Written by Douglas Mefford in Cats
Viewed by 283 readers since 03-11-2009

Even in the most carefully maintained environment the chances are your cat will contract one or more of the internal worm parasites. Whether hookworm, whipworm, tapeworm or roundworm, these creatures can rob your cat of its vital nutrients and eventually its life. One should routinely check on their pet cat for signs of an infestation so as to be able to treat it quickly.

The usual first choice among pet owners is to either take the cat to the veterinarian for medicine or purchase one of the over-the-counter deworming treatments available. With these medications you must determine which type of worm needs to be eliminated and be careful to give proper dosages. Not all deworming treatments will eliminate all the worms. Only tapeworms can be killed off with a single treatment. The other varieties have intermediate life stages and will need at least a second treatment some weeks later and whipworms will require routine dosing of your cat for as long as three months.

Several of the overt symptoms to be on the lookout for include a bloated stomach, loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea for roundworms. Hookworms attach themselves to the intestinal linings and feed on blood. As they “hook” onto the tissues they inject an anti-coagulant that can cause the cat to have partiality-digested blood in their stool. They will also develop anemia, lose weight and exhibit poor hair condition. The usual method for spotting a tapeworm infestation is through the visual spotting of worm segments in either the stool or in vomit the cat has thrown up to rid itself of a mass of worm parts.

There are some dangers in using these chemical deworming treatments. Overdosing can add more complications to your cat’s existing health problems. None of them are safe for use on pregnant cats or young kittens. This is especially bad for newborn kittens as they all are generally born with at least one type of worm. Some of the common chemicals used to deworm cats can be toxic to dogs as well as humans.

One does not have to exclusively use these chemical dewormers to treat their cats. A highly effective natural deworming treatment used globally is through the application of neem oil or powder. The neem tree (Azadirachta indica) grows primarily in India, Pakistan, Myanmer and Bangladesh. A proven flea treatment, the ingestion of a mixture of neem powder and olive oil will quickly eliminate all internal parasites from your pet. An added benefit of using neem powder is that it is equally effective in eliminating the internal parasites humans that eat meat will inevitably suffer from. Neem powder in olive oil is safe for use on even newborn kittens. It is best rubbed onto their fur so that, by licking them clean, the mother cat will ingest it and pass the deworming agent through her milk.

While parasitic worms are a prevalent health hazard to your pet, the treatments are also widespread and there should be no reason your pet must suffer these unwanted intruders for long.