On Apr 14, 3:54 am, balikitty wrote:
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.

Tapeworms MUST go through an intermediate host before developing to an
adult in the small intestine. Usually in household situations, flea
larvae are the culprit. Control your fleas and you control your
tapeworms. There is absolutely no way that an animal who ingests one
of the rice looking packets will develop adults from it.
Also, you can keep the worm in a ziplock with a tiny bit of saline
solution to preserve it long enough for the vet to check it out.
Roundworms will cause a general ill look to an animal with them, but
tapeworms often do not present with any signs aside from the detached
proglottids (the rice things) in the stool.
Be very careful handling the tapeworm segments, there are some species
out there (though the likelihood is extremely low) that it could be a
type that the human is the intermediate host, which can be very
dangerous.
Just be sure to wash your hands very well.