Beaphar

worms

Internal parasites: worms
A pet’s owner can sometimes be shocked when their animal turns out to have parasites. The presence of a few fleas, or worse, a tapeworm segment, in an otherwise clean household can be a cause of consternation. Even if a pet owner looks after their pet’s hygiene well, worm infections can still occur. Pet owners might spot one cm long “maggots” or things resembling rice grains in their pet’s faeces. These are little parts of a tapeworm that have come off inside the pet. Roundworms also frequently pay a “visit” to pets, and can be seen in vomit or faeces, resembling a long, thin white, yellow or red string. Worms can cause problems for both man and animal. Beaphar has developed modern medicines, however, that are very effective: with the proper amount of care and attention, worms do not have to be a problem.
Which worms are dangerous to your pet?

Roundworms
Roundworms look like very thin earth worms (or thin spaghetti or rubber bands). Their colour varies from white to pink-brown, depending on your pet’s diet.

A roundworm’s lifecycle is quite simple: they are transmitted directly from cat to cat. Mature worms can be found in the stomach and small intestine, where they feed on partially digested food. Fully-grown roundworms will start to pass thousands of little eggs, invisible to the naked eye. These eggs are excreted along with the cat’s faeces. They have sticky shells, which adhere to the fur of a passing cat and are swallowed again when the cat is cleaning its fur. Swallowed eggs will end up in the stomach where they develop into microscopically small larvae. In adult cats, the larvae will move into the cat’s blood circulatory system and be carried to the muscle tissue, where they become trapped in tiny cysts. They will hardly do any damage here. However, in kittens or pregnant cats, the larvae will move first to the liver and then to the lungs, from where they are coughed up and swallowed again, maturing in the stomach and completing the cycle.

Tapeworms
Tapeworms are more often encountered in adult cats than kittens because of the way they are transmitted. The most common cat tapeworm is spread mainly by fleas (the intermediate host). Kittens are not as adept at cleaning fleas from their coats, and mother will swallow fleas when cleaning her kittens. This would also explain why cats may also suffer from tapeworms more often than dogs. Cats are more adept at catching fleas with their smaller incisor teeth than dogs.

A tapeworm consists of a series of independent segments that are connected in a similar way to train coaches, ending with a sharp hook, the “head” that latches onto the intestinal wall. A tapeworm can grow to more than 3ft. in size, and it is quite possible for several tapeworms to establish themselves in a single cat.
Tapeworms never spread directly from one cat to another, but through a so-called intermediate host. This can be a mouse or a rabbit for one type of worm, but in cities, fleas are the main culprit. When the matured segments are excreted by the cat, they contain thousands of microscopically small eggs. The segments dry up and crack, releasing the eggs. These are scattered around in the environment, eventually being eaten by intermediate hosts. The eggs hatch in the intermediate host, form new larvae, and when the mouse or flea is eaten by the cat, the cycle is completed. The larvae develop into new tapeworms in the intestines of the host; your cat.