Vet says there's no worms?

[serena_]

So I have an adult cat and recently I saw a worm coming out of her. I was able to take it out and put it in a ziploc (i even took a video of it moving).

We decided to take her to a vet and even showed the doctor the worm we caught (the worm was not alive anymore) and she told us to send her a feces sample, so we did and the test came back negative, now we don't really know what to do.

We have two other cats so we've had to keep the cat we thought had worms in our room to try and prevent spreading, so we don't know if we should let her out it not yet.
Could it have not even been a worm to began with??

 

[gilmargl]

Difficult question as I'm certainly not a specialist on the subject.
Well, you can believe the vet, let the cat out, keep your eye on all of them and hope for the best.

I have had the all clear from a vet, and a few months later, the cat (kept indoors) was full of worms. She was a stray and I had been treating her for giardia as well as worms. The all clear came, she found a new home and I heard later about the worms (but no more giardia, thank goodness).

You could wait a week and take in a new feces sample asking him to check specifically for the "worm" you found. But, if it was white, and looked like a grain of rice, it would have been a bundle of eggs from a tapeworm. I have never needed to provide a feces specimen to test for a tapeworm. The vet took my word for it and gave the cat the appropriate injection/medication. For tapeworms, I only treated the cat where I spotted the bundles of eggs and never separated the cats.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. What fecal exam did the vet do? A fecal float or smear will usually identify some (but not all) parasites. It would have been better to have had a full fecal PCR done which is more extensive in its identification, and it will also look for various bacterial and viral issues.

It would seem odd if the 'object' was moving not to have been some sort of parasite. There is also a full spectrum treatment for a numerous amount of parasites, it's called Drontal. You might ask the vet about both the fecal PCR and the use of Drontal. I believe the fecal sample needs to be litter-free and fresh in order for the PCR test to be most effective.

 

[Juniper_Junebug]

I spotted a squiggly white worm segment on my cat's butt the morning that I was already planning to take in a stool sample. The sample came back only with giardia, not tapeworm, but as I had showed the vet a photo of the worm before the exam, she also prescribed meds for tapeworm. I remember thinking it was odd that the fecal test did not come back positive for tapeworm and I had to insist to the tech I spoke with on the phone about the results that they check the charts and give me meds for it.

 

[serena_]

Difficult question as I'm certainly not a specialist on the subject.
Well, you can believe the vet, let the cat out, keep your eye on all of them and hope for the best.

I have had the all clear from a vet, and a few months later, the cat (kept indoors) was full of worms. She was a stray and I had been treating her for giardia as well as worms. The all clear came, she found a new home and I heard later about the worms (but no more giardia, thank goodness).

You could wait a week and take in a new feces sample asking him to check specifically for the "worm" you found. But, if it was white, and looked like a grain of rice, it would have been a bundle of eggs from a tapeworm. I have never needed to provide a feces specimen to test for a tapeworm. The vet took my word for it and gave the cat the appropriate injection/medication. For tapeworms, I only treated the cat where I spotted the bundles of eggs and never separated the cats.

ty for you input! we'll probably try and take her to vet soon, I don't think we'll be letting her out of the room just yet though(just wanna be cautious).

We've had her for about three years indoors, the vet did say that of it was a worm she could've gotten it for a flea that got in form the outside so she did give us some flea medicine, but that's about it.

 

[serena_]

I spotted a squiggly white worm segment on my cat's butt the morning that I was already planning to take in a stool sample. The sample came back only with giardia, not tapeworm, but as I had showed the vet a photo of the worm before the exam, she also prescribed meds for tapeworm. I remember thinking it was odd that the fecal test did not come back positive for tapeworm and I had to insist to the tech I spoke with on the phone about the results that they check the charts and give me meds for it.

Yes! The squiggly white thing is exactly what I saw! We're probably going to try and get another test? We took our other two cats and the vet tons us to bring her their samples too to try and see if they have anything.

 

[serena_]

Hi. What fecal exam did the vet do? A fecal float or smear will usually identify some (but not all) parasites. It would have been better to have had a full fecal PCR done which is more extensive in its identification, and it will also look for various bacterial and viral issues.

It would seem odd if the 'object' was moving not to have been some sort of parasite. There is also a full spectrum treatment for a numerous amount of parasites, it's called Drontal. You might ask the vet about both the fecal PCR and the use of Drontal. I believe the fecal sample needs to be litter-free and fresh in order for the PCR test to be most effective.

I'm not sure what sort of testing they did, but I will definitely try to find out.

We're probably going to take her to the vet again and I'll ask about both the PCR and Drontal! tysm for the help!