Tape Worm Tabs (Praziquantel)?

Question

I'm watching my ex-neighbors 2 cats until she can find a new place to live with them. They were quarantined for the 1st 10 days they were here. 3 days after I let them out into the rest of the house she told me "Oh, by the way, I think they have worms". I had checked the litterbox many times just in case & saw nothing, but once she said that I immediately bought some wormer & dosed them and my own 4 cats up.

Still nothing in the litterboxes but I've noticed "rice" hanging around their butt hairs & "sesame seeds" on their bedding. This is both of her cats & 2 of my 4 cats!! After researching I found these are tapeworms & I'd been treating for roundworms.

I just gave them all Tape Worm Tabs ($53 dollars for 6 pills!)
1.) Do Tape Worm Tabs start working intsantly?
2.) How will I know when the worms are gone, other than not seeing the "rice" & "sesame seeds" anymore?
3.) How did my cats get it? From the litterboxes? There are absolutely no fleas, however 1 of my neighbors cats got out & was gone for 3 days about a month before she brought them here. She must've picked them up then.
4.) I've got 7 litterboxes that I just dump, clean & refill once a week. Should I cut down to 1 box & dump it every day for the next week or so (or however long it takes TWT to work)? I've got asthma & it gets really bad if I scoop every day, so that's why I do the once-a-week dump-them-all method.
5.) Anything else I didn't ask but need to know?

Thanks!

Answer 1

1.) The Tape Worm tabs can take up to 48 hours to completely flush out their system. At this time your cats may have diarrhea or trouble going to the bathroom.



2.) You will just have to check the fur around their butts and check their beds periodically and make sure to wash EVERYTHING.



3.) Cats can get a lot of different parasites from each other and this DEFINITELY includes worms! If they sleep on the same beds or walk on the same floor, they could drop the worm eggs and the other cats can trap them in their fur and voila, you have worms.



4.) Go ahead and stick to your normal routine...this shouldn't make a difference...just keep watching for worm eggs and "rice".



5.) Just make sure they are eating and drinking and having plenty of rest. If you see diarrhea in their litter box in the first 48 hours, don't worry...this is a side affect.



I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Keep dumping the litter boxes, and then rinse them with bleach! Be sure to get up under the rim of the box. And for the chair, kitty condo, etc. Mix yourself a solution of bleach and water (10% bleach) and spray everything. Wash all of the bedding in hot water, and bleach as well. That will kill any tiny egg sacks that you don't see. The "good" thing about tapeworm though is that their egg sacks are pretty visible. Lysol won't kill them, though, you need bleach. I would suggest worming them all again in two weeks - they worms have a two week life cycle of egg to worm, so any that this treatment missed you need to catch in two weeks.



The medication kills the worms when ingested, so you may see some dead things in the litter box, or you may not. If you're not seeing fleas, then your cats most definitely got them from the shared litter box. Still, I'd treat for fleas also (with a safe product like Frontline - nothing by Hartz, Zodiac, etc) just as an added precaution - you want these things dead and gone, and they can be very stubborn to get rid of if they build up in a cat's system.

Answer 3

A single flea swallowed by the cat could cause the worms..even YOU can carry fleas in on your clothing that they may have ingested. No need to go crazy with lysol..just deworm the cats, and treat them all for fleas and you should solve the problem. Use something like Advantage or Frontline so if any more fleas get on them they will die quickly. Also, worming is done once, than repeated in 4 weeks..NOT 2 weeks.