When your kitten is small and still the softest ball of fur on earth, you will most likely allow it to sleep wherever it can comfortably crawl into. However, as it gets older, you may start to wonder how safe it is to keep your cat in your bed when you go to sleep or why your friends have a specific spot for their cats.
You can get worms from your cat sleeping in the same bed as you, especially if they prefer to sleep on your pillows. Many times, you can also get worms from cats that like to sleep on your bed or pillows; the worm eggs are transferrable from any location that your cat has licked. (Source: Daily Paws)
It is important to understand every way that the larva or eggs from worms can be transferred to you from your cat. Many cat owners do not realize how easy the transfer is or how quickly the worms will start to grow once they have entered your body, causing major health risks.
How Do The Worms Get Transferred?
Before we take a look at what types of worms can be transferred to you from your cat, we need to establish how exactly the worms are being transferred. Doing so will ensure that you and your family are safe and that you will not need to eat a deworming pill every week to get rid of the latest batch.
Many people assume that once a cat has been dewormed that it will never have worms again, with most people insisting that indoor cats cannot have any worms. We always recommend that you are careful and that you do not simply allow your pets to come into too much contact with your mouth or nose.
Sneezing
Like it or not, when your cat sneezes, it is expelling everything a person would expel when it is sneezing, except everything is a lot more aerosolized. This means that you may not feel some of their snot or spit hitting you, which makes it all the more dangerous when it comes to worms.
When a cat sneezes, either in your face, on your hands, or just while it is sleeping, it will usually spray the eggs from worms it has in its digestion everywhere. If you then rub your face or even don't wash your hands, you will ingest these eggs, finding yourself with a sudden worm problem.
Licking
Cats like to clean themselves, and when they see you as part of their family, they may even lick you; it is one of the cutest things they can do. However, it also means that they are transferring worm eggs onto every surface they are licking, which includes their fur, your hands, or even the face of your baby.
We always implore everyone to keep the space where your cat can go apart from where you are sleeping, making sure to wash your hands before you eat. This separation will drastically reduce the chances of you getting their worms, with the quickest way always being through your unwashed hands and the food you are eating.
Coughing
Whether it is because your cat is sick or because it is simply having a problem with something stuck in its throat, coughing is the second fastest way to spread worms. As it coughs, spit, and other things fly through the air, everything that your cat has in its mouth will be spread like a leaf blower in autumn.
This means that if your cat is lying in your bed, with or without you, it will spread all the eggs from worms it has stuck in its mouth across the bed. Spreading any and all worms that it may have to you, causing later sickness and other diseases as the worms make their way into your body.
Breathing
Normally, this is not a problem, as your cat will be breathing on your lap or somewhere else further away from your face where it cannot simply breathe into your face. However, when you are both comfortably sleeping, enjoying the night, and having fun, this will all change rapidly.
As your cat moves around and as you move around, eventually, you will end up breathing close to each other, either both being open-mouthed or one just breathing into the other's mouth. This will spread the worm eggs and even the worm larva that loves living in your favorite pet.
Cat Fur
The strangest and often most overlooked way of transferring worms between cats and humans is the fur from your cat. Because cats love to clean themselves, their saliva gets onto most of their fur, causing worms eggs to naturally become transferred onto the fur.
While the eggs will eventually be washed off, they can still survive for several days without completely dying or being gotten rid of. This means that the fur on your pillows, the fur flying through the air, or just the fur that you are cleaning can transfer the worms to you.
How Do You Know If You Have Gotten Worms From Your Cat?
Now that we know just how easy it can be for worms to be transferred to you through almost any normal interaction with your cat, we need to look at the signs that they have worms. Many people assume that all cats have worms; however, this is not always true, and there will be signs.
After all, if your cat is properly treated and has been dewormed, it should have a few antibodies and other things inside it that prevent worms from flourishing. This means that an indoor cat very well may not have any worms at all, while a cat that travels the neighborhood will have several worms.
(Source: My British Shorthair)
Feces
If you suspect or fear that you or your cat has worms, you need to actually inspect their feces, digging through the kitty litter to confirm. You may see dead eggs shells, dead worms, or parts of worms appearing in the feces, with larger worms like tapeworms being easy to see.
We need to be clear about this; the process of checking for worms is not something glamorous and will involve holding your nose and having a set of gloves on. However, this is the easiest and safest way of checking if your cat has suddenly gotten unwanted passengers.
Itchy Butt
Like dogs, when your cat has worms, usually digestive worms, their butts will start to constantly itch, as the worms are causing damage and irritants. If your cat is overly focused on licking its derriere or suddenly dragging its butt across the grass or carpet, you can be assured there are worms.
You won't have to even check its feces; you can load your cat into the car and take it to the nearest vet to get it checked out. The most common worms your cat will have are digestive worms; these are usually also the least likely to cause long-term problems.
Loss Of Weight
This is what happens when you have more serious worms to worry about, usually heartworms, lungworms, or liver flukes. These worms damage the organs they are living on and will cause your cat or kitten to have major losses of appetite, usually requiring intensive veterinarian care to get healthy again.
These worms can be spread to humans can cause major sickness and long-term damage to the organs, with the pills not always being as easy to drink as it is for our cats. Your cat must be properly inoculated to fight these worms and have the right medicine given each year to help it along.
Conclusion
Worms are nothing to ever laugh about in either your cat or yourself, and unfortunately, many people do not take them as seriously as they should. We always recommend that you do not sleep with your cat, especially if they are a free-roaming one that can leave as it pleases.
Whatever you do, please don't allow any pet, no matter how young or old, to lick your face; it may seem cute, but their mouths are extremely dirty.