Does anyone know if you can get worms from your cat...?

Question

...and what the symptoms are in humans?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can if you eat cat poop ( and I know you won't) and it has worms in it. I know this because when we took our cats for our yearly shots, one of which was a dewormer, the vet asked if my 12 month old went near the litter box. I said no and asked why. He said that if he were to get a hold of some poop and it happened to have worms in it he could get the worms and get sick. I think it would be an intestinal thing and you'd be throwing up or having diarrhea. As far as getting it from normal contact with your cat and washing your hands after dealing with the litter box, then no, I do not think you can get worms.

Answer 2

Although rare, there are some worms that humans can get from cats. There are also parasites such as giardia, that a person and pet can both have, which have similar symptoms in animals and people (digestive upsets and diarrhea being common symptoms of giardia), and which is easily treated by metronidazole. Giardia is everywhere in the environment and is easily transmitted between species and in dirty water.

The one fungal skin problem that most people are familiar with hearing that you can get from cats, is ringworm. This fungus is easily treated. It is very contagious. Most of the time, if a cat has ringworm, it has obvious bald patches. Ringworm is also contagious between people and is a variety of the same fungus responsible for athletes foot.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that can come from meat that isnt cooked well enough (pork being best known as a source of toxoplasmosis) and also doctors usually advise pregnant women not to handle or change litter pans because of risk of toxoplasmosis. How common toxoplasmosis actually is, I don't know. I don't think its actually common, since you hear plenty of warnings about it but I've never personally seen or heard of an actual case in pets or humans

Answer 3

As disgusting as it is... humans can get worms from all sorts of sources... the most common being eating red meat. I watched an animal planet show that said something like 3 in 5 humans or something has worms! GROSS! I don't know where they got those numbers (I know it's very common in countries like Africa)... but yeah. It was enough to make me really check out what the shows are about before I watch animal planet! LOL

Only way you could get worms from your cat is by ingesting a flea that has the worm (which is how cats get it). The amount of bugs we ingest in our sleep (and even awake) is another really disgusting figure you really don't want to know. Man, I watch WAY too much animal planet and discovery channel! YUK!

Do some internet research on "intestinal parasites in humans" and see what kinds of disturbing info you come up with. Your cat is the least of your worries.

Answer 4

Definately.

It is a reason nt to have kids play in the litter nor in a sandbox frequented by cats.

Usually the symtoms are an itching in the anus. Some times pin worms can be found in the stool. Tape worms would have segments in the stool.

Answer 5

There is no way a human can get worms from cats

Answer 6

My mom got worms from her cat when she was little. I don't really know the symptoms, except she felt like she was "sick"..

Answer 7

It is possible to get worms from your pet, however it isn't very likely if you wash your hands after cleaning the litterbox (or if you have kids and they play outside in the yard/dirt they need to wash hands before eating or putting hands in their mouths)and just simply practice normal good basic hygeine.