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Tapeworms
Dear Dr. Berg,
My cat had what I thought were little white worms in her
litter box so I called my vet. He asked
me to bring in a stool sample to check, but he said the test was
“negative”. He still gave me some pills
to treat my cat. What am I seeing in the
litter box if it’s not worms?
D. B.,Bear
Dear D. B.,
Most likely, you were seeing were tapeworm segments, which
normally appear as small flat segments within the stool or as flat segments
adhered to hairs near a cat’s rectal area.
The entire tapeworm is actually a long chain of flat seed-like segments
with a tiny head that attaches itself to the intestinal wall. Segments will drop off individually or in
groups and can appear in the bowel movements or attached to the hair that
surround the rectum.
Most veterinarians use a test called the “fecal float test”
to detect worm eggs in an animal’s feces.
A small amount of stool (about ½ teaspoon…no margarine tubs full,
please!) is mixed with a special solution in a small plastic vial, then a
coverslip placed on top of the fluid.
The solution is allowed to settle for about 10-20 minutes, during which
time any eggs present in the sample will tend to concentrate on the top layer
of fluid. The coverslip, with some of
this top egg-containing layer adhering to it, is carefully placed on a
microscope slide then examined under the microscope. Though the eggs are too small to be seen with
the naked eye, they can be seen using usually 40-100 power under the
microscope.
While no laboratory test is 100% accurate, the fecal float
test works fairly well to detect worms, especially if the adult worms (which
usually stay inside the intestinal tract) are shedding a sufficient quantity of
microscopic eggs. Three out of four of the
major types of intestinal worm eggs will float quite well using this procedure,
but the tapeworm eggs often do NOT float well so will not be detected. So if your veterinarian tells you that the
fecal test is “negative”, yet you are still seeing worms, chances are they may
be tapeworms.
As a preventative measure, we recommend a yearly fecal exam
be done on pets to check for worm eggs.
It is also worth noting that many types of heartworm preventative
contain compounds that will tend to protect your dog or cat against becoming
infected with worms in the first place.
As a responsible dog or cat owner who regularly cleans up
behind their pet, an owner will usually visibly detect tapeworms in the stool
when they are present. Those tiny white
“cucumber seeds that wiggle” are pretty hard for most people to ignore.
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