From time to time our planet amazes us by a great variety of living creatures - by their beauty and singularity. Our hearts fill with joy when we see this world. But as the proverb says: every cloud has a silver lining. Here this lining is several dozens of thousand of parasites. These are the parasites that now and then complicate our life and life of our pets too much. Since cats, as well as other animals, both domestic and wild, more or less suffer from them, now we will look into this problem.
Helminthes (worms) - when hearing this word most people wince and think to themselves: "What a muck!" We agree to this aloud. And we do this in order for you to have the complete idea about this disease. Yes, of cause it arouses unpleasant associations, but still stays serious. Everyone knows that parasites upset a harmonious work of organism, stimulate infectious diseases and decrease immunity - all together this ultimately may have a lethal outcome of animal. Not all people know that these parasites in addition to gastrointestinal tract may affect tissues, muscles, bladder, liver, lungs, eyes and even heart. Fortunately, parasites of this sort are quite rare.
Helminthes, or worms, belong to group of parasitic worms, which are pathogens of helminthiases. Helminthes are divided into biohelminthes and geohelminthes according to their development cycle. Biohelminthes develop inside the organism of an intermediate host (human or animal), where they live in a stage of egg and larva, and at the organism of definite host the helminth reaches puberty. Larvae of helminthes reach the stage of invasion (the stage, at which they are ready to parasite - both in human and animal). At this stage they acquire the ability to parasite out of the host organism, for example in soil. Thus, we can see the chain is locking. The heaviness of disease depends on age, the state of health of animal and the number of parasites in the organism. Young animals with weakened immunity system and those underfed animals are usually predisposed to helminthoses. Old and sick cats also fall into the risk group. It is difficult to determine what kind of helminthes predominate as there are a great many. One should take into consideration the cat environment (whether the animal belongs to a private holder or to a nursery, whether it lives in city or village), age group and even geography. Today we'll review helminthes, which belong to the group of intestinal parasites that affect gastrointestinal tract. Those, which are most often met, we'll introduce to you.
Hook worms (Ascariasis)
Ascarids - adult hook worms or plain worms - most often occur in cats. Kittens belong to risk group since they are more predisposed to this disease than adult cats. The parasites more frequently occur in kittens - 25-75 per cent of them are infected. Development cycle of tapeworms differs from other worms: the intermediate host is obligatory. Animals get infected through soil, by eating a carrier of larvae - a beetle, a rodent, for example a mouse. Two types of ascarids may infect a cat. Adult forms settle in a stomach and may reach 12 cm long. They pass through mouth, then get into stomach and from there - into intestines, where they reproduce. With a blood flow they get into lungs where become mobile. They irritate mucous membrane and cause cough or vomit, which is repeatedly swallowed. When get in the intestines for the second time larvae develop into adult individuals. This case is most typical for kittens. In adult cats only few larvae return into intestines. Most of them stay latent in tissues in an encapsulated state. At the last stage of pregnancy they come out, get into blood flow and through a placenta pass into kittens. Unfortunately, combating helminthes in queen before or during pregnancy doesn't prevent the infection of fetus because treatment is inefficient against encapsulated larvae. Actually, ascarids don't bother adult cats, but may cause death in young kittens. In most cases they have strong cough; vomit is possible (sometimes with helminthes), diarrhea, loss of weight and slow growth. You can hardly diagnose the disease your animal suffers from, because these symptoms are like symptoms of other diseases. Don't delay a visit to a doctor when first sighs of disease appear. By the way, don't put a diet to your pet - this won't help. The first worming in kittens is conducted at age of three weeks as a preventive measure of repeated infection of helminthes, which might have stayed in bedding. The second step of treatment in held after two or three weeks in order to do away with adult parasites, which were in a stage of larvae during first step of treatment.
Nematodes (anchylostomatidosis of carnivores)
Altogether there are four kinds of nematodes that can be found in cats. These small threadlike helminthes are 6-13 mm long. They stick to walls of intestines and feed on host blood. An animal may become infected when contact to larvae in contaminated soil, as well as in faeces. Larvae get into lungs and then into intestines. After two weeks from the moment of infection eggs of helminthes are found in faeces. Kittens can't get infected before birth or right after birth through milk, but growing kittens infected by nematodes may perish. A kitten infected with helminthes has a faded color of haircoat, doesn't want to eat. Taken together this causes loss of weight, body weakness and is aggravated by diarrhea (bloody flux) and anemia (draining of blood). Adult cats have the same symptoms but are less evident.
The final diagnosis is determined by revealing helminth eggs in excrements. Healthy kittens and adult cats often stay carriers of pathogenic organisms because of helminthes that preserve in tissues. In presence of associated disease (weakening of organism) and extreme situation the second outbreak is possible.
Tapeworms (Cestods)
Tapeworms most often affect adult cats. They parasite inside small intestine and fasten onto the wall of intestine by the head (skolex) with suckers. If a cat is infected by fleas or louses the danger to catch tapeworms increases. The point is that these parasites may contain immature tapeworms in their intestine. On their turn, they become infected by eating eggs of helminthes. According to this, when cat swallows fleas it appears to be the ultimate link in chain of infection. The diagnostics of helminthes is quite easy, but still is the privilege of veterinary surgeons. When acquire an animal for house from the nursery or some other owner, you should find out if it was treated with febrifuge. If not, don't put off this procedure and do it by yourself. Don't forget to consult with a vet, who will prescribe the certain dose of medicine for your animal. Remember: if not careful enough, you may do harm to the kitten organism that has been already weakened by the disease. This procedure should be done before vaccination and routinely do it once a year. If you plan your animal to participate in breeding, it is recommended to give vermifuge medications one-two weeks before delivery, but remember that not all of them suit pregnant cats. Ask for an advise of a vet for the best choice.
Translated by Tatiana Karpova (Moscow)
(MSU, Biology faculture, Dep. zoology and ecology).