Those little pieces of "rice" you're seeing are actually fly larvae. That's what happens when you let your cat outdoors. When flies land on anything, say cat food, YOUR food, they're not eating it, they are laying their eggs on it. (Yeah, I know...EEEWWWWWWWW!!!) When the eggs get ingested (cat eating the cat food the flies just laid their eggs on), because of the warmth of the body, they hatch into worms. That's one of the ways cats get worms.

I don't know of anything over the counter that will help. Drontal is what gets rid of them.

I'm sorry Big Ted is having such a problem with them. I do hope you can get him to a vet soon.