GI parasites — Kitten Lady (2024)

What is the culprit?
The most common organisms who infect the gastrointestinal tract of kittens include protozoa like giardia, tritrichom*onas feotus, and cryptosporidium parvum. Worms like diplidium caninum (tape worms) are also possible cause of diarrhea, and weaned kittens are susceptible to ancylostoma tubaeforme (hook worms) and toxocara cati (round worms).

How are different parasites transmitted?
Protozoa are spread by infective feces that can contaminate food, water, or other objects that even a young kitten could lick. The queen may not be showing any symptoms despite a chronic infection, so do not rule this cause out even if the kitten’s mother is healthy. Tape worms are spread when kittens ingest fleas. Round worms or hook worms transmission requires ingestion of contaminated feces or of hosts ranging from rabbits to earthworms. As such, these parasites are less likely to infect neonatal and infant kittens but are still worth ruling out in older kittens.

What symptoms will the kitten show?
Protozoal parasites: Diarrhea, which can tend to be mucoid and foul-smelling
Hook worms: Malaise, poor weight gain, a distended abdomen, anemia, a rough hair coat, diarrhea, and blood in the stool

In all of these cases, the author cautions you not to rule out a parasite because one symptom noted is not seen. It is also not prudent to attempt to base a diagnosis on the color or consistency of the stool, as this varies a great deal from one kitten to the next.

How can I prevent parasitic infection?
Vigorously clean food bowls, water bowls, and any syringes, nipples, bottles and tubes after each use by a kitten. Also remember to quarantine any new kitten entering the home both for the safety of other cats and for the safety of the kitten. Your cat may never show any symptoms of tape worms and may be free of any fleas, but a flea can easily jump onto your cat, return to the kitten, be ingested by the kitten, and transmit tape worms. Scoop litter boxes daily and thoroughly clean and wash them 1-2 times weekly.

How might my veterinarian diagnose these parasites?
Protozoa can sometimes be seen on a test of the feces, and can be more definitively diagnosed on a blood test called an ELISA. However, treatment is normally given instead of testing since these tests can be either inaccurate or expensive and the treatment for organisms like giardia is unlikely to be harmful or cause side effects. Hook worms and round worms can be seen on a fecal flotation test which simply requires a poop sample, and tape worms are also more easily treated for than diagnosed.

How might my veterinarian treat these parasites?
The treatment of choice for protozoal organisms is an oral drug called fenbendazole, also known as panacur, for 7 days. Round worms and hook worms are both treated by a couple of doses of a different liquid, oral dewormer called pyrantel pamoate. Tape worms are treated with a single injection of a drug called praziquantel. Do not trust OTC dewormers claiming to cure tape worms, as these are often misleading and only treat a specific species of tape worm that rarely occurs in the U.S. Also make sure to consult with a veterinarian before giving any dewormer, since often times the concentrations vary from product to product. Giving pyrantel made for horses may be far too concentrated and cause serious issues for a kitten even though you give the same amount of fluid.

Helpful Hints for Vets
Remember that panacur is more useful in presumptive or prophylactic deworming of neonatal or pediatric kittens, because transmammary and transplacental transmission of hook worms and roundworms respectively only occurs in canids. As such, if a kitten has not been weaned then she or he would not have ingested a paratenic host nor larva in feces. Also, a recent study found 50% of necropsied cats in a shelter environment were positive for D. caninum, and fecal flotation failed to diagnose this in 100% of those positive cats.