12/08/2021
Both the photos in this post are of tapeworms that came out of a cat! 🙀
The left hand side photo are tapeworms expelled from a recently wormed cat, and the right hand side is a photo of a tapeworm segment moving around a cat's bottom - ewwwww! 🤢
Tapeworms are long, flat, segmented worms that are common in most mammals (including cats)
The most common species of tapeworm seen in cats are:
🪱Dipylidiym caninum
🪱Taenia taeniaeformis
🤢Adult tapeworms live in the small intestine of cats, attaching themselves to the intestinal mucosa with their hooked mouthparts, which they use to take up nutrients from the gut
🤢Here, segments of tapeworms full of eggs break off and are then passed out in the cat's faeces - this is when cat owners may see 'moving grains of rice' around their cat's bottom 🙀
🤢Some tapeworms (Dipylidiym caninum) are passed onto cats via fleas. This is because the intermediate host for tapeworm is the flea, meaning that the flea is a necessary part of the tapeworm life cycle
🤢Affected cats ingest fleas when they groom, which then infectes the cat with tapeworm larvae. These take 2-3 weeks to mature into adult tapeworms
🤢This is why cats with flea infestations should be wormed too, as they will likely have tapeworms as well as fleas
🤢Another type of tapeworm (Taenia taeniaeformis) is more likely to affect cats that hunt and eat rodents such as mice and rats, as they are the intermediate host for this type of tapeworm. This is why regular worming of cats that are prolific hunters is so important
Has your cat been wormed recently? 🤔
👍Speak to your veterinary team for advice, as heavy worm burdens can cause poor health and gut obstructions - treatment is easy
References:
Beugnet, F., Labuschagne, M., Fourie, J., Jacques, G., Farkas, R., Cozma, V., Halos, L., Hellmann, K., Knaus, M. and Rehbein, S., 2014. Occurrence of Dipylidium caninum in fleas from client-owned cats and dogs in Europe using a new PCR detection assay. Veterinary Parasitology, 205(1-2), pp.300-306.
Icatcare.org. 2021. Worming your cat | International Cat Care. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 July 2021].