Questions About Intestinal Parasites In Cats
Thomas asks…
How many cat owners give their cats herbal remedies to keep sickness away and promote optimum health?
I give my 4 cats wet food with NEEM mixed in and a dash of olive oil every Sunday to keep fleas, ticks, intestinal parasites and viral infections at bay. Who else gives their cat herbs and what herb do you use?
Ellen answers:
I have a 22 yr old cat and her homeopathic veterinarian has given me an herbal mixture to put in Cameo’s food twice a day. I asked the vet what herbs were in the mixture and she rolled up her eyes and said, “Do you really want to know?” Chinese medicine is very complicated I guess and I wouldn’t be familiar with any of the herbs anyway.
I am thinking now of taking on a beautiful white, fluffy cat who is fifteen years old and was abandoned at the groomer/cat boarder’s place where Cameo goes to get her baths. So I will definitely be ordering “New Beginnings” from Dr. Jean Hovfe’s site to treat all my other five and the new one when he comes to my home. The spirit essences are combinations of herbs and flowers used to treat emotional and adjustment issues in animals.
I don’t have a problem with parasites here. I feed my cats a home-made raw meat diet which is supposed to be the best as far as keeping their immune systems in top shape. That has a salmon oil capsule per pound of meat.
I am going to get some Rhus toxicodenron (poison ivy) to see if it can help Cameo with her arthritis.
My twelve year old cat with bladder cancer, for which there is no allopathic treatment, is being treated by a homeopathic doctor. Mincho has had two doses of staphagaria.
So those are my ventures into alternative medicine for my cats.
Laura asks…
Any Feline Intestinal Parasites that look like a caterpillar?
A few minutes after my cat went to the litter box today I caught him playing with something on the floor. Closer inspection showed it was something looking like a fat gray caterpillar maybe 1-2 inches long. This doesn’t look like any parasite I know of but I got the feeling it might have been something that came from him and he picked off his hair after. Could any parasite that would infect a cat be this large and fit this morphology? It in no way resembled a roundworm’s “spaghetti” like appearance.
Ellen answers:
Dont think so just something he found outside wen gardening we find thease things look at his pooh tho just to be safe is he jagged and wormed up to date
Michael asks…
TERRIFIED: PARANOIA OR INTESTINAL PARASITES?
okay, I’m 14, and my biggest fear- take the piss if you please- if intestinal parasites. It’s something that terrifies me. The general paranoia comes and goes, but now I fear it’s back, and I think I may be persuading myself of something that may not be true.
Okay, well, the last time I went to the loo, I was pretty constipated. It stung a little, but I didn’t look to see if there were any worms or anything in there. -this is so embarassing-
I think that’s kinda what spurred the new wave of paranoia. I don’t have any abdominal pain whatsoever. It should be noted I have 3 cats, which I guess could potentially have worms- we havent dewormed them in about 6 months. I will THOROUGHLY wash my hands before eating (as welll as use alcohol hand gel) but I know the eggs can pass through even the air alone.. I guess it should also be noted that my diet’s not great to be honest. Like, the could have been the cause of my constipation, but I dunno.
Anyway, I am hugely paranoid. I can often convince myself I can feel itching down there, but it’s never severe. Always like, I concerntrate on it and I think I can feel a tickle and so on. My appetite’s pretty normal.
Please, it’s keeping me awake at night. Do you think there’s any chance I do have worms, or is it just my paranoia? Is it an OCD thing, worth seeking professional help? My mum just thinks its ridiculous, but this is affecting my life.
Thanks
Ellen answers:
I don’t want to scare you any more than you already are, but there’s stuff LIVING in your intestinal tract right now. It’s not a sterile environment, you have bacteria in there that helps to break down the food you eat. There’s bacteria that is friendly to your intestines, and then there’s bacteria that makes you sick. If there are worms in your intestinal tract you WOULD know. You wouldn’t have to concentrate about itching, it would be incessant, you could not help but scratch, and you’ll scratch without thinking about it at night – and only at night when it’s dark for them to come out and eat whatever crap is left around your anus.
You would feel sick, they’d secret excrement into your system that would be toxic to you.
Your whole family would be sick with them too. If no one is showing / feeling symptoms – it’s more than likely there’s no parasite in anyone in your home.
If you’re hungrier than usual or feeling weak from lack of minerals and other nutrients the parasites would consume – you’re FINE.
If you can’t sit and let poo come out of you – meaning, you have to push and strain, you’ll tear your skin and cause small open sores on around your anus which will itch and irritate for a while but not enough to make you uncomfortable. If you end up getting hemorrhoids, you’ll know right away.
There’s no worm that’ll come out to hang out of your butt hole, so stop looking…they live in a dark, hot and moist environment and that’s how they like to stay – in the dark where NO LIGHT is visible.
Doctors don’t treat you to make sure you don’t have something… They treat you when you DO have something and they only do that when they diagnose you with an illness. If you’re still worried – make a doctor’s appointment, you don’t need your mom to do that for you – do you?
If you can use your own hand to wipe your butt, you can pick up a phone too and dial with the other and make a call. Your worms aren’t going to do it for you either. ;P
FYI: Don’t go to your doctor’s office and take poo with you – they usually send you to a center that collects it for them and then the doctor gets their report of your stool sample.
Betty asks…
Are cats affected by lungworms?
A friend of mine borrowed my cat carrier to take a sick hedgehog to the vet yesterday. The poor little thing was in a bad way – he had lungworms, intestinal parasites, hypothermia, dehydration and a bad infestation of fleas. Will I ever be able to fully get rid of the germs from my cat carrier or should I just buy a new one. I really hope the little hedgehog will be ok by the way.
Ellen answers:
Yes, they are rare in cats but they can get them. Wash your carrier thoroughly in a 10% bleach solution, and you should be fine though. A 10% bleach solution kills just about everything.
Linda asks…
Is anyone feeding Blue Buffalo food? Both my dog and cats are sick and wonder if it is their food.?
My dog has diarhea and my cats are vomiting. The food that is vomitted is completely undigested. Could be an intestinal parasite but they are all fed Blue Buffalo dry food. There has been no recall on this food, but I would like to know if anyone else is feeding this food and having issues as well. I wouldn’t think it is the food except for the fact that I bought new bags of dog and cat food only 2 weeks or so ago and they are getting sick and having severe increases in thirst.
This is not a switch in food types. They have been eating Blu Buffalo since the first of the year. Just a new bag of Blue Buffalo.
Ellen answers:
Have you always fed them Blue Buffalo or is it a new food that you just introduced? If it’s new, did you give them an adjustment period using both the old and new food? Just changing their food suddenly can cause them to vomit, have diarrhea, etc. Get them to the vet since they’ve been doing this since you switched the food. The vet will give them antibiotics, something to keep them from vomiting/having diarrhea, and maybe a Science Diet Vet formula designed to calm their GI tract and keep them from being sick.
This happened to my dog a few months ago, but with a different brand of food. I mixed his old food and the new food for about a week, increasing the amount of new food daily. A couple of days after he was switched completely to the new food, he started having diarrhea. A week wasn’t long enough to keep him from getting sick, so the next time I try, I’ll probably switch him more gradually, taking 2-3 weeks to switch his food. But the vet put him on an antibiotic, an anti-diarrheal (a week’s worth each), and the special diet for a month.
At this point, going back to the dog’s and cats’ old food would not make them stop, it may make them worse. Take them to the vet.
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