my cat has worms?

[Raw Kyle]

Back story:I've been feeding my cat raw meat for at least a couple of years now. Occasionally someone helps me take care of him and he might get a can of commercial cat food or some canned fish, but his diet is overwhelmingly raw meat. At least that's what I feed him, but he's an indoor/outdoor cat and might be digging through garbage or people might be feeding him.

A day or two ago I saw two little worms in my carpet, at separate times of the day. I was surprised and just picked them up and threw them out. Then today I'm on the phone laying on my couch telling my girlfriend about it and look down at the carpet: dozens of the worms. They were all over, seemingly coming out of the carpet itself. My first thought was that they were the larval stage of fleas since my house had fleas before. But afaik flea larvae are minuscule and these were about a cm long. Then I thought of my cat. What kept me from being sure it was him is that the worms are in places he can't get to, like under the couch and all against the walls. Some of these places haven't been available for contact since I moved my furniture around months ago. That gives more evidence to the flea egg/larva theory.

Anyway I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow and hopefully grabbing a worm to take with me. This episode brings some doubt into my mind about natural health and all that. Maybe he did get into some garbage, but still having to give an animal medication attacks the foundation of belief in paleolithic health strategies.

[Josh]

Woudn't the worms be in the cat scat?

I don't think it undermines anything...1) cat prob does eat or chew anything that smells a bit like food like you say 2) even if the cat only ate raw for the sake of argument, I'm sure paleo people got all sorts of ailments from time to time and either recovered or got seriously ill. I don't think the diet is a cure-all it's just nutritionally superior and avoids the downsides of cooking, so will avoid  problems stemming from bad diet and give less chance of getting ill in general. I avoid doctors but feel happy that we have medicine available if we need it for certain things.

What's important is that it doesn't give you any more chance of getting ill than a standard diet and that seems true. I got some kind of worms a few times when I was a kid, probably because I used to chew everything and eat my books, but they just went away.

If you think about it there must have been an arms race between animals and parasites otherwise the parasites wouldn't have been able to evolve in the first place.

[goodsamaritan]

IF the parasites are winning, kick them out.
Use pet zappers and herbal dewormers.

[Hans89]

Well, it's normal for your cat to have parasites, isn't it? I mean wild animals have them all the time, too. Is your cat sick at all?

[Inger]

Well,
I dont deworm my cat eather, even if the common understanding says, you have to deworm your pets regularely.
I give her only raw meat and fish, but she goes a lot outside too, like your cat,
so it is hard to control what she eats.
But, I would only deworm her if she were sick in some way, but she is not! She looking and acting healthy.

Inger

[Raw Kyle]

False alarm, cat doesn't have worms. They were some kind of carpet worm which I now have to figure out how to get rid of/prevent.

Parasites do scare me though, and this is an example of that. Pictures of them are disgusting.

I agree with your stance on these things Josh. A lot of people on diet sites, and gurus like AV, make it seem like a strict diet like this can prevent/cure anything. I just don't believe that. But I do think the majority of ailments are caused by the problems in diet.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[kurite]

False alarm, cat doesn't have worms. They were some kind of carpet worm which I now have to figure out how to get rid of/prevent.

What were they eating to survive?

[Raw Kyle]

What were they eating to survive?

Sorry for the lack of response. I never went down there and checked, but I'm guessing there was a dead animal that got in my crawl space somehow. The worms ended up being maggots, and when googling that phenomenon (maggots coming up from carpet) it appears many people have had that happen.

[Alan]

save the worms for me.   and don't let me get near that cat.....   some folks say it tastes like chicken.

[RawZi]

A lot of people on diet sites, and gurus like AV, make it seem like a strict diet like this can prevent/cure anything.

    I don't think AV considers that worms are an illness at all.  I seem to remember when I first met him in the flesh him describing how happy he was that after decades of eating the primal diet he had finally repaired enough from all his cancers and stuff that he got a tapeworm.  He considered getting it/it growing in his bowels to be a positive health accomplishment.

    Was your cat acting sick?

    I had worms once as a child.  Maybe they made me itch.  Herbs got rid of them easily.

[Nation]

    He considered getting it/it growing in his bowels to be a positive health accomplishment.

lol! Aajonus at his best. Gotta love the guy.