What are Tapeworms in Cats and How to Treat Them?

The most common type of worms that I've seen in cats, in all my years of rescuing, are Tapeworms.

They are called "tapeworm" because the entire worm is long, and flat, resembling a tape or ribbon.

You may see yellow sesame seed size items on the fur near your cat's behind. These are dried up tapeworms.

Or, you may see live tapeworms in the fur near your cat's behind. The worms move by shortening the body, then lengthening, going from about 1/8" to 1/2".

In the 1st photo to the right, you can see a worm in the kitty's fur, close to her behind.

In the 2nd photo, you can see tapeworm segments in a kitty's tail, stuck to her fur. Hopefully you can see how small they are.

In the 1st photo below, you can see a tapeworm segment pulled from feces, on a piece of toilet paper. This worm is at it's full length.

The litter next to the tapeworm segment is wheat litter, just to give you an idea of size.

In the 2nd photo below, you can see in the center of the photo, a tapeworm on cat feces that has pulled itself short, very small, about the size of a grain of cat litter.

It's very easy to miss seeing the worms, unless you look very closely. Sometimes, you will see them moving.

In the photo below, the tapeworm segment on the left, has pulled itself short. The tapeworm segment on the right is almost at full length, just over 1/4" here.

The flash kind of washed out the detail, sorry about that. But the photo shows the different shapes that the tapeworm segment could appear in.

Tapeworms are usually caused from a cat ingesting flea eggs.

How does that happen?

A cat licks their fur during the grooming process. And as you know, cats are generally very clean animals, so they groom frequently. If the kitty has fleas, the cat ingests infected fleas and their eggs during grooming.

The infected fleas cause tapeworms.

Or, alternately, a cat can become infected when killing and ingesting a portion of an infected rodent.

Our rescue prefers using Drontol, which is a broad-spectrum de-wormer which treats roundworms, tapeworms, whipworms, hookworms.

This medicine requires a prescription, and is well worth a trip to your veterinarian.

Our rescue has tried over-the-counter medications and found them to be ineffective in the treatment of worms, so we continue to use the prescription medication.

Drontol takes 1 dose, or 2 doses, given 2 weeks apart, depending on the type prescribed.

Be sure to consult with your vet when deciding to treat your pet.

Once a cat is rid of tapeworms, the best way to keep them clean is to keep them flea-free.

The easiest way to do this, is rid them of fleas, and keep them indoors.

Flea treatment consists of 2 treatments, 30 days apart to ensure fleas and their eggs are eliminated during the entire cycle of fleas hatching.

Our rescue prefers Advantage. Our veterinarian prefers Frontline. And one of our boarders prefers Revolution. I usually use Advantage Multi.

We have heard, and seen firsthand, some cases of horrible side-effects caused from over-the-counter flea treatments. So please, before purchasing any flea treatment, search online for the brand you are considering, to see if there have been reports of seizures and/or death caused by that treatment.

We had a case where 10 cats were treated with an over-the-counter flea treatment, and all of them started having seizures and had to be rushed to the vet. The vet bill was very expensive, costing far more than it would have cost to pay a little more for the Advantage.

I personally use Advantage Multi on my kitties and my foster kitties. In addition to treating fleas, it also treats roundworms, hookworms and also treats ear mites.

Always keep an eye on your pet for the first 10 minutes or so after treatment, to ensure there are no negative side-effects. One time, I treated a foster kitty, and he started having very mild seizures (drooling, back muscles spasming) so I immediately washed the treated area with soap and water. That did the trick and the kitty was fine. I found out after the ordeal that the Advantage I had was expired....so PLEASE keep an eye on the expiration dates of your medications and treatments too!!