Just curious about tapeworm

Can both my cats and toddler get tapeworm infection from eating a dried segment or a live segment? I know they can get worms from ingesting infected fleas. Milo caught tapeworm last summer from going outdoors and his vet prescribed Drontal tabs. None of my cats have fleas. The med works great. One dose did the trick. I did not give the Drontal tabs to my 3 other cats because I thought it would be torture to feed them foreign objects. They never did catch Milo's worms. This year I'm going to strive to keep Milo indoors. Just curious.

 

They can not get them from eating the live or dried segments. They can however, get them from ingesting an infected rodent.

One of mine had them so I treated her, now a couple of other ones do too so I think I will have to treat everyone. We don't have rodents or fleas around the house, so I'm not sure how my kitties got them.

 

Thanks for the info fleafly. Where did you get your info from? If I keep Milo indoors I don't have to worry about my toddler picking up segments and eating them. He's 16 months old and loves to taste everything including cat food! Do you treat your kitties raw meat? They can get worms from ingesting poultry, fish, and red meat. I hope one dose will do the trick for your infected kitties. Milo and Venus used to get tapeworm from eating rodents. Milo always looks ragged whenever he comes home with tapeworm. Once I found a foot long tapeworm in our dining room. They must have puked it up. Hubby thought it was a dried earthworm that they dragged home. It was flat + white so I knew it was tapeworm and off to the vet they went.

 

Hi. Cats most commonly get tapeworms from licking and swallowing a flea. It only takes one little flea for your pet to get tapeworms.

 

I was talking to my vet about it b/c we don't have fleas in our area. She told me they can get them from eating rodents. She also said that if you get one or two fleas they can lay eggs in the carpet and perputuate the problem. She told me about some products to spray on the carpet to kill the fleas, I will look into them and let you know what I find.

I don't feed my animals raw meat. I don't even eat meat so they definately don't! They can get some worms from raw meat, but not tapeworms.

My vet is as puzzled as I am about how some of my cats and 1 dog got tapeworms. She has never seen anyone in town with fleas. Around here they are only out of town in the prairie dog holes. I guess the cats could have caught a mouse that I didn't see, but that still doesn't explain how the dog got them! Oh well, some mysteries can't be explained....

 

How are your kitties fleafly? I've just been to the vet and updated Milo's vaccinations. We're going to let him out after all. It's either let him out or he'll destroy all our doors that lead to the outside. He was out for one hour today and came home very happy.

The vet told me that both humans and cats can get tapeworm infestation from eating live and dried tapeworm segments. If this is true I have to keep an eye out for all my babies.