Have you ever seen a white object like a grain of rice on a cat's body or in its feces? Or is it a long, squirming unidentified object crawling out of the cat's anus? This is actually a parasite that cats are more often infected with, tapeworm. Tapeworms are flat and long, and their bodies take on the appearance of section by section. Their head is an adsorber that adsorbs into the cat's intestines to absorb nutrients.
Adult worms in cats can grow up to more than 50 centimeters, but most adults are about 20 centimeters long. After tapeworms mature, the segments of the body begin to fall off continuously, and with feces or directly excreted from the anus, sometimes they can crawl out directly from the anus...
How do cats get tapeworms?
There are generally two ways for cats to become infected with tapeworms:
1. Flea larvae ingest tapeworm eggs - tapeworm eggs and fleas develop together - cats eat fleas carrying tapeworm eggs into their stomachs when licking their hair - as fleas are digested in the intestine, tapeworm eggs/larvae are released - tapeworm larvae mature in the cat's intestines;
It is worth noting that unlike other intestinal parasites, cats will not infect tapeworms by ingesting eggs directly, and will only be infected through the intermediate host of fleas.
2. When cats prey on small wild mammals (such as mice), they may ingest tapeworm larvae.
Do tapeworms have any effect on cats?
Tapeworms are very disgusting, but the good news is that tapeworms have little impact on the health of cats and do little lasting damage.
(1) If the taenia infection of the cat is very serious, weight loss may occur - because the nutrients are sucked away by tapeworms;
(2) Sometimes tapeworms will sneak out of the small intestine for a walk, if you accidentally run into the stomach, the cat may vomit, and there may be live tapeworms in the vomit... &*%￥%￥& @
(3) White nodal patches appear in the feces of cats;
(4) Cats sometimes drag their anus on the floor or carpet because of itching;
Something like this
What should I do if my cat is infected with tapeworms?
Tapeworms are not difficult to treat, and commercially available insect repellents can kill tapeworms, and they are very effective.
The most important thing is to do a good job in prevention:
Since the main way for cats to catch tapeworms is through fleas, it is very important to maintain hygiene at home; there is also regular deworming for cats inside and outside the body; if cats are strictly kept indoors, the risk will be much smaller.
Do tapeworms infected with cats be transmitted to humans?
In most cases, it won't.
The tapeworm that cats most often infect is called Dipylidium caninum, which is basically not transmitted to humans, and most cases are infected by children.
Another rare type of tapeworm is called Echinococcus, which infects humans and is highly harmful to human health. This is also known as "echinococcosis" and is more common in livestock areas such as Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and western Sichuan in China. Overall, however, it is relatively rare for humans to be infected with echinococcosis through cats.
in a word
Timely detection, timely treatment, and prevention work, cat tapeworms are nothing to fear.