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Posts Tagged ‘Kittens’

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Dr Barchas,

Salma

You started your question by mentioning that you’d already searched my website. That’s a surefire way to get your question to the head of the line.

Tapeworms are common and disgusting intestinal parasites of cats and dogs. However, they are not terribly pathogenic. This means that although they are bad for the health of their hosts, tapeworms rarely cause overt disease.

The most common tapeworm in cats (and dogs) is spread by fleas. The tapeworms are not directly contagious. As long as no fleas infest the cats in the house, the tapeworms should not spread. The key to controlling the problem is to use a good flea preventative in all of the cats who aren’t pregnant . . . and possibly the one who is (more on this below).

Prescription tapeworm treatments are generally pretty safe. So are high quality flea preventatives. However, it is best to avoid medications during pregnancy. In an ideal world, no cat would ever need medicine while pregnant. In your case, one must weigh the risks against the benefits.

The safe use of tapeworm medicines and flea preventatives during pregnancy has not been established. However, neither praziquantel (the most commonly prescribed tapeworm medicine) nor any high quality flea preventative is a documented teratogen (a compound known to affect fetal development). If you use the medicines, the kittens will probably be fine. This is especially true during the last trimester of pregnancy (the last 21 days), which is not that far off.

Try to keep your house flea-free. Use a high quality flea preventative on all of the non pregnant cats in the house. If I were in your situation, I would also apply the same sort of medicine to the pregnant cat. However, you must accept the very remote risk that flea preventatives could cause harm to the kittens.

Likewise, I would treat the pregnant cat for tapeworms. This may (but almost certainly won’t) lead to problems in the kittens. Tapeworms are only mildly pathogenic. But they are pathogenic.

I believe that the benefits of flea and tapeworm treatment outweigh the risks in your situation. But it is not an open-and-shut case.

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The Nesseth family’s faithful Australian Shepherd, Lakota, made it her duty to care for four kittens when their mother, 1-year-old black cat Velvet, was hit and killed by a car.

A while back I answered a question from a reader who wondered whether kittens from the same litter could have different fathers. The answer was yes. I also stated that human twins could, in the proper circumstances, be half-siblings.

From the May 29, 2009 issue of The Week:

[It was a good week for] ‘Heteropaternal superfecundation,’ after Mia Washington of Texas entered the biology textbooks because a DNA test revealed that her 11-month-old twins have different fathers. She admitted to have been sleeping with two men when they were conceived.

If you love dogs, you’ll love MyAwesomePet.com. My Awesome Pet is the number one social site for pet lovers. Their pet friendly community is like a "My Space" for pets. Create a free profile for you and your pet. Post lots of pictures, pet videos, read their professional articles and blogs.

The Nesseth family’s faithful Australian Shepherd, Lakota, made it her duty to care for four kittens when their mother, 1-year-old black cat Velvet, was hit and killed by a car.