Theola Walden Baker wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Elainie Gagne"
>
>
>
>>Only one cat gets tapeworms though.
>>
>>
>
>Fleas are the intermediate host for the tapeworms.  If one of your cats has
>tapes, I'd venture to say the others do too, even if you don't see worm
>segments or the fleas.
>
Actually this is not true for the cat tapeworm.  I got the whole lecture
from my vet.  It's
fascinating.  The intermediate hosts are rodents and birds.  The cat
eats the rodent or bird.
The cat gets tapeworm, which can grow to a reasonable size in the large
digestive tract.
By and by, the tapeworm sheds segments (those are the floppy white
rice-sized things).
They fall off the cat and back into the world.  Then the rodents and/or
birds eat them.
(They may smell very tasty to a rodent; they look like a grain of
rice).  Round and round
we go.

Fleas may carry some other stuff, but not this, according to what I've
been told.

    Lynnet