Like most other animals, cats are plagued by a wide variety of internal and external parasites. Unfortunately, many of these parasites have complex life cycles which enable them to survive even in the best-kept households.

At Dublin Animal Hospital, we know how to monitor and control feline parasites through regular examinations and proper treatment. Initial deworming may be necessary at 4-6 weeks of age, followed by several treatments during the first year of life. Where heartworms are a problem, regular medication for prevention of heartworm infection should start prior to the mosquito season. It is unwise to attempt to deworm a cat yourself: under certain conditions, you could cause physical damage or even death to the animal.

Fighting the Flea

Types of commercial products available for flea control include flea collars, shampoos, sprays, powders and dips. Other, newer, products include oral and systemic spot-on insecticides.

In the past, topical insecticide sprays, powders and dips were the most popular. However, the effect was often temporary. Battling infestations requires attacking areas where the eggs, larvae, pupae and adults all congregate. Because some stages of a flea’s life can persist for months, chemicals with residual action are needed and should be repeated periodically. Sprays or foggers, which require leaving the house for several hours, should be used twice in 2-week intervals and then every two months during the flea season.

Treating animals and their living areas thoroughly and at the same time is vital; otherwise some fleas will survive and re-infest your pet. You may even need to treat your yard or kennel with an insecticide, if the infestation is severe enough.

The vacuum cleaner can be a real aid in removing flea eggs and immature forms. Give special attention to cracks and corners. At the end of vacuuming, either vacuum up some flea powder into your vacuum bag, or throw the bag out. Otherwise, the cleaner will only serve as an incubator, releasing more fleas into the environment as they hatch. In some cases, you may want to obtain the services of a licensed pest control company. These professionals have access to a variety of insecticides and they know what combinations work best in your area.

The choice of flea control should depend on your pet's life-style and potential for exposure. Through faithful use of these systemic monthly flea products, the total flea burden on your pet and in the immediate environment can be dramatically reduced. Keeping your pet on monthly flea treatments, especially in areas of high flea risk, is an excellent preventive method of flea control. These products often eliminate the need for routine home insecticidal use, especially in the long run. Although it may still be prudent in heavy flea environments to treat the premises initially, the advent of these newer systemic flea products has dramatically simplified, and made flea control safer and more effective. Talk to your veterinarian about flea prevention.

Heartworm Prevention Guidelines for Cats
by: PetPlace Veterinarians

Cats that are indoors may actually be at higher risk than cats that go out. In fact, up to 33 percent of reported cases are in cats who are described by their owners as “strictly indoors.”

Feline heartworm disease is a serious parasitic disease caused by a long, thin worm, Dirofilaria immitis, that lives in the blood vessels and heart of infected cats.

The disease is spread from dog to cat by mosquitoes. The mosquito bites a dog with heartworm infection, collects some of the microscopic heartworm offspring, and then after a couple of weeks, passes these on to another dog or to a cat. Inside the cat, the microscopic heartworm can grow into a parasite exceeding a foot in length. The life cycle is somewhat complicated. The important thing is to prevent worm development using safe and effective preventative drugs.

Heartworms are present (endemic) in most parts of the United States and in many parts of North America. Mosquitoes are the key – without them the disease cannot spread. The highest rate of infections are found in subtropical climates like those of the southeastern United States, the Gulf States and Hawaii. However, heartworms are also found throughout the central and eastern United States, particularly near oceans, lakes and rivers. When compared to dogs, cats are naturally resistant to heartworm disease (estimated at about one-fifth as likely to become seriously infected as dogs in the same region); however, heartworm disease in cats is often more severe than in dogs. The presence of even a single adult heartworm in a cat can result in very serious consequences.

Heartworm disease injures the lungs, the arteries within the lungs and the heart. Symptoms include tiring, coughing, vomiting, weight loss, difficult breathing and even sudden death. Heartworm infection in cats can be difficult to diagnose. Blood tests are available, but the results may sometimes be misleading.

Recommendations

Owners of all cats living in areas endemic for heartworms should discuss the pros and cons of preventative care with their veterinarian.

If dogs in the area receive heartworm prevention, it is likely that cats also may benefit from this protection. Heartgard for cats® and Revolution for cats® are both safe and effective products for cats only. Do NOT use your canine heartworm medicine in your cat! The drug dosing is very different between species.

Speak to your veterinarian about the need for preventative therapy, administration guidelines and when to start and stop prevention treatments. Some recommend that before beginning heartworm prevention, any cat over 7 months of age should first have a heartworm blood test.

Tick Removal

Many methods have been tried to remove ticks, many of which are not recommended. Applying a recently extinguished match or even a still lit match to the body of the tick will NOT cause the tick to back out and fall off. The mouthparts only let go when the tick has completed the meal. Also, applying fingernail polish will suffocate the tick but will not cause the tick to fall off.


The best recommendation to remove a tick is to use a tweezers or commercially available tick removal device and pull the tick off. Do not touch the tick since diseases can be transmitted. Consider wearing gloves when removing a tick.


With a tweezers or tick removal device, grab the tick as close to the head as possible. With steady, gentle pressure, pull the tick out of the skin. Frequently, pieces of skin may come off with the tick.


If the head of the tick remains in the skin, try to grab it and remove as much as possible. If you are unable to remove the entire head, don’t fret. This is not life threatening. Your pet’s immune system will try to dislodge the head by creating a site of infection or even a small abscess.

Usually no additional therapy is needed, but if you are concerned, contact your family veterinarian. There are surgical instruments that can be used to remove the remaining part of the tick.

Tick Control and Prevention

Control and prevention of ticks is extremely important in reducing the risk of disease associated with ticks. This includes removing the ticks as soon as possible and trying to prevent attachment.

Tick avoidance requires avoiding environments that harbor them. Extra care should be taken in the woods and areas with tall grass or low brushes. When traveling, be aware that certain areas of the country have a much higher incidence of ticks (i.e. the northeast). In addition, since they can be carried unknowingly from one place to another on clothing or the body, it is always possible for an individual or animal to come into contact with a tick.

Ticks may be killed by spraying, dipping, bathing, or powdering, or applying topical medications to affected individuals with appropriate tick-killing products. Tick collars or products applied topically may act to prevent attachment of new ticks and to promote detachment of ticks already attached.

There are many products on the market that control ticks. Some are over the counter; others are prescription, only available through your veterinarian. Whether one purchases an over the counter or prescription product, it is a good idea to consult your veterinarian first.

Some of the safest and most effective products that your veterinarian may recommend include topical spot-on products and certain tick collars. Topical spot-on products are generally applied on the skin between your pet's shoulders once a month. Some are effective against other parasites as well (i.e. fleas, internal parasites).Tick products for dogs should NEVER be used on cats because severe toxicity and death may occur.

Disease Transmission

Ticks are considered excellent carriers and transmitters of various diseases. Ticks within the Ixodidae (hard tick) family transmit the majority of disease. The brown dog tick and the American dog tick are the most common carriers of disease. This includes cytauxzoon, ehrlichia and Lyme disease.

Although all ticks have the potential to transmit disease, the vast majority of tick bites are disease-free. Still it is a good idea to check your pet frequently for any signs of ticks, after he or she comes back from a potential tick infested area, even if using tick prevention medications. Finding these pests and quickly removing them are important methods of controlling potential disease. The sooner ticks are removed from your pet, the less likely any disease transmission will occur.

The best method of controlling disease transmission is through a combination of tick avoidance and using tick preventative medications.

Your veterinarian can decide the best method of tick control for your pet, based on his or her risk factors (potential exposure, life-style, geographic location), and the need for any additional parasite control coverage. The advent of the many tick control medications has made tick control and prevention of disease easier and safer than ever.

Intestinal Parasites

Among the important gastrointestinal parasites of cats are roundworms (Toxocara species), hookworms (Ancylostoma tubaeforme, Ancylostoma braziliense and Uncinaria stenocephala), stomach worms (Physaloptera spp.), tapeworms (Diplylidium caninum, Taenia taeniaeformis) and microscopic parasites Coccidia, Giardia and Strongyloides species.

How Parasites Are Acquired

• Ingestion of eggs. Most infections are acquired by ingestion of microscopic eggs. This occurs when a cat licks areas where other cats have defecated, like yards, parks or grass.
• At birth. Many kittens are born with intestinal parasites (usually roundworms) that have been passed from the mother, where the parasite was in an encysted, quiet state.
• From intermediate host. Tapeworms are transmitted by an intermediate host when a cat swallows a flea or eats a rabbit.

It should be emphasized that some parasites – especially roundworms and hookworms – can also affect people, especially children. For that reason, it is essential to prevent intestinal parasites in our pets and to treat any resultant infection.

Parasitic diseases range from trivial to fatal disease. Parasites can cause severe disease in immature kittens, sick or debilitated pets, or in pets with a suppressed immune system. Younger pets often get acute disease (vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration and anemia) whereas older pets get chronic disease such as intermittent diarrhea.

What to Watch For:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Anemia
• Skin lesions
• Diagnosis

Because parasitism is easily confused with other debilitating conditions, diagnosis depends on the following:

• Medical history and physical examination, including observations of worms in the stool or vomitus.
• Fecal examination for microscopic eggs or larvae. This is the most common approach to diagnosis as most pets do not appear ill.
• CBC – Complete blood count if anemia is suspected (as with a hookworm infection) or if the pet is showing symptoms of illness.
• Other blood tests may reveal concurrent problems.

Treatment

Treatments for intestinal parasites may include one or more of the following:


Routine deworming in kittens – This is the ideal approach. All immature pets should treated at the first veterinary examination and regularly dewormed during the first year. In general, every cat less than one year of age should be given an anthelmintic (anti-parasite drug) for ascarids regardless of fecal results. This is in part to protect the environment from contamination with microscopic eggs that might infect children.


A yearly fecal check and treatment is recommended for adult pets, especially if they are not taking heartworm preventatives that would prevent development of intestinal worms.


Other treatments may include fluid therapy for debilitated pets or blood transfusion and iron supplementation (if necessary for severe blood loss as with hookworm infections).

Home Care and Prevention

At home administer any prescribed medications and follow-up with your veterinarian for examinations and repeated fecal (stool) tests as needed.

Some microscopic eggs can live in the environment (such as the yard) for weeks to months and cause re-infection. Clean up yard weekly and minimize roaming of pets in places like parks where exposure and infection are possible.

Many health care specialists recommend a fecal sample from all adult animals at least yearly, a sample at each kitten vaccination visit, and a follow up sample at the appropriate interval after the last deworming medication has been given.

With primarily outdoor cats, it may be advisable to evaluate stool samples every three to six months if risk of infection is high. One may also consider heartworm preventatives that also prevent intestinal parasites.