Cat Worming Question

Roz_V

This is a bit of an icky one so probably best not to read whilst eating :rotfl:

About 2 weeks ago our 3 year old cat climbed onto our bed for cuddles and we noticed a worm hanging out of her backside :eek: She is given Drontal every 3 months & was due her next dose on 1st April but given the issue we decided to give her the tablet a couple of weeks early. About half an hour later she began to vomit and eventually brought up a worm. My question is, because she was sick so soon after the tablet, do we need to give her another dose?

Thanks in advance

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Speak to a vet.

penny_pincha

The best person to advice is a vet but if you cat has worms in its stomach shown by the fact they can vomit them up, the parasite load (amount of worms in the animal) is high.

Just check...

• your worming tablets are the correct dose for your cat. The tablet dose is related to weight of the animal. (I weigh my cats in a carrier with one of those luggage spring balances, then minus the weight of the carrier.)
• your tablet are in date and have been stored correctly eg in too hot a cupboard.
• if your cat catches mammals eg mice, and eats them, they will have worms in them and so your cat is ingesting extra worms so needs worrming more frequently on a regular basis.
• not all worming tablets are the same so ie worm for all worms. I understand Milbemax was developed for the continental market and so worms controlled by that tablet covers worms found more commonly there which aren't the same as ones here eg hook worm.

Back to the first point, ask you vet as there may be another underlying problem.

Wirenth

Also, there is a chance you and your family have worms as well - please go and see your doctor. When my horse gets his dose of ivermectin, so do I.

Roz_V

Thanks for the replies - we called the vet the morning after she vomited the worm but she was pretty vague on advice and said we didn't need to take her in (which I did think was a bit odd...)

My cat is 3.5kg (weighed in Feb by the vet) and we treat her with 1 standard Drontal tablet which seems to be the correct dosage according to pack instructions.

She is a hunter - is 4 times a year not enough in this case? We have just followed the pack instructions...

Waterfalls

worms usually get removed by the body at one end or the other. it means the tablet was doing its job.
tablets like drontal only worm for a few days whilst it works it was though the body. so you may find that you pet might need treating monthly or ever 2 months instead

KxMx

Lily goes outside and is also a hunter. She has protection from one worm with her monthly flea drops and she has every 3 months Profender drops which treats the other kind of worm. On Vets advice.

They work too judging by the dead worms I found in her poo last year! I checked with the Vet after there was no need to take her in because she was already being treated for both worms frequently enough.

I'm not familiar with Drontal but it seems to work against both worms, perhaps I would have a chat with the Vet and see if you need to dose more often but from the sounds of it you are doing it correctly.

penny_pincha

Drontal is a wormer which is designed for the OK so should be OK there. Spot on worming treatments do not cover Tape worm, which personally I think is the horrible and also people can catch it too.

If your cat is vomiting worms it must have a large 'parasite load' of worms throughout its system which as a hunter she has eaten via the mammals eg mice she has eaten. Cats can also become infected with tapeworm by eating fleas too.

Your cat needs to be wormed every month to control the parasitic load as long as she is hunting and eating mice and other small rodents.

moggymutt

penny_pincha wrote: »

Drontal is a wormer which is designed for the OK so should be OK there. Spot on worming treatments do not cover Tape worm, which personally I think is the horrible and also people can catch it too.

If your cat is vomiting worms it must have a large 'parasite load' of worms throughout its system which as a hunter she has eaten via the mammals eg mice she has eaten. Cats can also become infected with tapeworm by eating fleas too.

Your cat needs to be wormed every month to control the parasitic load as long as she is hunting and eating mice and other small rodents.

Profender spot on does both tape and round worm (but not fleas). 3 months apart with a Drontal tablet is stretching it too far if your cat is a hunter or you have several cats. With prolific hunters you may need to Drontal every month.

penny_pincha

moggymutt wrote: »

Profender spot on does both tape and round worm (but not fleas).

You are correct this product covers tapeworms, but is one I hadn't heard of before. It is however a prescription drug so requires a vet to prescribe it. You could still get it from a pet pharmacy if you wanted by asking for the paper prescription and it worked out cheaper than buying directly from the vet.