I hate to use the word nutritious, but I will make this one comment where there's a significant difference between cat canned food, or wet, food and dry food. That involved the protein content as opposed to the carbohydrate content. As I just mentioned a few moments ago, cats have a very high need and demand for protein. Unfortunately, dry cat foods are too high in carbohydrates and too low in protein. We've known this for some years. That's why the recommendation is that at least half of cats' diets should consist of wet food because of the higher protein content. We know that dry kibble can contribute to obesity and cats because they're just getting too many carbohydrates and not enough protein.

That would be a no. They cannot. Cats have a very high demand for protein. Let's think about the hierarchy of animals in the animal kingdom. The one animal, at least that I know of, that has the highest demand for protein is cats. Big cats, little cats, all cats in between. Dogs also have a higher demand, but not as much of high demand for protein as cats. We're lower on the spectrum. We can have a little bit more of a blended diet. But cats cannot sustain long term on a vegetarian diet because of the lack of protein they'll get.

If we check a pet's stool sample, we're not looking for the worm. We're actually looking for the eggs of the worms. A cat or dog can have roundworms or hookworms, and I will mention whipworms because that can show up in dogs too, but it is very rare in cats. I personally, in a 40-year career, have never seen whipworms in a cat. Can it happen? Yes, but it would be extremely unusual. But if they get those worms, they live in the intestinal tract. They lay their eggs and keep the cycle going. However, it's easy to get rid of intestinal worms. We shouldn't have any problem getting rid of it. Just know that your cats can have it, and yes, they can keep them alive. It's virtually the same situation with a tapeworm since they get them from ingesting a flea. They get them from eating a small mammal, but they don't lay the eggs in the intestinal tract. Those little rice-like segments that I described pass out into the environment, and the eggs are in those segments. We're not going to find the eggs in the intestinal tract, which is why if your veterinarian does a fecal sample and checks for intestinal worms, they'll almost never see evidence of tapeworms simply because the eggs are not laid in the intestinal tract. That's what we're looking for. We generally rely on the owners to see the tapeworms pass in their own pets' poop. If we know that your pet has a flea problem or if they're a hunter, then yes, they will likely have tapeworms.

Very common in kittens. In fact, most kittens and puppies have intestinal worms, roundworms, and/or hookworms. That's very common in household cats. At least, once we get rid of the roundworms and hookworms, if you've got an exclusively inside cat, there's virtually no chance they would get them again because, as an adult, they can only get roundworms and hookworms from going outside and grazing and getting it from the grass. The larva lives around the grass in the dirt. As for tapeworms, they can get them from ingesting a flea, so if you should have any risk of exposure or getting fleas, or you've got other pets that come in the house and expose your indoor cat to fleas, they can absolutely get tapeworms. But again, they're not going to get the tapeworms from eating a small mammal unless you've got mice running around the house. If they consume a mouse, they can pick up the tapeworms that way, but if they're not going outside to hunt or catch chipmunks and mice and bowls and such, they're not going to get it any other way. Indoor cats can get intestinal worms, but it would only be the tapeworms as an adult.

The most common one we see with kittens is a round pop belly. So if we see these little pop belly kittens or puppies coming in, they're almost going to have roundworms, but they may not necessarily have the pop belly. Although, that's a classic situation. They've got a really heavy burden with the tapeworms. That's probably the most visible sign you would see. Otherwise, we have a term in veterinary medicine that's called ADR: they ain't doing right. Some of those cats are kittens. They're just unthrifty. We'll always be suspicious if they're not doing well that they could have intestinal worms or intestinal parasites.

Of the worms that we see, roundworms and hookworms can be seen in kittens. Roundworms are the ones that look like skinny pieces of spaghetti. They can be several inches long, but usually, you'll see several of them. You might see a little cluster of them. They look like rubber bands being passed out sometimes. You're not able to see hookworms. So you could say, Well, I do not see any worms in my kitten or Mm puppy, so they don't have worms. They very likely could have hookworms. You're just not going to be able to see them. Tapeworms, again, are the ones they get from ingesting a flea or eating a small mammal, and you can see those as well. They typically look like little grains of rice. Those little grains of rice will either be passed along with the poop, or they can crawl out of the rectum. So sometimes people will see their catlike laying on the bed, and all of a sudden, they'll see this little rice-like worm crawling out of the rectum. I will mention a couple of things about tapeworms.

As I mentioned, pets can only get them from ingesting a flea or eating a small mammal. However, when they have the tapeworms, it doesn't mean they're going to pass them regularly. Depending on the tapeworm, it can get to be about two feet long, and they're made up of dozens and dozens of those individual segments. But it doesn't mean they're going to be continually passing those segments out where you would see them. They could pass some today, and it could be weeks before they pass them again. You could look around their rear end every day to see if you see those little segments. It could be weeks before they pass more of those little segments. Those little segments would break off from the long chain. But again, it's not something you'll necessarily see regularly. Typically, with the roundworms, once they start passing them, you'll see them frequently until they get rid of them.

I wouldn't say causing sharp binding pain, but they can make them un-thrifty, so they can affect their overall health and wellbeing. I wouldn't call it pain, but it would definitely impact their overall health.

Good question. So let's start as a kitten. Most kittens and puppies will get what we call roundworms and hookworms. They can get those from mama cat or mama dog. They can get them through the placenta. They migrate into the body and through the placenta before they're born, or they can get them through the milk while they're nursing. Adult cats can continue to get roundworms and hookworms, but those are a problem for outside cats, and they get them from going out and grazing. A lot of cats, of course, will eat grass, which would be how they would get it as an adult cat. And then the other type of worm we see are what we call tapeworms. They get tapeworms from either ingesting a flea or eating a small mammal. Those are the three types of worms that we see.

Intestinal parasites include intestinal worms, plus there's a sort of a separate category, what we would call intestinal parasites. I'll give you the breakdown. What's the difference between intestinal parasites and intestinal worms? Intestinal worms would be brown worms, hookworms, and tapeworms. Those are the three that we're most likely going to see in cats. Then we have two other types of organisms there. If you think back to eighth-grade biology, you're looking under the microscope or drop of water, and you see this little single-celled organism swimming around. Well, there are two of those. One is called coccidia and the others call Giardia, which we also see in cats, but those are not worms. They are just intestinal parasites, just these little single-celled organisms. I want to make that distinction. When we use a dewormer, we're just getting rid of the worms. If we see either one of these two intestinal parasites, each of them has its own unique medication to eliminate them.