Is it safe to give deworming medicine to a cat with kidney disease?

Hi and thank you for your question on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Most deworming medications are generally ok to give to patients with renal disease, but it does depend on the medication being used. If you can provide the name of the medication, I can give you a bit more guidance. Thanks for posting!

Advocate is not effective against tapeworms. I recommend you get your vet to identify the worms to ensure they are indeed tapeworms so the safest and most appropriate treatment can be prescribed. There are very few treatments available for tapeworm and they are mostly oral products

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question. It’s fine to give them the tapeworm medicine but I would wait until tomorrow. Then give it to them with some food like white meat chicken (no bones). I hope this helps!

You can re-dose him. It is a very safe medication. But, if you didn't see any trace of the pill in the vomit I would suspect he kept it down. It would have been better to give it a few days after his anethesia. The anesthesia along with the medicine probably upset his stomach. For future reference, any time you give an oral pill to a cat it is best to "chase" the pill with a small amount of water to ensure swallowing. Hope this helps!

Hello Robert, my name is Dr. Elizabeth and I am happy to help. Great job on saving this Simba! In general, this a safe product with rare instances of adverse reactions. There is an over the counter dewormer for tapeworms called Bayer Tapeworm dewormer. It's also generally safe and has rare adverse reactions. To be extra careful, separate the doses of the medications by 3-4 days and give with food. I hope this helps and please feel free to check in any time.

You may have luck going to the pharmacy to ask your question since your options sound very limited. If the pharmacist isn't positive the medication is safe for cats, post a new question here with the medication and we can help. Most worms in a kitten are roundworms, which can be treated with pyrantel (commonly found over the counter in a pet store in the US). It needs to be dosed twice, 3-4 weeks apart. Tapeworms are flat, and there are also over the counter dewormers for that, as well. It is most likely that Penny has a lot of worms in her digestive tract and that, after vomiting, one of the worms was in her nose and came out when she sneezed.

I'm sorry that your cat had such an awful passing. Unfortunately, without an exam it would be hard to say. If there was a large parasite load, dying parasites can block/obstruct the intestines, and some parasites such as heartworm can block arteries leading to death, but it would be hard to say if this or another issue was the cause of Bendingo's passing. If you do get another cat, making sure they are regularly dewormed and up to date on vaccines can help them stay healthy. Working with your vet and having regular exams done can also help check for any health issues that need treatment as well.