Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 9/6/2006

Question
My 7 yr old cat has had tape worms twice. Both times I bought pills to get rid of them. Now I have a kitten who had her shots against tape worms a month ago but now he has them. There inside cats and I rarely see fleas on them. Why is this happenning?

Answer
Reoccuring tapeworms result from the cats eating the fleas.  There may be only a few fleas, but when the cats eat them you will not see fleas on them.

The tapeowrm pills are not that effective, but the tapeworm shot is 100% effective.  If the kitten got them again, then start using Advantage on the cat to kill the fleas as soon as they get on them.