Totally gross question...

amydcarlson
amydcarlson Posts: 136 Member
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Alright, so I want to deworm my cat, since I haven't done it since I moved to the city and he used to be a country cat...eating birds, mice, bugs etc. So I Google "How to get rid of worms in cats", I was thinking of trying some sort of non-chemical treatment on him, since it's just a precaution. Of course, after I get my required info, I begin to looks at the other stuff that came up under that Google search. My curiosity got the better of me, and against my better judgement, I watched a clip of Dr. Oz on Oprah talking about how 90% of us will be host to a parasite at one time or another. Now, although I have no symptoms (like WEIGHT LOSS-I wish...) I'm feeling like a hypochondriac and I'm thinking about one of those herbal parasite-cleansing kits.

Normally, I am of the mind that stuff like that is just a bunch of snake-oil B.S. But I certainly don't want WORMS in me, whether they are bothering me or not. Better safe than sorry, right? On the other hand, I know plenty of people who have had colonoscopies, and even got to see their own intestines on camera, and NOT A SINGLE ONE ever saw a parasite or any of the infamous "10-15lbs of undigested meat" that most of us supposedly have. So, according to first-hand witnesses, these things do not seem to be nearly as prevalent as the snake-oil salesmen on the infomercials would have us believe. I am just trying to decide if this is something that I should actually consider spending my money on.

Anyone have any first-hand input on this? I know we all have a friend of a friend who..., or heard of a guy who..., and John Wayne had..., etc. But honestly, does anyone have any FIRST HAND experience with this? Should I spend my money, or just quit being paranoid?

Replies

  • LizzieBrayden
    LizzieBrayden Posts: 20
    Don't worry about parasites. Worms, lice, those kind of things, are parasitic. I'd not worry about worms anymore than you worry about lice...when and IF you ever have symptoms that can't be explained any other way. It's not as common as you're thinking...it just isn't unheard of in the world.

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  • believetoachieve
    believetoachieve Posts: 675 Member
    I haven't even had any friends experience this. I travel a fair bit to questionable countries (2x a year - mexico, BVI, cuba), and the worst I've gotten was food poisoning. I find that when I've read about it, I've become paranoid too, lol. But I remind myself that a lot of the "symptoms" are just symptoms of a million other things (or entirely normal).

    It totally bugs me (ha, ha!) that there may be some creepy crawlies in there - but those "cleanse" kits are soooo expensive sometimes! I'm interested to see the replies you get, sorry I couldn't offer more!
  • amydcarlson
    amydcarlson Posts: 136 Member
    I've got to say, I thought I'd get way more feedback.... Thanks, you two lovely ladies for yours! I slept on it, and am feeling less paranoid now, anyway, lol! I'm not going to be a sucker. I don't have enough money to p*ss away on hocus-pocus crap. :laugh:
  • chelle1a
    chelle1a Posts: 143 Member
    I asked my pediatrician if I should get something to deworm our family since we were deworming our dog and 2 cats. Our pediatricain said unless we actually ate the animal feces it is very doubtful we would need to do this unless we were noticing symptoms. However, I havea friend that works in a vet clinic and they would take medication to deworm every so many months "just in case" . I went with the advice of my doctor though.
  • anovasjo
    anovasjo Posts: 382 Member
    I've heard a lot of "parasite" horror stories, and understand why it would gross somebody out.
    People say to take black walnut, wormwood, cloves, whatever.
    Being told that there are bugs inside me and that I need to eat a special potion to get them out is an extra imaginative way to try and get me to spend money.

    If you are seriously concerned that you might have a tapeworm or something, I would speak to a specialist before self-medicating.
  • halobender
    halobender Posts: 780 Member
    Long story short, you DO NOT have a parasitic worm in you.

    I can guarantee it without knowing anything about you, having had seen you and only with the knowledge that you live in the United States.

    Nearly the only way for North Americans to get worms nowadays is to go out and walk barefoot in a SEVERELY limited third world country with the INTENT of getting worms. Most commonly people try to infect themselves with hook worms because it's (read: IS NOT, NOT AT ALL—probably) good for your heart.

    I don't want to try to say that America is great and we're so much better and that's why we don't have them. I think I've heard it's because we've so overused pesticides that we've killed many of them off. Something. I don't ACTUALLY know.

    At the same time, I've heard that one in six Americans has worms. I've heard (first person accounts of a third person) stories about people whom doctors had suspected, for years, to have AIDS then cancer then fibromyalgia and other things based on their level of fatigue and such, only for them to, eventually, pass a tapeworm which had died of old age ... But I think that even among the people I know who swear they know the person this happened to, these are only urban legends.

    And, while I also live in the United States and think it rather unlikely that I could even possibly have a worm, I'm now having a hypochondriac's reaction to just thinking about this. Thanks for that. Heh.

    A lot of the symptoms of worms are just ... things that occur to people. I have a lot of gastrointestinal problems ... Every time I actually think about it I'm brought to worrying that I've got a worm growing in there, but have to tell myself it's unlikely.

    It's ... unlikely. Though sadly not impossible.
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
    quit being paranoid. :laugh:

    I had pin worms when I was a kid. They are not something you can easily miss or ignore. They make your bum itch. And you see them in your stool in the toilet. If you had worms you'd know it.
  • anovasjo
    anovasjo Posts: 382 Member
    If you had worms you'd know it.

    right! :glasses:
  • amydcarlson
    amydcarlson Posts: 136 Member
    Lol! :happy: You guys rock! Thanks for helping me keep my sanity in check. :wink:

    ~ Amy
  • aeevr
    aeevr Posts: 34
    Yeah the chances of you having a parasitic infection are infinitesimally small and you don't want to take medication for something you don't have as the side effects could be devastating at worst.

    But here's some food for thought:
    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/goodparasites/
  • jmcniel
    jmcniel Posts: 65
    Reminds me of the 1,000 Ways To Die and a lady wanted to loose 50lbs quickly so she ingested tape worms. She felt she was not getting results fast enough so she ate more, turns out the tape worms she had grew to the point of tearing her intestines and she bleed out.


    I guess she lost that 50lbs and then some.
  • believetoachieve
    believetoachieve Posts: 675 Member
    Reminds me of the 1,000 Ways To Die and a lady wanted to loose 50lbs quickly so she ingested tape worms. She felt she was not getting results fast enough so she ate more, turns out the tape worms she had grew to the point of tearing her intestines and she bleed out.


    I guess she lost that 50lbs and then some.

    Oh goodness, lol. May that be a lesson to all those looking for a quick-fix-diet-in-a-bottle ! I think there was also a south park episode like this. Didn't cartman try to lose weight by eating tapeworms or something? lol :laugh:
  • halobender
    halobender Posts: 780 Member
    Oh goodness, lol. May that be a lesson to all those looking for a quick-fix-diet-in-a-bottle ! I think there was also a south park episode like this. Didn't cartman try to lose weight by eating tapeworms or something? lol :laugh:
    In the episode "Jared Has Aides" the boys convinced Butters to get fat so that they could get him to then lose the weight and be endorsed by City Wok as their own Jared.

    Unfortunately the weight loss doesn't come as easily as gaining it did (story of our lives, right?), so they resort to liposuction. After a home lipo surgery the boys abandon Butters in his living room; his parents walk in the door and say "BUTTERS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! WHAT DID WE TELL YOU?!" "Uh, eh, never to perform liposuction on myself ... jeez, I'm sorry."
  • believetoachieve
    believetoachieve Posts: 675 Member
    Haha, I stand corrected!! I knew it was something funny like that, involving gross worms. :laugh:
  • halobender
    halobender Posts: 780 Member
    involving gross worms.
    Except that it didn't involve worms :p But that's OK. As far as I can recall, there's only that one, Weight Gain 4000 and Fat Camp that revolve around weight. However in Weight Gain 4000 Cartman was trying to gain weight for Kathy Lee Gifford so as to impress her (he wanted to be ripped); in Fat Camp Cartman switched places with a kid who was supposed to be at a boot camp or something.

    In The Simpsons Did It, though, they did feed their teacher Ms Choksondik "Sea People," which they believed killed her. [/South Park expert]
  • believetoachieve
    believetoachieve Posts: 675 Member
    LOL, it's been a long day, sorry. Yes, I remember fat camp... and he was selling candy/chocolates to the other kids or something? Haha, it's been way too long. Maybe I have my shows mixed up, I totally remember some type of chubby cartoon eating worms to lose weight! Off to google I go! :drinker:
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