A Pet's View / February 2008
What Causes Worms in Cats?
Worms are a problem that many pets can be afflicted with. Although most people associate intestinal worms with dogs, they can develop in cats as well. Usually, the most frequent feline victims of worms are kittens under the age of 6 months. For that reason, many veterinarians will recommend that a cat owner vaccinate their cat against worms once a month for 6 months until they are 6 months of age. This is important because many kittens are born with worm larvae within them.
De-worming kills live worms, but not the worm eggs. If the worms have already laid eggs, that setting is the groundwork for an infestation of worms; which is not something that anyone wants to deal with.
The causes of worms in cats are many, but the reason why they are such a concern is not only because they pose a danger to the health of your cat but because they also pose a danger to the people living in your home.
Tapeworms are a common type of worm in cats. Cats can get tapeworms by eating fleas that have eaten tapeworm eggs; which many of them do. Once the cat eats the flea, the eggs can hatch and develop tapeworms inside their body.
Not only do tapeworms make feces that much nastier to clean up, they are transmittable to humans and cause a great deal of pain and other problems. You can prevent tapeworms by having your cat checked for fleas and applying a preventative medicine.
Roundworms and hookworms are another type of worms in cats. These can be ingested through eating soil, things in the soil, or through the transfer of the larvae through nursing or pregnancy. Since mother cats clean their kittens’ feces with their mouths, the larvae can easily re-infect a mother cat if she and her young are not both treated for worms. Hookworms are not the type of worms that you can see through visually inspecting your cat’s feces. However, roundworms and their eggs can be seen in the feces of a cat.
Worms can be prevented and treated extremely easily. De-worming a cat is one of the simplest medical treatments to administer and it doesn’t take long for the effects of the medicine to take place and the worms to be destroyed.
Additionally, you should keep your cat and home free from fleas to prevent any chances of re-infestation.
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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