Hookworms are a group of hematophagous intestinal parasites that can affect cats. They are known as “hook worms” because of the characteristic teeth on their large buccal capsule that allow them to hook onto the feline's intestine.
Cats become parasitized when they ingest, penetrate the skin or pass through the milk to the kittens the L3 larva of these worms, developing to its adult state located in the small intestine of the feline. Adult hookworms cause symptoms of chronic traumatic enteritis with blood loss due to damage caused by their feeding style. Diagnosis is made using parasitological techniques and treatment is based on correcting possible anemia and electrolyte and nutritional imbalances, as well as killing parasites with anthelmintic drugs. In this article on our site we will address parasitization by hookworms in cats, their symptoms and treatment
What is hookworm in cats?
Feline hookworm is a parasitic disease caused by hookworms, helminth worms belonging to the family Ancylostomatidae and the genus Ancylostoma. Cats in particular can be affected by Ancylostoma tubaeforme, Ancylostoma braziliense and Uncinaria stenocephala.
They are parasitic worms that are characterized by having a very large buccal capsule in relation to the rest of their body, they also have teeth, which allows them to cause great damage to the intestinal mucosa when they get hooked. The disease is characterized by the development of a ulcerative traumatic enteritis with characteristic clinical signs of an anemic process due to blood loss and progressive weakness and weight loss.
Biological cycle of feline hookworm
Gravid females eliminate their eggs in the feces of the affected animal, where they evolve from larva 1 to larva 3 (L1 -L3) in about a week. The optimum development temperature for these larvae is between 20 and 30 ºC.
Causes of hookworm in cats
Cats will become infected when that L3 enters their body. This larva can enter through the following transmission routes:
- Percutaneous: through areas devoid of hair.
- Oral: where they migrate via blood or lymph to the lung, muscle or intestine. They evolve into adult worms in 2-3 weeks.
- Breast milk: through the milk of a parasitized mother to her kittens
Transplacental transmission of parasites has not been seen in cats, as occurs in hookworm in dogs.
Pathogenesis of hookworm in cats
In the case of skin transmission, the L3s penetrate an area of the cat's skin where they cause itchy dermatitis They then migrate to the lung to reach the bloodstream and reach the intestine, its final location. If there are many parasites it can cause damage to the pulmonary alveoli and even pneumonia.
In the intestine they carry out their pathogenic action due to their hematophagous habits and the inflammatory reaction they produce. These parasites hook on the intestinal mucosa with their large toothed mouth causing traumatic ulcerative intestinal inflammation with blood ingestion, causing the cat to lose blood slowly.
In addition, hookworms attach themselves to various sites, forming ulcers and releasing proteolytic substances with which they digest the attached tissue. They also secrete anticoagulant substances so that the blood does not coagulate, which means that the blood does not stop and this constant loss can leave cats anemic and very weak.
Feline hookworm symptoms
The symptomatology of feline hookworm is the consequence of the intestinal traumatic inflammatory process, and the following may be found clinical signs and organic lesions in the cats affected by hookworms:
- Dermatitis.
- Itchy.
- Weight loss in adults or decreased growth in kittens.
- Thickening of the intestinal mucosa.
- Congestion and bleeding in the intestine.
- Mesenteric lymph node infarction
- Intestinal ulcers.
- Bloody diarrhea.
- Dehydration.
- Electrolyte imbalances.
- Nutritional deficiencies.
- Hypoproteinemia.
- Progressive anemia.
- Pale mucous membranes.
- Tachycardia.
- Tachypnea.
- Petechiae in the alveoli.
Parasitized kittens are the most susceptible, where parasitism can become very debilitating and deadly.
Feline Hookworm Diagnosis
The diagnosis is achieved with parasitological tests before the symptomatology that the cat presents, since it is more non-specific and may be due to various feline diseases or infections. However, it is useful to suspect parasitization and to proceed to parasitological tests that will detect hookworms, specifically:
- Coprological analysis (of feces) using the flotation technique and then the search for eggs present in the stool sample cats under the microscope.
- Coproculture (feces culture) so that the eggs evolve to L3 and will later be identified with the Baermann technique.
If your cat is sick and you suspect that he may have hookworm, we recommend that you take him to the vet as soon as possible
Treatment of feline hookworms
When a cat is weakened by this parasitism, the first thing to do is stabilize it with proper nutrition, fluid therapy to correct electrolyte imbalances or dehydration and assess whether a blood transfusion is necessary.
It is essential to determine the cat's blood group before a transfusion, since the transfusion reaction can be devastating if it is not performed properly.
The specific treatment includes the use of internal antiparasitic drugs to eliminate parasitization by these worms. Specifically, the following drugs can be used:
- Macrocyclic lactones, such as milbemycin, ivermectin, selamectin or moxidectin.
- Benzimidazoles, such as fenbendazole, mebendazole, oxibendazole, or febantel.
- Emodepside.
- Levamisol.
Feline hookworm prevention
The way to prevent this parasitization in cats is through deworming of them. In this other article we explain how often I should deworm my cat.
In the case of a pregnant kitten, she must be dewormed at the end of her pregnancy with effective anthelmintics to reduce galactogenic transmission through milk, as well as during lactation. If so, prevention in kittens begins at 6 weeks, repeating every 2 weeks until they reach week 12 of life, from then on every two or three months a internal and external deworming to prevent internal and external parasites.
Do cat hookworms spread to humans?
Yes, feline hookworms are zoonotic, they are transmitted to people Ancylostoma braziliense is the main cause of "cutaneous larva migrans " in people, when the larva 3 of said parasite penetrates the skin of a person who is in contact with a parasitized cat or with soil contaminated by its feces.
Once on the skin it is responsible for causing mild dermatitis with itching, erythema, linear, tortuous or snake-shaped fine reddish-brown and mobile lesions on the skin that itch a lot.
However, hookworms are not the only worms in cats that spread to humans. In this other article, we talk about the Diseases that cats transmit and their symptoms.
