What can I do to prevent tapeworm?

Flea control. Can I give you a two-word answer? Flea control. You control it accurately for fleas. And they won't get tapeworms that way. So you should be good to go if you do proper flea control.

The best thing to do to prevent tapeworm is to prevent fleas. Even for indoor cats, I recommend a regular topical application of a product like Revolution Plus. And the nice thing about Revolution Plus is it protects against fleas and ticks and therefore prevents flea infestations. But it also deworms for at least roundworms and hookworms each month, which will keep us at a good baseline.

Tapeworm is transmitted by fleas and flea dirt and flea eggs, so we want to keep fleas 100% under control, and therefore your cat will not pick up tapeworms.

The biggest thing that you can do is to have all animals in your home on effective flea prevention, making sure they're on that year-round, even during the winter. Fleas like to come inside and have their way, so make sure that every single pet in the home is on effective flea prevention.

Fleas transmit tapeworms in cats. The cat has to ingest the fleas, so you don't have to have a severe infestation of fleas to have a problem. One or two fleas can be on your cat, and when they bite the flea, they get exposed. The best way to prevent tapeworms in your cat is to have them on monthly, year-round quality flea prevention. It doesn't completely eliminate the potential for exposure, but it's uncommon to see tapeworms in a cat that's on prevention. That includes indoor-only cats. We see many indoor-only cats with fleas and tapeworms as a result.

To prevent tapeworms, it is essential to prevent fleas as well. This can be done by ensuring that your cat is on a monthly flea preventative treatment.