Blood Near Food Bowl

[zissou'smom]

Whatever treatment you use should be from your vet, who can answer your questions regarding doing it at the same time, etc. The worms can usually be found in a stool sample. Are you seeing anything that looks like rice on her butt?

Anything you can buy at a petstore etc, that is a flea treatment is extremely dangerous and cats have died or been permanently incapacitated by their use.

This is one case where the prescription from the vet really is worth the few extra dollars. The over-the-counter treatments are mostly archaic and outdated and unfortunately the regulations on pet medicines are lax.

 

[skoshkie]

I'm just reluctant to go back to the vet. We took her last week and spent $60 for him to check her for worms and clean out the anal glands. He said she didn't have any worms and did a general check and didn't say anything about fleas.

Is it common for a vet to miss things like this or should I find a different place to take her this time?

 

[zissou'smom]

Hm. How did the vet test for worms? Did s/he do a fecal exam?

It isn't always obvious that a cat has fleas. What did you tell the vet? Did you tell him about the specks of blood that are brown and turn red when they get wet?

 

[beandip]

Tapeworms, unlike other worms are often (I would actually say usually) NOT found in a fecal sample.

When a cat is scooting and doesn't have an anal gland problem, I call the vet and get some Droncit. The dosage depends on kitty's weight. Some vets will just sell you the meds some will insist on bringing the cat in. Like the others said, though...the meds should be purchased from the vet.

This is a sore point with me, as the first time I saw Leopold scooting I took him to a vet that I don't normally use - because of my schedule. I paid $140 for some vaccinations he didn't really need , plus anal sac expression (which I still believe he didn't need). A few days later he was still scooting, so I took him to my regular vet who could find no problem w/the anal glands so she wormed him, problem gone - less than $20 later.

 

[skoshkie]

Zissou-
I just talked to bf, who said he didn't say anything about the black specks. I forgot that we didn't notice those until after the vet visit. And the more we talk about it, the more convinced we are that she does have fleas. Despite our brushing her several times everyday and giving her a bath just yesterday with a non-flea-shampoo, she had those black specks on her last night.

Also, the vet just did a visual exam for worms. I think he just saw the full anal sacs, didn't see signs of worms, and was convinced the sacs were the problem.

I think we'll get some flea medication from the vet and see if that fixes the problems. If not, we'll give her some worm medication.

Thanks for the input.

 

[skoshkie]

Well, we got some flea medication as well as carpet powder to get rid of the fleas! Luckily, I don't think she has very many, so it should be easy to get rid of them.

As far as the worms go, we have been checking her stool and haven't found any white rice looking things, so we are going to wait until the fleas are gone and see how she acts to determine where to go from there.

Thanks again for the advice everyone!

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by skoshkie

Well, we got some flea medication as well as carpet powder to get rid of the fleas! Luckily, I don't think she has very many, so it should be easy to get rid of them.

As far as the worms go, we have been checking her stool and haven't found any white rice looking things, so we are going to wait until the fleas are gone and see how she acts to determine where to go from there.

Thanks again for the advice everyone!

I'm assuming you got the flea medication from a vet and not over-the-counter because I'm sure you know OTC remedies are dangerous (and usually non-effective).

What did the vet give you for the carpet? I bought some diatomaceous earth for our carpets because it is safe for the kitties.

If kitty has fleas, she most like does have tapeworm - the two go hand-in-hand. Cat ingests flea, cat has tapeworm. Tapeworm doesn't always show up in a fecal float/exam so your kitty could very well have it and still test negative.

 

[skoshkie]

We bought BioSpot products, which were recommended on several websites I saw. I know there are risks with every flea medication, but we have been watching her like a hawk, and no problems thus far.

In case you are wondering, the active ingredients in them are:
Bio Spot Flea & Tick Spray for Cats \t
Methoprene
Pyrethrins
Piperonyl Butoxide
Bicycloheptene Dicarboximide

Bio Spot® Carpet Powder With Linalool and Nylar®
Linalool
Piperonyl Butoxide
Pyrethrins
Nylar

 

[zissou'smom]

Originally Posted by skoshkie

We bought BioSpot products, which were recommended on several websites I saw. I know there are risks with every flea medication, but we have been watching her like a hawk, and no problems thus far.

That is exactly why we were warning you about over-the-counter flea meds.

The product you are using is potentially fatal and definitely dangerous.

PLEASE give your cat a bath and get off as much of the poison as you can.

Unfortunately now that you've gone and used that anyway, you can no longer put the more effective and way safer flea meds from the vet on your cat.

I don't know what websites you were looking at, but they had NO idea what they were talking about. We have learned this lesson the hard way.

 

[emmylou]

Seconding the opinion that the cat should be given worm tests and (if the tests are positive) worming medication, and only by a vet. There are several different kinds of worms common to cats, and in many cases you won't see the worms in the stool.

Fleas alone wouldn't be causing blood in the stool, as far as I know.