Savannah Cat Chat - THE Place for Savannah Cat Talk

Welcome to the Savannah Cat Chat Forum! Our forum has been in existence since 2012 and is the only one of its kind. We were here, serving the savannah cat community before Facebook and Instagram! Register for a free account today to become a member! Please use an email program other than Hotmail, since Hotmail accounts are blacklisted by many servers and ISP's. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site in some of the forums by adding your own topics and posts. But in order to take advantage of the full features, such as a private inbox as well as connect with other members ad access some of the larger topics, a donation of $2.99/mo or $25/yr is requested. This will allow us to continue running this forum!

Roundworms... again.

Ninja-n-Bear

Site Supporter
Good news: the Revolution did work, I saw shed worms in the litter box, and they have way more energy, which is awesome.

Bad news: Ninja had a reaction to the meds at the application site, and I'm not sure I want to put him through that again - he lost fur at the site after scabbing up, and he's been itchy all over since. Not bad enough that I'm worried for his health, but still. :( It's never happened with the Advantage.

I was told that diotonaceous earth (food grade) works for ridding internal parasites in pets (and humans!), and the internet corroborates this, but has anyone here ever tried it? I'm hesitant without a first-hand account.
 

Abby2932

Site Supporter
I have used DE externally once. I thought Malibu was having a flea allergy so I swept it all over my wood floors so it would fall through the cracks and kill any fleas that might be in the house. It turns out that he was having a food allergy to poultry, even though he was raw fed.

I've never used it internally so I don't have first hand experience.
 

Moggieslegacy

Savannah Super Cat
The breeder I got my kitten Moggie from recommended DE as parasite control and told me she added it to the water she gave to the kittens. The health record she provided me with said he had had a deworming treatment on a specific date, so presumably she used something else beside DE. I added DE to the water a few times before Moggie got his first deworming from my vet. He was given 1 Milbemax treatment but they forgot to prescribe the very important followup doses. After that he was given a dosage of Revolution every 30 days. After 4 or 5 months of monthly Revolution he was anorexic and loosing weight and suspecting possible tapeworms that are not killed by Revolution he was given a dosage of Profender and for a couple weeks he began eating normally and regained the weight he lost. But then he began not eating again. A fecal test about 27 days after his Profender treatment found he was loaded with adult egg laying roundworms, (An ingested roundworm egg or larva requires longer than this to mature into an egg laying adult, so the worms laying the eggs must have been in his system, and survived, when he was treated with the Profender) The vets said this would have been passed to him from his Mom through her milk, and was never adequately treated. Roundworm eggs or larva have a 29 to 52 day lifecycle where they migrate through the body and only the ones in the GI tract part of their lifecycle are killed by treatments, leaving the ones migrating still alive and able to complete their lifecycle. Moggie was then treated with Drontal (a pill) which was followed up with two doses of Strongoid T every 10 days. which got rid of them.

Info on the complicated lifecycle of roundworms
Nematodes -
Toxocara cati (Ascarids)
can be found in the link below.

http://www.ivis.org/advances/Parasit_Bowman/ddb_GI/ivis.pdf

Conclusion... Diatomacious Earth doesn't work. Monthly Revolution or Profender spot on treatments only work if the worms a kitten gets through it's mothers milk are completely gotten rid of though 2 or 3 treatments using products that are not harmful to use with only 10 days between treatments. Not spot on treatments that are only recommended every 30 days!
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
I was quite hopeful that Diatomacious Earth would be an effective natural agent, but unfortunately it was not effective for me either.
 

Ninja-n-Bear

Site Supporter
Thanks ladies, you all rock.

Too bad it isn't a viable solution, I was so excited at the possibility of being chemical-free.
 

admin

Paige
Staff member
I would not use DE internally... First the dust can be ridiculous and second, it is like little pieces of glass internally...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Ninja-n-Bear

Site Supporter
I would not use DE internally... First the dust can be ridiculous and second, it is like little pieces of glass internally...

Yes, but I think it's only dangerous if inhaled into the lungs. Regardless, I won't try it if it hasn't worked for folks here. ;)
 

Sean

Site Supporter
Lots of good worm info. Thank You.
We are still fighting it here with Xander. At 3 Mo old has had 3 treatments sense I got him and 1 from the breeder.
He is still drops loose loads in the box and the last dose was July 30. We go to the vet Aug 16th.

So is it likely that he still has some in him? I have not seen anything in the box and have been doing a dump and wash
about every 3 days. The wash is an over night soak in bleach water. Also because of the ear mites that are now cleared
up he did get a dose of Revolution on July 18th. I take it this will be an on going thing.

Right now he is screaming his head off because if is in the carrier while the floor dries from it's cleaning.

One question about Bella. Should she be getting Revolution as a preventive treatment? She is indors only and
not showing any signs of ear mites.

Thanks Again.
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
Ear mites can be pretty tenacious, since they've been in the same room together I would treat Bella too... and if they've been sharing litter boxes she should be treated for the round worms as well, if she hasn't already.
 
Top