A lot of cats can get worms even if they spend most of their time indoors. The pet owner will need to deworm their cat and clean their home properly to thoroughly get rid of all of them. If your cat gets worms, what steps should you take?
You will need to give your pet the right medication to deworm them. In order to fully eradicate them, you will also need to clean your home the right way.
Outline Of Cleaning Steps
- Deworm your cat
- Put on protective equipment
- Clean the litter tray
- Clean up other accidents
- Wipe all hard surfaces
- Deep clean carpets
- Wash soft furnishings
- Clean outside areas
- Disinfect any tools used
Do you suspect that your cat has worms and you don’t know what to do? If so, then this article can help you. Here are the steps that you need to take to get rid of the worms and keep a reinfestation from occurring.
Steps To Cleaning Your House For Cat Worms
1. Deworm your cat
The first thing you need to do is to deworm your cat. You can get medication to kill the worms from your veterinarian. While some pet stores sell deworming medication, it usually isn’t nearly as effective as the medication that the veterinarian will prescribe for your cat.
It can take anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks to completely get rid of the worms. Because of this, you may need to clean your home several times to make sure that you have fully eradicated all of the worms. If you can, you should keep your pet in a separate space, such as a spare bedroom, until the medicine has had enough time to successfully deworm your cat.
2. Put on protective equipment
A lot of cat owners don’t realize that they can catch worms from their cat. This is why you need to put on the right protective equipment before trying to get rid of all of the worms that may be present in your home. You should put on a long-sleeved shirt, pants, boots, gloves and a mask.
Even if you clean an area that has a lot of worms, they will have a difficult time getting onto your skin if you have on all of this protective equipment. Once you’ve put on everything, you should grab all of the cleaning items you’ll need so that you don’t have to run back and forth from room to room. This can keep an infestation from spreading to other parts of your home.
3. Clean their litter tray
You will need to spend a lot of time cleaning your cat’s litter tray as this is probably the area where the most worms are present. Dump the litter out into a garbage bag. You don’t want to dump it directly into a trashcan as it may cause the worms to spread. You can take this garbage bag with you from room to room when you are cleaning the rest of your home.
Fill your cat’s litter tray with hot and soapy water, and let it sit for a few minutes so the hot water can kill the worms. Scrub the tray really well, and make sure you completely get the inside and outside of it. Rinse it off with hot water, and inspect it to make sure that you didn’t miss any worms. Dry it with a paper towel before you refill it with cat litter.
4. Clean up other accidents
After you’ve cleaned your cat’s litter tray, you may still need to clean up other accidents around your home. It’s not uncommon for cats that have worms to have diarrhea and relieve themselves outside of their litter box. Pick up as much of the feces as you can with paper towels or old newspapers.
Wipe down the remaining area with hot soapy water to kill any worms that have been left behind. For areas that were heavily soiled, you should clean it a few times to ensure that you’ve thoroughly removed all of the feces and worms that your cat left behind. You should also use an enzymatic cleaner afterwards. This will keep the area from smelling like feces.
5. Wipe all hard surfaces
It’s imperative that you disinfect all of the hard surfaces that your cat has come into contact with. Even if they didn’t defecate on them, they still could have left worms behind. Use a paper towel and disinfectant to wipe down each of these areas.
While this task can be rather time-consuming if your cat frequents all of the rooms in your home, it will allow you to get rid of the worms as efficiently as possible. Don’t assume that just because you don’t see any worms that they aren’t present. A lot of worms can be small in size and very difficult to see even on hard surfaces.
6. Deep clean your carpets
If you suspect that your cat has had worms for a long time, your carpet may be a breeding ground for them. This is why you need to use a carpet cleaner to deep clean all of your carpets. You can actually use a carpet cleaning machine to easily get rid of the worms.
The combination of the soap and hot water will kill them as the machine cleans your carpets. Just make sure you get every inch of each carpet in order to ensure that you thoroughly get rid of all of them. This will require that you remove all of the items in the room that you are cleaning, such as your couches and tables. When you are finished cleaning your carpets, you should take your carpet cleaning machine outside, and rinse it out with hot water so that you can kill any live worms that were left behind.
7. Wash soft furnishings
Just like with your carpets, your soft furnishings may have a lot of live worms living on the surface of them as well. While it probably isn’t a good idea to use a carpet cleaning machine on them, you can use hot water and detergent to clean them.
Wipe down each section of these furnishings, and if at all possible, let them dry in the sun. If these items are too large to take outside, you can always place them near a sunny window. When wiping them down, you need to make sure that you don’t oversaturate them as this can make it difficult for them to fully dry.
8. Clean outside areas
You will have a difficult time keeping your cat from being reinfected with worms if you don’t clean the outside areas. Don’t use a pressure washer or a high-powered hose on cement as this will just spray the worms into the grass without actually killing them. You will need to use hot water and soap to scrub each area where your cat was present.
Boiling water is best, and you can also mix in a bit of bleach if it is safe for your patio. If you live in a sunny area, worms are fairly easy to get rid of outdoors as the heat will kill them. For parasites living on soil or in an area that you can’t use hot water on, you can place a plastic sheet over it. In a couple of days, the UV light from the sun should penetrate the sheet and kill any worms that are underneath it.
9. Disinfect any tools used
After you’ve cleaned the inside and outside areas of your home, you need to thoroughly disinfect all of the items that you used to clean. The most effective way to do this is to put these items in very hot water. You can do this by boiling water on the stove and placing it in a bucket outside. Put each item into the bucket, and let them sit in it until the water has cooled down. Rinse them off, and dry them before putting them away. Don’t forget to seal the garbage bag you used early while cleaning your home and to take it outside.
What are the symptoms of worms?
While seeing worms in your cat’s feces is a tell-tale sign that they have worms, there are also a lot of other symptoms that you should look for. Loose stools and lethargy are all common. If you’ve noticed that your cat’s stomach looks bloated and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of energy, he may have worms. In order to determine if this is the case, you will need to take your cat to see his vet.
Keep in mind that they may ask you to bring in a fresh sample of your cat’s stool. Make sure you use gloves when you collect it, and place it in a sealable plastic bag. The worms may be so small that you can’t see them, but your vet can determine if they’re present by mixing your cat’s stool with a liquid solution and placing it under a microscope to look for worms.
How did my cat get worms?
Worms in cats are fairly common because they can get them in a variety of different ways. Cats are more prone to getting worms if they are around other cats that already have them. They can also get worms if they eat a rodent that has parasites or if they come into contact with fleas.
While worms are more common in cats that go outdoors, they can also be found in cats that spend all of their time indoors as well. This is why you need to take your cat to the vet right away if you notice any sort of change in their behavior.
How to avoid worms in the future?
While all cats can get worms, you can do some things to lessen the likelihood of it happening. Keep your cats away from other cats as much as possible. Try to limit the amount of time your cat spends outdoors, and monitor them so that they don’t eat any rodents or small animals.
You also need to make sure that your cat is up-to-date with his flea and heartworm medications. Groom your cat on a regular basis so that you can remove any parasite larvae that they may have come into contact with. By doing all of these things, you lower the risk of them being infected with worms.