worms!

[Shanna66]

the kitten threw up again today and the fiance said he saw 2in long white worms moving around in it. made a nother vet appointment for a couple days from now

ive never had an animal with worms, im panicing. what could have caused this? was it something she ate when she was a stray? did i do something? what should i do in the meantime?  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

aww, poor thing. Did they look like grains of rice? What color? shape? I would just make sure to feed her a bit extra, or even a vitamin suppliment until she can be seen. She could have picked them up from her mother like many many kittens, she could have picked them up from fleas if she had those at one point, she could have gotten them a number of ways really. Is it possible to bring some of the vomit asap to the vet? At least take note of exactly what they looked like and bring a fresh poop sample when you go. Figuring out which worm it is will help them choose the meds.  

[Shanna66]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

aww, poor thing. Did they look like grains of rice? What color? shape? I would just make sure to feed her a bit extra, or even a vitamin suppliment until she can be seen. She could have picked them up from her mother like many many kittens, she could have picked them up from fleas if she had those at one point, she could have gotten them a number of ways really. Is it possible to bring some of the vomit asap to the vet? At least take note of exactly what they looked like and bring a fresh poop sample when you go. Figuring out which worm it is will help them choose the meds.

i didnt see them, the fiance did. he said they were 2in long, white, and round.

ill try to take in a fecal sample, no idea if i can get any bile out of her though. cant get to the vet for a few more days so no asap at the moment for me thanks to all this wedding crap going on

and this would explain why she didnt put on much weight in the past couple weeks like she did when we first got her  

[horseluvrelisha]

Animals who live/go outside get worms, period. Horses have to be wormed every 4-6 weeks, outdoor cats are supposed to be wormed every ~3 months. They get them from the grass, things they eat, etc. Like Gabrielle said, a number of ways. If she was a stray, this is absolutely to be expected, you can pretty much assume that all strays have worms. She'll be fine, don't panic, just make sure you stay on top of keeping her wormed in the future.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

@Shanna, not to worry, it's not really an emergency, as long as it happens within a weekish. If it wasn't flat then that rules out tapes which is good cause there's a few kinds of those. Plus they generally travel by fleas. How old was she when you got her? And when did she stop gaining weight? That basically leaves hookworm and roundworm. (Cats don't get whips right?) According to my notes, both these worms are easy to catch in a fecal float. But for the hook it needs to be a fresh sample. It's possibly others but we only learned the most common.

@horseluvr
Horses need to be dewormed so frequently because they graze so close to their own feces they basically reinfect themselves all the time. I don't deworm my cat but he is due to get checked for worms. Next check up I'll do a fecal.  

[horseluvrelisha]

The extreme ease/frequency of animals getting infected (worms climb up grass stalk, your cat eats some grass, bam, your cat has worms) makes me glad my cats are indoor-only, lol. The outdoor cats I had growing up definitely, definitely had to be consistently wormed. We lived in the middle of nowhere and I imagine that made it even worse.

link with some info about kitty worming  

[Shanna66]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

@Shanna, not to worry, it's not really an emergency, as long as it happens within a weekish. If it wasn't flat then that rules out tapes which is good cause there's a few kinds of those. Plus they generally travel by fleas. How old was she when you got her? And when did she stop gaining weight? That basically leaves hookworm and roundworm. (Cats don't get whips right?) According to my notes, both these worms are easy to catch in a fecal float. But for the hook it needs to be a fresh sample. It's possibly others but we only learned the most common.

@horseluvr
Horses need to be dewormed so frequently because they graze so close to their own feces they basically reinfect themselves all the time. I don't deworm my cat but he is due to get checked for worms. Next check up I'll do a fecal.

the vet thinks she is a year old. she gained weight really fast the first week but not so much since then, less than a pound since the first vet visit

she was also supper skinny when we got her. i was afraid of breaking a rib whenever i touched her she was so thin  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Shanna66

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

@Shanna, not to worry, it's not really an emergency, as long as it happens within a weekish. If it wasn't flat then that rules out tapes which is good cause there's a few kinds of those. Plus they generally travel by fleas. How old was she when you got her? And when did she stop gaining weight? That basically leaves hookworm and roundworm. (Cats don't get whips right?) According to my notes, both these worms are easy to catch in a fecal float. But for the hook it needs to be a fresh sample. It's possibly others but we only learned the most common.

@horseluvr
Horses need to be dewormed so frequently because they graze so close to their own feces they basically reinfect themselves all the time. I don't deworm my cat but he is due to get checked for worms. Next check up I'll do a fecal.

the vet thinks she is a year old. she gained weight really fast the first week but not so much since then, less than a pound since the first vet visit

she was also supper skinny when we got her. i was afraid of breaking a rib whenever i touched her she was so thin

ok, chances are she had em when you got her. She probably put on weight at first cause she was actually eating regularly but it probably plateaud because of the worms. Or it's possible she only had the eggs when you got her and they recently matured.

If the cats are sharing litter, you might want to bring a fecal from Sugar to make sure she didn't get any  

[Shanna66]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Shanna66

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

@Shanna, not to worry, it's not really an emergency, as long as it happens within a weekish. If it wasn't flat then that rules out tapes which is good cause there's a few kinds of those. Plus they generally travel by fleas. How old was she when you got her? And when did she stop gaining weight? That basically leaves hookworm and roundworm. (Cats don't get whips right?) According to my notes, both these worms are easy to catch in a fecal float. But for the hook it needs to be a fresh sample. It's possibly others but we only learned the most common.

@horseluvr
Horses need to be dewormed so frequently because they graze so close to their own feces they basically reinfect themselves all the time. I don't deworm my cat but he is due to get checked for worms. Next check up I'll do a fecal.

the vet thinks she is a year old. she gained weight really fast the first week but not so much since then, less than a pound since the first vet visit

she was also supper skinny when we got her. i was afraid of breaking a rib whenever i touched her she was so thin

ok, chances are she had em when you got her. She probably put on weight at first cause she was actually eating regularly but it probably plateaud because of the worms. Or it's possible she only had the eggs when you got her and they recently matured.

If the cats are sharing litter, you might want to bring a fecal from Sugar to make sure she didn't get any

i dont have a cat named sugar, just fluffers and the new girl. but ok, ill bring some poo from him too  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

horseluvrelisha

The extreme ease/frequency of animals getting infected (worms climb up grass stalk, your cat eats some grass, bam, your cat has worms) makes me glad my cats are indoor-only, lol. The outdoor cats I had growing up definitely, definitely had to be consistently wormed. We lived in the middle of nowhere and I imagine that made it even worse.

link with some info about kitty worming

Worms don't actually stay on grass. Worm eggs get deposited in the environment by infected animals. Flies or fleas or mice will pick up the eggs and become infected with the larva. Cat and Dog worms are bred for life in cats and dogs and they don't actually survive in the environment or in their transport host. A larva living in a mouse will never mature and reproduce in the mouse. But a mouse infected with larva EATEN by a cat can infect the cat. Fleas infected will also infect the cat (with tapeworms) It would be rare for a cat to eat grass infected with eggs because the eggs will be close if not ON feces. It's mostly fleas or rodents who infect cats. Which means if you live in a climate like mine with a cold winter then you have seasons where there are no sources of infection which greatly reduces the population and the overall risk. I only need to have my dog on heartworm preventitive from June to October and the risk of him getting heartworm without preventitive is actually very low. Since my cat has kidney disease I choose not to use preventitives. He goes out briefly in the warm weather and rarely catches anything.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Shanna66

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Shanna66

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

@Shanna, not to worry, it's not really an emergency, as long as it happens within a weekish. If it wasn't flat then that rules out tapes which is good cause there's a few kinds of those. Plus they generally travel by fleas. How old was she when you got her? And when did she stop gaining weight? That basically leaves hookworm and roundworm. (Cats don't get whips right?) According to my notes, both these worms are easy to catch in a fecal float. But for the hook it needs to be a fresh sample. It's possibly others but we only learned the most common.

@horseluvr
Horses need to be dewormed so frequently because they graze so close to their own feces they basically reinfect themselves all the time. I don't deworm my cat but he is due to get checked for worms. Next check up I'll do a fecal.

the vet thinks she is a year old. she gained weight really fast the first week but not so much since then, less than a pound since the first vet visit

she was also supper skinny when we got her. i was afraid of breaking a rib whenever i touched her she was so thin

ok, chances are she had em when you got her. She probably put on weight at first cause she was actually eating regularly but it probably plateaud because of the worms. Or it's possible she only had the eggs when you got her and they recently matured.

If the cats are sharing litter, you might want to bring a fecal from Sugar to make sure she didn't get any

i dont have a cat named sugar, just fluffers and the new girl. but ok, ill bring some poo from him too

DANGIT! sorry, who do I have you confused with? Vanilla?  

[horseluvrelisha]

Yes, a lot of that info was right there in the link...

Pets absolutely can get worms from eating wormy grass, eating dead animals (or meat, pork being the worst) that have worms, from dirt, infected food/water; they don't have to be rolling around in/eating fecal matter to get worms. Different types of worms DO spread and survive long enough to infect other animals. I never said those were the only or even the most frequent ways, I said they were additional ways in agreement with your original post, just pointing out that getting worms is easy and extremely common, not cause for alarm as long as you catch them, treat them and stay on top of them, and that if you take in an outdoor stray you can definitely expect it to have worms. I don't live where you do, no, but personally I have never taken in a single stray cat or dog that DIDN'T have worms, they all had to be treated right off the bat.

re: climates, ours = very warm and humid year-round, worms/fleas/ticks/all manner of dangerous beasties are basically impossible to avoid, and not just for animals, either, kids playing outside get them, etc. So, yes, for us, regular deworming is very important (along with regular flea and tick baths/powder/collars with regular checks - which is why I just avoid the hassle and keep mine indoors, but when they were kittens who came in from outside, getting rid of all the parasites was hell).  

[Vanilla eXee]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

DANGIT! sorry, who do I have you confused with? Vanilla?

Yeah, lol. I think we should all post pics of our cats when we talk about them that way no one gets confused, xD  

[Shanna66]

horseluvrelisha

Yes, a lot of that info was right there in the link...

Pets absolutely can get worms from eating wormy grass, eating dead animals (or meat, pork being the worst) that have worms, from dirt, infected food/water; they don't have to be rolling around in/eating fecal matter to get worms. Different types of worms DO spread and survive long enough to infect other animals. I never said those were the only or even the most frequent ways, I said they were additional ways in agreement with your original post, just pointing out that getting worms is easy and extremely common, not cause for alarm as long as you catch them, treat them and stay on top of them, and that if you take in an outdoor stray you can definitely expect it to have worms. I don't live where you do, no, but personally I have never taken in a single stray cat or dog that DIDN'T have worms, they all had to be treated right off the bat.

re: climates, ours = very warm and humid year-round, worms/fleas/ticks/all manner of dangerous beasties are basically impossible to avoid, and not just for animals, either, kids playing outside get them, etc. So, yes, for us, regular deworming is very important (along with regular flea and tick baths/powder/collars with regular checks - which is why I just avoid the hassle and keep mine indoors, but when they were kittens who came in from outside, getting rid of all the parasites was hell).

i know your probably right, but nearly all our cats have been strays and no one has ever had worms before

@ vanilla
i like that idea