On Apr 14, 6:41*am, "Wendy" wrote:
"balikitty" wrote in message

...
On Apr 12, 10:27 am, Cat Guy wrote:

We recently gave one of our cats a deworming pill (milbemax) and later
found a worm (sorta looked like a tan-colored rubber band) in a pile
of vomit.

I thought that tape worms reside or attach to the intestinal wall (and
not the stomach wall) and therefore when the worm leaves the cat it's
by way of the stool.

So is it normal, or unusual, for the worm to be vomited out?

If you are seeing an actual worm when the cat regurgitates food, the
cat can ingest the worm while grooming. Tape worms look exactly like
rice. If it is a roundworm, which will be visible in vomit, its more
spaghetti-like. Before the cat is infested this bad with worms , your
pet will be obviously ill. *It will be hard to actually see a tape
worm that has been ingested and comes back up in vomit. The likely way
your cat can actually do this with a tape worm, it will be ingested
and thrown up immediately. *If this happens again. Take the worm to
your vet, they can identify under a microscope. You will have to do
this fairly soon, as the worm will dry up.

They won't need a microscope to identify the tape worm that the cat barfed
up. You'll never mistake one of them for round worms. I also have had a cat
barf up a tape worm. We took it to the vet where they confirmed the
identification and finally issued the meds that we had been requesting they
give us for weeks. The rice you've seen are tapeworm segments that are shed.
The cat cannot get a tapeworm from ingesting the segments. The cat must
ingest the intermediary host (flea or rodent) in order to acquire a tape
worm.

W

Im not saying anyone will mistake it for a roundworm. i dont think
what she is seeing is a worm at all. I am a licensed vet tech for 18
years. Trust me on this. thanks.