Yeah, they can. It's tough because where are they going to get it? Where are they exposed to the feces of an infected animal if they're 100% indoors? It’s retty rare. The most common thing would be those tapeworms that we mentioned. That is the most common thing that we see, the most common parasite in cats that are indoors. It doesn't take much for a flea to come inside. And then again, the way they groom themselves, they're going to probably ingest it. And then they can break with tapeworms after that.

The most likely other scenario I would think is if you introduce a new cat into the household. So you can have this new one that comes in, and little typhoid Mary brings it into the healthy cat that's in the house. And that's what happens. So if you get a new animal introduced to the house, always get them checked at the vet first. Get a good stool sample done first. And then if they are clean, it's okay for everybody to intermingle and hopefully live happily ever after.

Probably the most common method is what's called a fecal-oral route. And yes, it's exactly like it sounds. They have to ingest feces orally to obtain it. And let me be more precise. It's not just any feces; it’s the feces of an infected animal. And in many cases, those fecal eggs or those parasite eggs in the feces have the larvae for a day or two before they become infectious. It's not a hard thing to do. I mean, it happens all the time. And it's not always as deliberate as the cat walking up and eating a pile of stool. I know that sounds disgusting, but they do it. Especially dogs. But it can be as simple as they just stepped in it.

Maybe they share the same litter box as a housemate or littermate. And that animal has it. They go in the same litter box. They're scooting around in there, and they get some on their paw. Well, what's a cat going to do? The first thing that cats will do when they get anything on their body is they're going to stop, and they're going to lick it off. They're going to groom themselves. So, boom, you just got infected that way. So that is the most common reason.

The only exception I would give to those, if we're talking about all the intestinal parasites, is tapeworms, and that’s something we commonly see. The most common thing that we see is dipylidium caninum. That's a tapeworm from fleas. So they have to ingest a flea. Not feces, but a flea. The other type of tapeworm is echinococcus, and the last name is granulosum, I think. But that is something that they usually get from eating the host animal, which is mice. So sometimes you'd have a mouse or cat, maybe a barn cat, something like that. And they ingest a mouse that is happening to harbor this type of tapeworm; they can get it that way.

I'm almost scared to say yes. But with domestic cats and the most common parasites that we see, yeah. I'm going to say yes. With the parasiticide and de-wormers and preventative medications on the market nowadays, usually with domestic animals and cats. in particular—if they have intestinal worms, there's going to be a drug that can treat it right now. So yes, that would be my somewhat short answer.

Yes. So, rabies vaccines every year to prevent the transmission of rabies in our community, to our pets, and to our humans. The distemper vaccine is given as a baby in the series of three, then at one year, and then every three years. Again, we still want to protect these older cats from these upper respiratory infections. Occasionally you may bring a new cat into your home and these upper respiratory infections can affect your adult cats more severely than younger cats, so we want to keep them up to date as well.

The core vaccinations are rabies and then FVRCP, which is Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, and Panleukopenia. Those are considered core because your cat could still be exposed to these viruses, even if they are indoor only. So when I say core, every single cat that comes to our practice, it is recommended that they get those vaccines.

An example of a non-core vaccine is the feline Leukemia vaccine, so feline Leukemia is spread from cat to cat by bite wounds from other cats, so typically only cats that go outdoors and interact with other cats, or maybe have another cat in the household who's positive for feline Leukemia would be advised to get that vaccine. All cats are recommended to get it initially and at their one-year visit, but then we only continue if those cats have those risk factors.