My cat has tapeworm. Can it spread to my family, clothes, or carpet?

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear that Rashmika had tapeworms but it sounds like you are addressing that. This is a good question. Tapeworms require an intermediate host so a pet cannot transmit them directly to other pets or people. Other pets would have to eat the intermediate host (most often a flea carrying tapeworm eggs) to get a tapeworm infection. So your other pets and your family are extremely safe to be around her right now. Good luck with Rashmika

Oh no. This is a nuisance to deal with for sure. Tapeworms are contagious to people, but it would require ingesting (eating) a live worm to become infective. As long as you clean up the feces and use good hygiene (washing your hands and avoid putting hands in the mouth after touching your pet or any live worms), then you are less likely to infest yourself. Clean up the poop quickly and don’t let your pet around other dogs or cats to avoid transmission until you can get Coco treated. Best wishes and don’t forget to also get Coco on a good flea preventative (ie Bravecto, Nexgard, Simparica, Vectra etc) at your vet to avoid further infection with tapeworms. Take care.

Tapeworms need to go into a secondary host to spread. That means that cats get them from eating rodents and fleas, and you, your family and the other cats and dogs can't get them from being exposed to the segments. Please get Mr. Kitty treated for tapeworms and use a flea prevention product on all the animals to prevent them getting tapeworms from eating fleas. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you get answers to your veterinary questions.

1. The only concern for human beings is the transmission of certain tapeworms. These are transmitted by fleas and incidental ingestion of the flea can cause infection. I would not be worried about roundworm, but fleas need to be treated as well as gastrointestinal worms. Normal hygiene precautions must be followed though (wash your hands). 2. You can pet him without problems. 3. Eggs can be present of course and usually bleach is enough to disinfect the area appropriately.

Hello, and thank you for your question. The tapeworm segments consist of tapeworm eggs, that can be ingested by fleas. I would ensure that Milton has (and continues to be) on monthly flea control, and that he received an appropriate deworming treatment for tapeworms. As long as the fleas are well controlled, the tapeworms should die away and not recur. The only way that humans can get infected by tapeworms is to ingest an infected flea, so it is safe to say the risk is low! I hope this helps, and that Milton is doing well!

The only way you (or your cat or other dog) could get tapeworms is if you ingested the fleas that transmitted the tapeworms to Dakota in the first place. Your vet may recommend deworming the other pets too, just to be safe, since if Dakota had fleas (and thus tapeworms) the other pets could too. But the chances of you getting tapeworms is almost 0.

Make sure both Prissy and your cat are up to date on the flea treatments, as fleas transmit tapeworms. Use good hygiene, washing your hands after petting the cat and dog, and after scooping the litter box. Good hygiene will prevent you from getting the worms. I hope this helps!