Tapeworms??

[DianeSnizzy]

I brought one of my cats to the vet today. This is the same cat who had the mouth infection about a month or so ago.

Recently, a lot of her fur was coming out. I figured it was stress or anxiety and took her to the vet to see what was happening. It turns out she's allergic to fleas. One of the other cats goes in and out and she brought back fleas.

Anyway, the vet gave me some medicine for her and suggested Frontline for all the cats. Then she said that, if a cat has fleas, the cat would also have tapeworm so I would have to bring all the cats in for an exam and to get dewormed. Of course, this is going to cost me a small fortune (even though this is a low-cost clinic).

I've never heard that if a cat has fleas, it would also have tapeworm. Is this a definitle thing or just an assumption on the part of the doc?

[Laura's Babies]

They eat the fleas and that is where they get the tapeworms. If I use Frontline, Chester will get the worms... if I use Advantage, he does fine. See if your vet will just give you the meds to treat them at home, those little pills are expensive but I usually just run down to my vet and they will let me have them, I think they are about $8 a pill....

[Catlady711]

Hello, I'm new here.

I've been working as a vet assistant for over 5 years plus I have 5 cats of my own. I use Frontline Plus on all the kitties and have never had a flea problem. Our hosp. used to carry Advantage but have switched over to Frontline Plus. It's a personal choice depending on your individual situation and your vets preferences. You need to treat all the pets in your house otherwise fleas will just hop over on the one that isn't treated.

As for tapeworms... A cat can only get tapeworms 2 ways, eating rodents or eating fleas. It takes about 3 months for signs of tapeworms to show up. At our hosp. we only treat the animals that show signs of tapeworm (small rice sized, white segments in stool or around rear end). We don't treat animals that don't show signs. At our hosp. if a person is a client that we've seen before, we will allow them to just pick up the meds. But that's just at our hosp.

[DianeSnizzy]

None of the cats are showing any signs of worms at all.

I'm wondering if I could just get over the counter de-worm medicine from the pet store? (that is, even if I should de-worm them at all since they don't show signs) The pills from thej vet are $11 each and I have 4 cats (and my big guy will need to take 2 because he weighs about 25 Lbs). That alone is $55 and they will have to take them and then take them again in 3 weeks. Much as I love my kitties, I just don't have $110 for something that I'm not sure is really necessary.

[Catlady711]

None of the cats are showing any signs of worms at all.

I'm wondering if I could just get over the counter de-worm medicine from the pet store? (that is, even if I should de-worm them at all since they don't show signs) The pills from thej vet are $11 each and I have 4 cats (and my big guy will need to take 2 because he weighs about 25 Lbs). That alone is $55 and they will have to take them and then take them again in 3 weeks. Much as I love my kitties, I just don't have $110 for something that I'm not sure is really necessary.

WOW your vet charges $11 EACH for the tapeworm pills??? I think our hosp only charges a couple dollars each and a buck or two for the bottle. We combine the pills for multiple cats in one bottle then write out individual instructions for each cat (we don't combine dog and cat pills though). And our pills don't require any addictional doses 3 weeks later, we only repeat the dose if the pet shows signs again (which doesn't happen often and usually it's because the cat is still catching mice or still has fleas).

There are a variety of intestinal parasites (worms) an animal can have (tapeworms, hookworms, whipworms, roundworms etc). OTC de-wormers normally only take care of roundworms and are sometimes very harsh on the tummy. We've also had clients call in a panic later because those de-wormers caused their animal to be very sick and recently we had someone loose a puppy b/c the owner over dosed it.

If you were our client we'd recommend you only treat the ones with signs of tapeworms. If none are showing signs just keep close watch, as I said it takes about 3 months for signs to show, and it's not for sure that any or all of your cats have tapeworms.

I don't know what kinda area you live in, but it might be worth calling around just to get pricing at other vets as they all vary in pricing. It's possible that you just live in a higher priced area and that's the norm for your state/area, but around here that's considered expensive!

[mruffruff]

DrsFosterSmith.com has Tradewinds Wormer with praziquantel for tapeworms. A bottle of 3 tablets costs $11.99. Use 1 tablet for each 7 lbs of cat. 2 bottles and shipping is $31.97. One more bottle will bring the total to $44.88. Then all you have to do is get the pills in the cats

I gave them to my cat and never had to repeat it. Now he gets Revolution every month.