Cat Deworming

Cat deworming agents or drugs are poisonous to the worm and less poisonous to the cat but they are still poisons. Care needs to be exercised.

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Kittens

It appears that the general advice here is to have a good veterinarian check your kitten or kittens stool for worms as "a very large proportion of kittens are infested with ascarids"...but it cannot be assumed that the infestation is limited to ascarids. Certain deworming drugs are ineffective against certain worms so a proper diagnosis needs to be made at the outset. Ascarids are roundworms.

Kittens should be healthy and unstressed before administering deworming drugs - i.e. no diarrhea or signs of illness.

Kittens infested with roundworms should be treated at 2 - 3 weeks of age and at 5 - 6 weeks of age and beyond if still present. Treatments should be vet supervised in my opinion as kittens are too vulnerable.

Sid - he had worms and died of an unspecified illness - photo by rore

Adult Cats

The general modus operandi is to deworm when when worms are present and not as a precaution. Diagnosis is through inspection of the cat's stool through a microscope.

Any underlying illness or undiagnosed illness is best treated and resolved before deworming.

Outdoor cats should be checked yearly or automatically treated as a precaution. Tapeworms need more frequent treatment.

Breeding mothers should be dewormed before breeding.

Medications

Please see a vet first. Where a worm is not listed the drug is not effective for that worm.

Epsiprantel - effective for tapeworms.

Fenbendazole - Effective for ascarids, hookworm and tapeworm.

Invermectin - prevents heartworm, good for hookworm.

Milbemycin oxime - effective for roundworm and hookworm, prevents heartworm.

Piperazine - effective for roundworm.

Praziquantal - for tapeworm.

Praziquantel with pyrantel - for roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm.

Pyrantel pamoate - for roundworm and hookworm.

Selamectin - as for Pyrantel pamoate.

See cat parasites and cat cough and cat heartworm and "Cat has a bug that looks like rice coming out of butt"and kitten health.



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