The sad part about owning a cat is that sometimes they will become unwell. One of the most common illnesses with cats are intestinal parasites. This is because typically, your little feline friend will frequent the outdoors.
When we go outside, we risk the wrath of the elements and things that live outside – this is no exception when it comes to cats.
The fact is though, cats are at a much higher risk of intestinal worms and other internal parasites than we are.
So, if your feline friend does contract cat worms – what are you meant to do? This guide will help you out. We’re going to look at how cats might get worms, what this means and how you should clean your house when it happens.
How Did My Cat Get Worms?
Before we continue, it’s best that we understand how your cat might have contracted intestinal worms, but also what these worms are.
What you may not have known is that there are a wide variety of worms such as lungworms, roundworms, tapeworms and hookworms. How you clean your house might depend on the type of worm your cat has contracted.
Cats can get worms in a load of different ways. They might get them from their mother’s milk when they are little kittens, from their prey such as birds or mice and even through eating snails or plants.
They can also get worms by eating fleas that are infected with worm eggs because the fleas act as intermediary hosts.
However your cat has got worms, dealing with these internal parasites and expelling worm infestations is a critical priority. If you notice your cat is showing symptoms of worms, you need to speak with a vet as soon as possible.
These symptoms include:
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Weight loss
Rough coat appearance
Tiredness and no energy
Lack of breath
Coughing
Scratching their butt on the rug or carpet
Prevention And Treatment
Your vet will normally be able to prescribe medicine for your cat which comes in the form of a gel, powder or liquid, depending on what the vet thinks is best for your kitty.
It’s important that you try to avoid worms by getting your cat wormed and de-flead regularly with your vet. You should set up a check-up schedule with your vet every 4 months to be safe.
If you’re worried about the costs, you can speak with your vet about getting the best pet insurance to cover regular check-ups.
Why It’s Important To Clean Your Home
Worms can actually be transferred over to humans including the roundworm and tapeworm. This is usually through cat poop which has been left in their litter box or outside transferring over the human.
There is also the possibility that, even if worms do not develop into adult worms, the larvae can pass through a human body and detrimentally affect the brain, the liver, the kidneys and the eyes to cause blindness. This is known as toxocara.
Therefore, it’s critical that you exercise good hygiene and keep up with the cleaning routine. Here’s the best things to do.
Cleaning The House When Your Cat Has Worms
Here’s our step-by-step guide for what to do when your cat has worms to ensure a clean and safe home. Before you begin any of these steps, ensure you are properly protected with rubber gloves, a mask and goggles if possible.
Also ensure you have garbage bags and hand wash readily available for your hands and regularly utilize it during the processes.
Identify And Remove The Source(s)
Knowing the potential source of these worms is important so that you can stop them returning. So, the first thing to do is to remove any potential sources.
As fleas can be a source, you’ll want to get your cat de-flead and wormed and then use the vacuum cleaner around your home to remove any leftover fleas or eggs.
You’ll also want to clean the cat’s litter box and remove any feces that may be present. After doing so, make sure that it is disposed of securely so that nobody else can accidentally touch it and deep clean your cat’s litter tray.
Use normal liquid soap and hot water for this and then thoroughly rinse it through and simply air-dry it.
Thorough Internal Deep Clean
After you’ve got rid of potential returning worms, you’ll now need to clean up areas where larvae, worms or leftover sources (like fleas) might be. Before you do so though, ensure the cat is not in the house. Ideally, the only person in the house will be you.
Your cat is likely to have wandered all around your home, so it’s important that you clean everywhere. The best way to clean your home is always top-to-bottom, so begin with cleaning the surfaces.
Use a powerful kitchen and bathroom cleaning product that is safe around cats (most are, but be aware that any product with a citrus smell will be upsetting to your cat, so avoid those).
Scrub the surfaces with a tough sponge and finish it off with a soft cloth and hot water. Ensure you’ve cleaned everything that you can!
Next, move onto the lower areas and then the floor. Most stores sell carpet cleaner, which can travel deep into your carpets and kill off any harmful bacteria and potential worms. Empty your vacuum and then vacuum the entire house.
Once you’ve done this, go outside to empty the bag or filter into a garbage bag and finally, dispose of your protective gear into the garbage bag and dispose of this safely.
Use hand-wash outside before going back inside and then take a long shower!
Protecting The Outdoors
Check your yard for signs of cat poop or potential places as a source for worms.Tidy your yard, if required, and keep the lawn short. Remove any potential areas that can gather water unnecessarily (such as open buckets).
This step may not apply to all cat owners.
The Bottom Line
Preventing worms is the best thing you can do instead of cleaning your home, so ensure your cat is visiting the vet regularly. However, keeping with a good hygiene plan is important too. Just ensure you’re doing this safely!
I’m Courtney Trent and I hope that I can answer some burning questions that you have about cats, as well as some questions that you’d never have thought to ask before.
I am aiming to shed new light on these amazing pets and hopefully change some people’s opinions on them. Also, let’s talk about wild cats - they’re just as awesome as domestic cats!
So, stay a while and learn more about domestic and wild cats from Windhaven Ocicats.
