Ugh, GROSS! Tapeworms!

[MaggieTheCat]

You all remember Malachi, right?

He's got tapeworms. Well, we're pretty sure it's tapeworms. I was petting him earlier and when I reached his butt, I pulled my hand away and there was something small, white, and MOVING on my finger (it looked like a wiggling grain of rice.) Our vet said likely tapeworms. We're bringing in a stool sample tomorrow to have a fecal test run, just to be sure he doesn't have anything else.

This is very frustrating! A week after we got Malachi, Ash got sick with an unspecified stomach/intestinal infection. A week after that, Malachi himself got the same thing. Vet thought that Malachi had brought a little virus with him when we brought him home, Ash caught it, then passed it back to Malachi. Now it seems likely that Malachi has had worms all along. We did do a fecal exam for him when we got him and it was negative. But the vet said that if the worms were in their early development and just eggs/larvae they may not have shown up on the exam.

I am squicked out...and pretty annoyed with the shelter/foster we got Malachi from.

[Sapphire Silk]

It may not have been the vet/shelter's fault if the worms were in an undetectable stage.

Hope all turns out well with Malachi with his deworming

[MaggieTheCat]

It may not have been the vet/shelter's fault if the worms were in an undetectable stage.

Hope all turns out well with Malachi with his deworming

This is true. I'm still upset. I did send an email to one of the girls we met at the shelter to give her a heads up about the situation. I wasn't mean about it but I did express that I was frustrated. And at the very least, the person who was fostering Malachi should probably know about it in case her other cats have or get worms.

[BlaqueKatt]

normally feline tapeworms have the intermediary host of mice or fleas.