Thread: How often do you worm?

One of our vets always says to people who query the necessity of worming its for our benefit more than the animals,especially for roundworms,toxoplasmosis can be a very
touchy subject,especially when you know of a child who was very close to loosing their sight through it....

Originally Posted by jckkerrison

One of our vets always says to people who query the necessity of worming its for our benefit more than the animals,especially for roundworms,toxoplasmosis can be a very
touchy subject,especially when you know of a child who was very close to loosing their sight through it....

Wondered about this, as our vets do not recommend periodic worming. We have fecal tests done once or twice a year, and most of ours do not go out at all. However, even the MC mix that we took in as a stray and that continued to go out on a rope in the yard, was never wormed and never had any worm issues. In fact, he didn't have any even when he was catching and eating rodents for his subsistence.

The problem I have with both worming and applying products like Frontline are that they are all pesticides and toxic to cats and humans to some degree. In fact the US and Candian EPAs began studying pet pesticides last year due to an apparent increase in side effects being reported. The main US EPA site for this is here:
EPA Evaluation of Pet Spot-On Products: Analysis and Mitigation Plan | Pesticides | US EPA

While I recognize that these products have benefits and may be necessary in some situations, I am afraid that far too many people think of them as "medicines" rather than realizing that they are routinely dousing their animals with pesticides. (Those hormones that interrupt the flea life cycle are safe.) In the US, hundreds of cats and dogs each year suffer serious side effects (including death) from pet parasite control products. The above site has 2008 data on various products available here:
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health...ductsders.html
Looking at the report on Advantage for cats, for example, we see that over 670 cat incidents were reported to the EPA by vets in 2008. The vast majority were minor but also "only 7...deaths."

I must have been very lucky because in 38 years of working at a vets I have never known of an animal dying from any of the routine products sold there,yes there have been reactions to some products that are applied but not too many that severe that would make you think twice about selling it & same with wormers the worse has been violent vomiting,we have however had cats die from spot ons sold in pet shops,superstores etc.
As in my previous post though I have known of a child that nearly lost her sight because of touching cat poo in their garden {they didn't own a cat} then rubbing her face,how would anyone face a parent if their animal could be the cause of that trauma,I couldn't,I don't want the flea problem I had last year again so have to carry on trying to prevent that & as the cats get lots of cuddles off of visitors including children wouldn't want to risk not worming either.....
Will read what NCarver has posted though & then frighten myself.

Here was the original news release:
04/16/2009: U.S. and Canada to Increase Scrutiny of Flea and Tick Pet Products

I just want to make it clear that I am not saying do not use these things under any circumstances, I just think people need to be better informed. I spent quite a bit of time looking at these products a while back, thinking that surely there must be some product that isn't just a straight out toxin. However, other than the flea life cycle interrupter hormone, every single product is a straight out pesticide, often a neurotoxin, i.e., a poison. I was actually rather surprised, then, that vets are routinely advising their clients (including us) to apply these products to all of their pets even if they are not having any issues. Does not seem like a smart thing to do, even if the incidence of serious side effects is <1%, as that is still going to translate to hundreds of pets each year. Unfortunately, the safety of these products is really not that well known, as pet products are not nearly as well regulated and tested as human products, so it is hard to make an informed decision about the trade-offs of these products vs. the potential problems from parasites. We have had ticks get onto most of our cats--even those that do not ever go outside. Since the ticks here are capable of transmitting several fatal diseases to cats, I would love to be able to put something on them that protected them. But dousing them with poison for several months each year? For me that is a definite negative vs. a low probability of getting a tick, and then apparently a very low probability of it transmitting disease. Plus ticks have still been shown to be able to transmit disease to cats that are being treated, as the products can take a couple of days to make the tick drop off or die. We did have to periodically use various products when our Maltese dogs got fleas, but this only happened a few times during their 17 year lives. Hardly required 24/7 treatments.

Just wanted to add: the whole reason these products have to be registered with the EPA is because they are toxins (they are also registered with the FDA since they are used as medications).

I will continue using Advocate, rather that than have my cat's flea allergy back! I know what you mean about information though. Most people (myself included), don't really know what are in these products!