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Butt-Scooting Boogie: If your cat or dog scoots across the carpet to scratch his butt, start suspecting worms. Or if he eats like a pig and still loses weight, or has digestive difficulties, or has a hard belly, or coughs a lot, or has “rice” looking things in his stools or vomit, suspect worms. Diagnosis: Rather than guessing, we’d advise you to see your vet for a real diagnosis. Call ahead. Your vet will need a stool sample to search for worm eggs. Human Cat Roundworms: Cats get roundworms from eating rodents, worms, and roaches. They also get them from grooming other cats and kittens. Roundworms occur in 35% to 85% of adult cats and 60% of the kittens. Dog Roundworms: Dogs get roundworms by eating rodents or fecal material (stupid dogs). Puppies get roundworms from their mother’s milk. Forty to 50% of some dog populations carry roundworms. Cat Hookworms: Since a female hookworm can lay 10,000 eggs daily, it’s no wonder that some estimates say 80% of all cats have hookworms. Most cats get hookworms by eating critters with hookworms. Hookworms can also burrow into their skin. Kittens get hookworms from their mother’s milk. Dog Hookworms: Ditto for dogs except the infection rate runs about 35%. One pup can pass 5,000,000 hookworm eggs per day. Dog Whipworms: About 15% of dogs carry these guys. They get them by eating feces (stupid dogs). Whipworm eggs can live in kennels for five years. Cat Tapeworms: Flea larvae eat tapeworm eggs. The mature flea hops on to your cat and irritates it. Your cat bites and swallows the flea. The tapeworms start invading your cat. Dog Tapeworms: Surveys indicate 65% of city dogs carry tapeworms. They don’t bother dogs much – except for the butt-scooting boogie. They are a bigger threat to sheep. By the way, if YOU eat a flea, you could get one or more of these tapeworms. Do not eat fleas. Cat Lungworms: We’re looking at a 40% infection rate in some cat populations. Lungworms live in the cat’s lungs, get coughed up and swallowed, then get excreted in their feces. Slugs and snails eat the larvae. Rodents, lizards, frogs, and birds eat the slugs and snails. Cats eat them and the cycle starts all over again. Dog Heartworms: Next time you put your dog out on a warm summer night, think about heartworms. Mosquitos snack on an infected dog and suck out baby heartworms (microfilaria). The next dog they snack on gets a free dose of heartworms. These skinny worms live in the dog’s heart and eventually may grow as long as a foot. Obviously, a worm that big starts plugging up the plumbing. Your dog will start coughing, get even lazier, and develop a protruding belly. Get him to the vet fast. Your vet will give him a bit of arsenic to bump off the current infection. Then he’ll fix you up with a preventive to use during the warm mosquito months. Cat Heartworms: Outdoor cats seem to develop a resistance to them. One adult heartworm can kill an indoor cat. If your indoor cat gets heartworms, it will probably die. Human Heartworms: We can get microfilaria from mosquitoes but they don’t mature in humans. Indoor Pets: Indoor cats
and dogs live three times longer than outdoor pets.
Keep yours inside. Also,
have you given up kissing your pet yet? Wash your lips before you
kiss me. LA.
Julie Ugarte, Hicksville, NY, October 19, 2007
I am writing to you about your website & the information on Worms that Infest Our Cats and Dogs
You should really do more research
before posting false information. You wrote "If
your indoor cat gets heartworms, it will probably die" This is so
untrue. I have an indoor cat who survived heartworm disease & if
symptoms treated early, the cat has just as much of a chance of
leading a normal life. Someone researching their pet's heartworm
could read that and panic. It is very misleading.
A: As far as I know the info on that page was correct when I wrote it in 2000. Seven years have flown by since then and probably vet techniques have improved. I did have a vet proof the copy. I'm adding your report to the page. LA
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