[whathousework?]

I'm doing some work at a cattery over Christmas and this morning one of the cats vomited a tapeworm It was about 20cm long and looked like an undigested piece of cooked fettuccine. I've always had cats, but worm them regularly so have only ever seen the tiny segments in their poop occasionally. How bad is the infestation if the cat is throwing up a tapeworm this size? How long would it have been growing in there for?

[*Spikey*]

Dr Google suggests that it takes 2-3 weeks for a tapeworm to reach maturity in a cat.

I'd suggest a worming treatment that is tapeworm specific, and also a flea treatment as flea larvae apparently eat the eggs and then get ingested by the cat. The other way they get it is from eating rodents that are infested with tapeworm (and yet another reason for keeping your cat inside in my view - eeeeewwww).

Apparently they aren't particularly harmful - other than of course affecting the cat's nutrition and potentially causing a blockage if they're are too many.

[SarahM72]

My God. This thread title had everything I needed to know. Yet I was still stupid enough to open it when I was eating.

[whathousework?]

Lol