This section is from the book "The Book Of The Cat", by Frances Simpson. Also available from Amazon: The Book Of The Cat.
Cats, like all other animals, are liable to be infested with worms, which may not cause any disturbance, unless in great numbers or when another disease is in existence.
The Common Round-worm is very prevalent in young kittens, generally when they are living on milk, upon which these worms thrive.
Their natural residence in the cat is in the small intestine, but sometimes they wander from here into the stomach, and set up vomiting and occasionally convulsions.
The worms should be expelled and the animal fed on nutritious and stimulating food, such as raw fish, raw meat, and fresh birds. The milk, to which is added a pinch of salt, should be boiled. The best remedy to expel these worms is santonin given along with or followed by an aperient. The following is a convenient formula : Santonin . . 1 grain.
Calomel . . . ½ ,,
This powder is to be dropped on the back of the tongue of an adult cat after fasting twelve hours, every other morning, until four doses have been given. Half this quantity is suitable for a cat three or four months old, and a quarter for a kitten of a month to six weeks of age.
The commonest Tapeworm of the cat is the Taenia elliptica vel felis, with which fifty per cent, or more are affected. It is caused by fleas, lice, and mange-mites which have at some time or another infested the cat.
They do not seem to cause much harm, even when numbering hundreds. In one case that I encountered the cat was in the pink of condition, and yet I found 700 of these worms.
It is a delicate tapeworm with joints resembling a cucumber in outline. The ripe joints, which are often of a reddish tint, frequently become detached, and pass with the faeces, on which they are seen. They are generally termed by fanciers maw-worms.
The worms should be expelled, and fleas, lice, or mange-mites destroyed, so as to prevent a recurrence of the trouble.
Another tapeworm of the cat is the Taenia crassicollis, or broad-necked species. It is seen only in cats that kill and eat rats and mice, in the liver of which the larval form of this parasite resides.
It is a- big, coarse tapeworm, measuring eighteen to thirty inches in length, and having no well-defined neck.
For the expulsion of tapeworms there are many remedies, the best of which are areca nut, kamala, oil of male fern, pomegranate, and kousso, but as the dose of these in the crude is generally too bulky for the cat, it is advisable to give either of them, with the exception of the male fern, in their alkaloidal form, as : Koussein . . . . ½ to 2 grains.
Kamalin . . . . ½ to 2 „
Arecoline . . . . ¼ to ½ grain.
Pelletierine . . . ¼ to ½ ,,
Any one of these may be given either in pill or tabloid form, or rubbed up with milk sugar, as a powder on an empty stomach after the animal has fasted at least twelve hours, and repeated every third or fourth morning. A dose of castor-oil or jalap should be given an hour after. The oil of male-fern is best administered in a capsule. Powdered pumpkin seed may be sprinkled on the food,
 
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