So my cat was diagnosed with roundworms D:

[cheesecake]

I came home to find my cat have thrown up on my bed, and when i was cleaning it up, I found a freakin dried up roundworm in the vomit. Talk about being freaked out.

She had some symptoms that looked like stomach upsets before, i‘ve always thought it was either her eating too fast or the food has been in the fridge for too long, or i've changed the flavors too suddenly.
Now it all kind of makes sense.

So then i had to go to the vets (they wanted a stool sample, but luckily i saved the dried up worm in the vomit so they ended up being able to prescribe based on that), wash all my sheets. Then go to the doctors because it can be transfered to humans. -_______-
I went to the doctors, and he's like well it's not likely but I'll send you to the lab, so I have to go to the lab and get a container and stuff for you know what so they can check it for roundworm eggs.

I'm super freaked out right now because apparently it can cause blindness in humans =____= Even though the doctor said 1 billion people have roundworms in their system and most cases they "exist peacefully" was his exact words.
But I dun wanna be blind omfg -___-

I'm paranoid to even touch my cat right now. And the thing is, when I got her, she was "dewormed" so the question is, where the hell did she get it?! She's been an indoor cat for as long as I got her.

I keep telling myself, it's roundworms, I can get it through other means (not properly washing fruits etc) But I'm still

I've washed my hands everytime i scooped her litter, but i was using cetaphil, which is more of a facial cleanser, and it doesnt foam x_x Should I use a foaming soap instead?

Do I need to wash my hands everytime I pet her? Will hand sanitizers be sufficient?

[14+kitties]

I have been dealing with roundworms with new cats for quite some time now. Besides taking the normal sanitary precautions of washing my hands and treating the cats - . Roundworms are a part of having kitties. She probably had been dewormed but only once. Most times cats should be done at least twice. Even that is not ensuring all different types of worms have been eradicated. In all the years I have known about roundworms I have never heard of a person going blind from them.
Please do not punish your cat by not paying attention to it. It's not her fault.

Just to add a bit - I went back and looked at your other posts. I had remembered you were a bit OCD over the toileting issues when you first got her. Please treat this the same. Something you are overreacting to.
One question - If you take your fecal to be tested and they find worms are you going to blame the cat? Ten to one they didn't come from her. You've probably had them all along. I just don't want to see your kitty end up back in the shelter because of something as simple to treat as roundworms. Most animals have them. Including us.

[cheesecake]

Originally Posted by 14+kitties

I have been dealing with roundworms with new cats for quite some time now. Besides taking the normal sanitary precautions of washing my hands and treating the cats - . Roundworms are a part of having kitties. She probably had been dewormed but only once. Most times cats should be done at least twice. Even that is not ensuring all different types of worms have been eradicated. In all the years I have known about roundworms I have never heard of a person going blind from them.
Please do not punish your cat by not paying attention to it. It's not her fault.

Just to add a bit - I went back and looked at your other posts. I had remembered you were a bit OCD over the toileting issues when you first got her. Please treat this the same. Something you are overreacting to.
One question - If you take your fecal to be tested and they find worms are you going to blame the cat? Ten to one they didn't come from her. You've probably had them all along. I just don't want to see your kitty end up back in the shelter because of something as simple to treat as roundworms. Most animals have them. Including us.

Do you wash your hands everytime you pet your kitties? I'm still wondering if just hand sanitizers are enough.

I was still playing with her with her dangly toy, so i wasn't ignoring her, I'm just kind of... washing my hands like Lady Macbeth (that's an exaggeration, I'm just washing my hands after I pet her)

To be honest, before I got my cat I did research on their diseases, but the source i was reading didn't mention blindness for roundworms. So i wasn't aware of that until yesterday when i did specific research on roundworms (because I wasn't sure if the worm in her vomit was tapeworm or roundworm), so imagine my shellshock. All the way to the vet I was like "please be tapeworm please be tapeworm" and no, it was roundworms.

Apparently the stats are 700 people each year in america, which is like less than 1% of people who has it. I know you think I'm overreacting, but like I said I need my eyes to continue working in the field I love, which is graphic design. I mean, if I was a writer or musician, it wouldn't matter as much. I thought the worst case scenario is loss of vision in one eye, which is like, meh, I'll live and see out of one eye.

But I don't know how that might impact me professionally (it might screw with my depth of field and sense of proportion, which pretty much means I have to switch careers) I mean, if your livelihood is actually something you love, and one day you find out there's a slim possibility you might lose that, you'd be kind of freaked out mentally/emotionally right?

I think because this is the internets and I can say how I feel instead of how I'm rationally dealing with it, that it may seem I'm overreacting and I'm gonna give my cat back to the shelter (which I'm not doing). She's my babe and I'm going to take care of her, and myself. Which is why the first thing I did was to take the sample to the vet and go to the doctors myself, like any responsible person would have done.

I guess I'm just posting because I'm kind of internally freaking out and perhaps looking for a bit of emotional support

I know I was going on about her poop, but you know, I was concerned that it'd get on my bed, and it DID ending up getting on my bed. So you know, I was like SIGH and washed it and cleaned it. The reason why I was talking about it was because I'd like to avoid it, when I cant, I'll just clean it up. I figure since I'm a woman, eventually there will be a time in my life where I'm cleaning poop up everyday for a while But possibility of cleaning poop is so totally different from the possibility of not being able to do what I love to do, forever.

BTW. When you say "dewormed twice".... the vet gave me two pills, one for yesterday and one for two weeks from now. Is one cycle like this counted as once? or do you just mean the number of pills given?

[catlover2]

Is your cat strictly indoor, or does it go outside and eat mice occasionally? If it's the latter, roundworms are common in cats and you will have to deworm your cat likely several times a year. Kittens can even ingest roundworm cysts in their mother's milk.

[luckypenny]

Originally Posted by cheesecake

BTW. When you say "dewormed twice".... the vet gave me two pills, one for yesterday and one for two weeks from now. Is one cycle like this counted as once? or do you just mean the number of pills given?

That would be two rounds of deworming. If you want to make sure, 2 weeks following the last pill, you can take in a stool sample to be tested.

As for the blindness, I'd have been blind years ago with all the foster puppies we've taken in. There have been mornings where I'd walk in on them to see the equivalent of a bowl of spaghetti pooped and vomited all over the place . I don't know where you got that information from but I believe the blindness would be from malnutrition from an out of control amount of intestinal parasites going untreated. You would see all other signs of malnutrition before blindness would set in though. It happened to our dog Lucky when we first adopted him but, after proper treatment, he gained all his vision back.

[cheesecake]

Originally Posted by catlover2

Is your cat strictly indoor, or does it go outside and eat mice occasionally? If it's the latter, roundworms are common in cats and you will have to deworm your cat likely several times a year. Kittens can even ingest roundworm cysts in their mother's milk.

She is strictly indoor (I live on the 23rd floor of an apartment building, I don't think there's mice haha...), which is why i had no idea how she caught it. The only explanation I have is that was probably some eggs that got "left over" from her deworming from the SPCA.

I got her last november, and I thought I didn't have to take her to check for worms until another 6 months.

So right now I'm just trying to keep all the sheets clean (washing them with hot water and drying them on the hot cycle). But i read on eHow that you are supposed to also wipe down furnitures with a bleach solution to get rid of the eggs? Is one part bleach ten part water still harmful to the cats? It seems really diluted to me but cats are tiny little things, I don't want her to get sick from it on top of the worms.

Originally Posted by luckypenny

That would be two rounds of deworming. If you want to make sure, 2 weeks following the last pill, you can take in a stool sample to be tested.

As for the blindness, I'd have been blind years ago with all the foster puppies we've taken in. There have been mornings where I'd walk in on them to see the equivalent of a bowl of spaghetti pooped and vomited all over the place . I don't know where you got that information from but I believe the blindness would be from malnutrition from an out of control amount of intestinal parasites going untreated. You would see all other signs of malnutrition before blindness would set in though. It happened to our dog Lucky when we first adopted him but, after proper treatment, he gained all his vision back.

ewwww

Well from what i read, it is from the larvae travelling up the blood stream and "accidentally" ending up in other organs, i.e eyes. And then growths form around the larvae and cause vision loss. So it's like whee completely up to chance -___- good ****ing game.

Now I'm just like, meh if I'm blinded I'll collect disability checks! W00h00 socialism!
(joking, btw. )

[14+kitties]

Do you have a weakened immune system? That is what I've found on line. If you are sick then you have a chance (small) of going blind. A healthy person would be able to fend them off. Really, I think you may be a little paranoid about that.

Originally Posted by cheesecake

Do you wash your hands everytime you pet your kitties? I'm still wondering if just hand sanitizers are enough.

If I washed my hands every time I pet one of my kitties around here I would be doing nothing else. I wash my hands after I clean their many many litter boxes or after shaking out their blankets or other beds. But really, after every time I pet them - nope. But then I am of the thought that it is when you are extra careful about getting no germs and are slightly fanatical about cleaning that you end up being sick. I don't feel your body can take the strain of germs if you are then exposed to them having nothing to fight with. I take the normal precautions with hand washing. Last time I was sick was somewhere around 3 years ago. Sure, I've had sniffles but nothing more serious.

JMO - every article I found was about raccoon roundworms. Not cats.

[sugarcatmom]

Cheesecake is right about the roundworm larva potentially causing blindness (called ocular larva migrans). It's rare, and is more often caused by the canine version of roundworms rather than the cat one. Typically occurs in children who've been eating dirt containing the roundworms eggs. I really wouldn't worry about getting it from Cookies, there would have to be a perfect storm of circumstances for you to even get infected, and then the likelihood of a healthy adult immune system not being able to control the larva is quite remote. Just don't eat her poo until she's had another deworming session!

[cheesecake]

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

Cheesecake is right about the roundworm larva potentially causing blindness (called ocular larva migrans). It's rare, and is more often caused by the canine version of roundworms rather than the cat one. Typically occurs in children who've been eating dirt containing the roundworms eggs. I really wouldn't worry about getting it from Cookies, there would have to be a perfect storm of circumstances for you to even get infected, and then the likelihood of a healthy adult immune system not being able to control the larva is quite remote. Just don't eat her poo until she's had another deworming session!

LOL i wish she'd poop already (never thought i'd say this -_-)

Last time she pooped was friday night/saturday morning. (I got home late saturday morning) I wonder if the deworming pill is making her constipated x_x

[cheesecake]

update:
still no poop and she threw up some clear stuff this morning x____x

Made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow evening if she still doesnt go today x_______x