Can a person become infected with worms from a cat: how and what kind

Pets, cats and dogs, bring not only joy to the family, but also problems, in particular the danger of infection with parasites. Can a person get worms from a cat? - It definitely can.

Even if your pet does not leave the apartment, she can still become infected with worms, and the first person to receive such a “gift” from her will be your child. Let's figure out which worms affect cats and which of them are transmitted to humans.

What to do in such a situation? To get started, we recommend reading this article. This article describes in detail methods of controlling parasites. We also recommend that you consult a specialist. Read the article >>>

What worms do cats get?

In warm-blooded creatures, which includes us and cats, scientists have counted more than 250 varieties of parasites, but a cat can infect us with only a dozen helminths, which, however, pose a danger to the human body.

Here are just some of the types of helminths that can parasitize a cat’s body:

Lungworms, which form cysts in the animal’s lungs, leading to the destruction of the lungs; infection occurs from open water sources and by eating crustaceans - crayfish, mollusks, crabs;
Liver fluke, parasitizing the liver, sometimes the gallbladder and pancreas; infection through raw fish;
Wide tape. Capable of growing up to 1.5 m, and for humans – up to 12 m; infection through river water, raw fish and crustaceans;
Cucumber tapeworm, which attacks the intestinal wall with its sharp hooks; infection occurs through carriers - small parasites (fleas, lice eaters);
Pathogens of alveococcosis, not dangerous for cats, but deadly for humans due to the possibility of liver tumors and metastases in internal organs; infection occurs through eaten rodents;
Toxocara, which usually affects the intestines of animals and is especially dangerous for kittens; cause damage to vital organs in humans;
Hookworms affecting the intestinal walls of cats; not dangerous to humans.

Infection of cats with helminths occurs in different ways:

When eating small rodents (mice, rats);
Through egg carriers - fleas and flies;
Through raw fish and meat infected with helminth eggs;
On a walk, since worm eggs are found everywhere - in the soil, in puddles, in the grass, in the sand;
Through contact with street cats;
Licking your fur, which contains worm eggs;
Through your feces.

Diagnostic features

Only a veterinarian can establish or refute the final diagnosis. During diagnosis, an analysis for enterobiasis is carried out; for this, feces or blood of the animal can be taken. If worm eggs are found in stool tests, the veterinarian will determine that the animal actually has parasites.

Interesting! Sometimes a kitten becomes infected with worms, but the mother's stool test for helminths may be negative. In this case, the parasites could enter the body through mother's milk.

What worms can a person get infected from a cat?

Helminthic infestations are varied in nature, but it is important to remember that any helminth that parasitizes the body of a cat or a person deprives it of nutrients, poisons it with the toxins it secretes, and ultimately causes significant and sometimes irreparable damage, some even fatal.

A person can become infected with many types of parasites in other ways, but this often happens through contact with a pet and caring for it.

The most common types of worms that are transmitted to humans from cats belong to the classes of nematodes - roundworms and cestodes - tapeworms.

Roundworms (nematodes)

Tapeworms (cestodes)

Representatives of roundworms that are most often transmitted from cats to humans are roundworms, pinworms and toxocara. In the course of their life activity, these helminths damage the intestinal walls, often causing bleeding and, as a result, anemia; there are problems with bowel function (diarrhea/constipation); Allergic reactions may occur.

Tapeworms - cestodes include echinococcus and various types of tapeworms (bovine, pork, cucumber), which enter the animal's body when eating contaminated meat.

In humans, echinococcus causes the formation of multiple cysts in various organs, resulting in their dysfunction; pose a danger due to the possibility of perforation. Tapeworms in the human body can reach enormous sizes: for example, bovine tapeworm - up to 10-12 m or more.

Cat parasites that can be transmitted to humans include protozoa - single-celled microorganisms that cause serious diseases:

Toxoplasmosis, which is particularly dangerous for pregnant women (due to possible damage to the fetus) and for children;
Giardiasis, which affects the intestines and liver;
Cryptosporidiosis, which causes extremely painful symptoms in the intestines;
Tularemia, which affects the lymph nodes and causes an inflammatory process;
Leptospirosis, an acute infectious disease.

And this is not a complete list of diseases caused by helminths and protozoa.

Take a test for worms

Treatment methods

If symptoms of helminthic infestation appear, you should immediately consult a doctor and get tested. The veterinarian will order stool, blood, and possibly urine tests. After receiving the test results and determining the type of infestation, medications will be prescribed to expel the parasites.

Antihelminthic drugs are used as the main therapy. Most often, the principle of their action is based on the effect on the muscles of the worm. As a result of paralysis of all muscles, the parasite dies, and its remains are excreted from the body. For this, doctors prescribe additional drugs from the group of sorbents. He may also prescribe medications to restore the functioning of the digestive tract. Antihistamines are used as symptomatic therapy (for allergic manifestations).

Traditional medicine recommends consuming bitter vegetables to treat helminthic infestations (garlic, which contains substances that many types of worms cannot tolerate, helps well), and decoctions of herbs containing a large amount of bitterness (wormwood, tansy). Such remedies should be taken with caution, since the herbs are toxic not only to parasites, but also to the human body.

How are worms transmitted from cats to humans?

The eggs of many worms are characterized by high viability, which they are able to maintain for quite a long time in the external environment: in water, soil, sand, grass. Cats walking outside will inevitably “pick up” these eggs, become infected with worms themselves and infect their owners.

But even if the cat does not leave the apartment, it can become infected with worm eggs that are carried by the wind or that we bring on the soles of our outdoor shoes, and finally, through raw fish and animal meat. As you can see, it is almost impossible to avoid infection with worms, and this means danger for the owners.

Cats are very clean animals, they constantly lick themselves, but this only increases the risk of infection: eggs caught on the fur, when licked, directly enter its oral cavity, and then into the gastrointestinal tract, where they develop into sexually mature helminths capable of laying eggs, and in gigantic quantities, hundreds and thousands.

Thus, any contact with a cat contributes to the transmission of helminth eggs to humans: when we stroke it, kiss it, allow it to lick itself, clean the cat litter, and even just sit on the sofa or chair where the cat was lying before.

Can a child NOT become infected with worms under such conditions? Of course not, because children adore cats, love to play with them, and after that, as a rule, they do not wash their hands.

Failure to comply with personal hygiene rules is one of the main causes of helminthiasis infection, but it is impossible to imagine that all the inhabitants of an apartment thoroughly wash their hands with soap every minute. However, there are preventative methods to prevent infestation of worms from cats.

Find medications for parasites

This service is a small help in finding cures for parasites. To start using it, select the type of parasite. If you don’t know what kind of parasite you are infected with, this parasite identification tool will help you by symptoms.

Carrot enema

If you don’t like giving your pet various decoctions and tinctures that he doesn’t like, then you can use this effective folk remedy. Its beauty lies in the fact that just one procedure will be enough to completely get rid of annoying parasites. Although this is only possible if you have prepared the enema composition correctly:

Take a few fresh carrots and wash them thoroughly.
Chop the product on a fine grater and squeeze out the juice thoroughly.
Dilute 15 milliliters of carrot juice with 10 milliliters of water.

This composition is suitable for use on individuals whose weight ranges from 3 to 5 kilograms. For larger individuals, you will have to add another 5 milliliters of juice for each extra kilogram. The course of therapy should not exceed seven days, but if the owner of the animal does everything correctly, he will see parasites after the first bowel movement of his cat.

How to avoid getting infected and protect yourself and your family

How to avoid getting worms from a cat? First of all, you should rid your pet of parasites. The most reliable method is considered to be “worming,” that is, taking anthelmintic drugs.

It is recommended to give them to cats that walk outside once every 3 months, and to those that do not leave the apartment - once every 6 months.

To select the most effective and at the same time safe anthelmintic drug, you need to contact a veterinary clinic. “Human” medicines against worms are strictly contraindicated for animals - they can cause extremely serious consequences, including death.

Fleas are carriers of helminth eggs, so it is necessary to ensure that the animal does not have them. An anti-flea collar will help here, as well as bathing with a special anti-parasitic shampoo.

According to veterinarians, a cat should be bathed no more than 2-3 times a year (!), except in cases where it gets dirty in something.

Particular attention should be paid to the cat's litter box - it is a real accumulation of worm eggs, which they produce in huge quantities, and cats excrete along with feces. Cleaning the cat litter box should be done regularly, wearing gloves and using disinfectants.

Under no circumstances should you feed your cat raw fish and meat; they may also contain helminth eggs and larvae.

If you follow all these rules, then your pet will no longer be a source of danger for you and your children.

Folk remedies

Folk remedies for worms in cats will also help rid your cat of worms. They are quite simple and affordable. The most effective include the following:

A garlic enema will help remove worms from your cat at home. To prepare it you will need 6 cloves of garlic, which need to be cut into small pieces. Next, the garlic is poured into a glass of water and infused for two hours. Then you can give the animal an enema. However, with this method you need to be very careful, as a burn to the intestines is possible;
fresh carrot enema. You need to squeeze about 20 ml of juice from the root vegetable and do an enema;
a decoction of herbs - tansy flowers, peppermint, buckthorn bark, wormwood. You need to pour 2 large spoons of herbal mixture into a container and pour a glass of hot water. The prepared decoction must be given to the pet in the morning for three days.

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Read further:

Are worms contagious to humans? Can a child get infected from a cat?

What worms can you get from a cat: a list of common cat worms

More effective medications for intestinal, protozoan and other parasites in cats

Opisthorchiasis in cats: symptoms, drugs for treatment, can you get infected from a cat?

What is Streptococcus anginosus and what danger does it pose to adults and children?

What do parasitic wasps look like and do they pose a danger to people?

Routes of infection

Helminths are the causative agents of helminthiasis in humans and animals, which are worms of various species.

There are several ways to become infected with parasites. The first and most common is through the eggs of these worms, which can remain viable for a long time in the external environment.

In addition, raw fish and meat, unwashed vegetables are sources of infection with worms. The carriers of their eggs are flies, cockroaches and bedbugs, so worm eggs can end up on bread and cooked food if left uncovered.

Many are sure that their pets cannot become infected, because they do not leave the house. And how many infections that are waiting in the wings in the ground, grass, water, we ourselves bring home on our shoes!

Remember how curious animals, and especially kittens, always explore our shoes and then lick themselves - this is the source of infection. By the way, kittens can become infected with helminths through the milk of a nursing mother.

Bibliography

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brucellosis. Parasites. Link
Corbel MJ Parasitic diseases // World Health Organization. Link
Young EJ Best matches for intestinal parasites // Clinical Infectious Diseases. — 1995. Vol. 21. - P. 283-290. Link
Yushchuk N.D., Vengerov Yu.A. Infectious diseases: textbook. — 2nd edition. - M.: Medicine, 2003. - 544 p.
Prevalence of parasitic diseases among the population, 2009 / Kokolova L. M., Reshetnikov A. D., Platonov T. A., Verkhovtseva L. A.
Helminths of domestic carnivores of the Voronezh region, 2011 / Nikulin P. I., Romashov B. V.

An article for patients with a doctor-diagnosed disease. Does not replace a doctor's appointment and cannot be used for self-diagnosis.

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Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds can also be a very effective remedy against worms. You will be surprised, but some pets are quite willing to eat them even in their pure form. However, if your cat does not show such a desire, you can crush them using a mortar and pestle, and then mix them into food.

It is best to use something meaty as food so that the animal does not suspect a dirty trick when it smells the seeds. However, if you don’t have such treats at home, then mix the powder with regular milk. The liquid perfectly masks the smell and taste of the folk remedy.

Helminthiasis - a childhood disease?

Worms are often considered a childhood disease. The reason for this is that children often do not follow the simplest hygiene requirements: they do not wash their hands when coming from the street, after visiting the toilet or petting an animal, they eat dirty fruits and vegetables, and they may drink unboiled water. Kids, in addition, get to know the world by testing it by taste - they, as you know, put everything they can reach into their mouths. This is how parasite eggs enter the body.

The facts today are as follows: yes, children suffer from helminthiasis more often than adults. But this does not mean that advanced age is insurance against the penetration of worms into the body.

Signs of infection

Evidence of helminthiasis is vomiting and rapid weight loss. This is a consequence of damage to the intestinal mucosa, as well as other organs of the animal.

All this, combined with toxic secretions, leads to weakened health of the animal, and in especially severe cases, to death due to blockage or rupture of the intestines.

A person can easily become infected even from a domestic cat. Their bodies are susceptible to infection by more than 82 types of worms, 32 of which can be transmitted to humans.

Most often, the transmission of parasites occurs due to insufficient hygiene rules. The routes of infection can be different, in particular through human skin or through fleas.

The invasion manifests itself with a number of symptoms depending on how many parasites and what helminths have proliferated in the animal’s body. If there are not many worms, then the infection may not manifest any symptoms at all.

Most often, helminthiasis is characterized by the following symptoms:

diarrhea or constipation or their alternation;
vomiting, and in case of severe damage - vomiting with blood;
severe itching in the anus, which causes cats to rub this area on the floor;
the appearance of individual segments or fragments of worms or whole worms in the feces or on the fur in the anal area;
the appearance of blood or mucus in the stool;
bloating of the abdomen, which becomes round;
rapid weight loss;
weak or, conversely, increased appetite;
difficulty breathing and cough;
hair loss;
rapid fatigue;
retarded growth and development in kittens;;
on the mucous membranes – yellowness or pallor;
In pregnant cats, worms can cause spontaneous miscarriage or premature birth.

In some cases, convulsions and paralysis of the hind limbs are possible.

Diagnostics

How to determine that a cat has helminthiasis and not some other disease, infectious or non-infectious, in which the same symptoms appear?

This is a very important question, because if you start treatment in an adult, and even more so in a kitten, who has picked up another infection, it can end in death. An accurate diagnosis can only be made by a veterinarian based on a stool analysis.

At the slightest suspicion that your pet has worms, collect her feces in a tightly closed jar (it should be clean and dry) and take it to the veterinarian for analysis (until this time, store it in the refrigerator). At the pharmacy you can buy a special jar for testing.

How to determine if a cat has worms?