I was immune, but its hard for me to remember! Isn't that terrible...my memory! Well, I hope I am then, because I do have two outside cats that adopted us several years ago and I am sure that they have caught mice! Though, then again, I don't change litter for those two at least. That is good to know about the litter dust.

Take Care!
-Catmommy

WHAT THERE ARE FLEAS TOO!!!!!

YOU NEED TO TELL ME THESE THINGS MOM!!!!!!

Could you girls use those painters masks? You know the disposable ones fom the hardware store? Maybe that would help as well when cleaning out the boxes.

That's a great idea, deb!!