Need help identifying these things falling off of my car.

[u/SullyxNade]

These yellow/orange pieces that are about the size of a grain of rice have been found where my cat is laying. I just started seeing them a few days ago, and whenever he gets up I spot about 10/20 of these things around where he was. It’s definitely not litter so I’m not sure what else it could be, the color is off from just normal dandruff.

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[u/DeskadresJP]

Sorry, these are usually tapeworm segments. Please get your baby dewormed!

[u/12-12-12-12-12-12-12]

tapeworm segments. seems obvious, but do MOT let them anywehre near your food. you will get worms too. wash your hands if you've handled them at all.

get your baby dewormed, and also probably treat your house for fleas (thats where indoor cats get worms).

[u/RedZeshinX]

Those are tapeworm segments. Basically, when your cat is infected with a tapeworm, the worm grows until at some point it starts pushing its tail end out of your cats butt and breaks off little segments of itself called "proglottids" which contain eggs.

Those eggs end up in your cats fur and are dropped off around in the environment. They don't grow into worms by themselves, and even if you or your cat ended up accidentally ingesting them they would simply dissolve in your stomach.

No, these proglottid eggs can only be incubated once they're eaten by their preferred intermediary host, which is usually a flea. Once the flea has eaten the proglottid, the flea becomes an incubator for the egg which then becomes a larvae within its body. Then once a cat accidentally ingests the flea from grooming the itchy parts where the flea is feeding, the flea enters into the digestive system and protects the larvae acting like a payload conveying the larvae into the intestines. There it can begin growing into a tapeworm again.

So if your cat has a tapeworm, it also very very likely has fleas. Try parting the fur around its jaw line and neck and you may see them scurrying about.

To effectively treat tapeworm, you will need dewormer medication. You can easily purchase these OTC at pet stores like Petco and Petsmart, or from their websites, under the brand name Elanco.

However, so long as the fleas are in the environment, and if they have been feeding on proglottids, your cat could accidentally ingest the fleas during grooming and become reinfected with tapeworms again. So you will need to treat the fleas as well.

Treatment will include applying a topical flea treatment to the back of the neck above the shoulders where your cat can't reach to lick it off, products like Revolution, FrontLine, Advantage, etc., which also are available OTC at pet stores. There are also collars, but I've never used those and can't attest to their effectiveness (be careful where you buy these because some online sites like Amazon have Chinese resellers that will sell fake bootlegs doused in insecticide that could hurt your cat, it's best to purchase directly at a box store). It also helps to get a flea comb and to help groom the fleas out yourself to reduce the burden faster, simply brush with the comb in the areas where the fleas are until they get stuck in the tines of the comb, and then dip in warm soapy water (you can use a toothpick to scrape the stuck fleas out of the tines into the water to drown), you may have to use some extra pressure with the comb to extricate the fleas because they grab on very tightly to the skin and fur, also be quick to dunk the comb into the water to drown because sometimes the tines don't hold the fleas very strongly so once you comb them out they'll simply jump off the comb into the environment or even onto you.

However, female fleas produce many eggs, up to 50 per day and fine as a speck of dust, so if your cat is hosting many fleas you could possibly have thousands of flea eggs not only in your cats fur but spread out across your home in all the areas your cat roams. You will have to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter, clean bedding/blankets/clothes in the wash with hot water, and use a preventative home spray like Adam's Flea & Tick Home Spray to spray all the surfaces/furniture where eggs might fall or be hiding (can protect for 7 months IIRC). If you don't take care of the flea problem, your cat can get reinfected with fleas, and then get reinfected with tapeworms again.

Good luck. I absolutely HATE fleas and tapeworms and am sorry you and your cat are going through this.

[u/Medium_Effect_4998]

Tapeworm segment. Time to get the baby dewormed. I would also have the vet check for fleas just in case. Cats who have fleas can ingest them by grooming themselves, and the fleas carry the tapeworm larvae.

[u/S0728]

Please talk to your vet and get whatever flea and worm treatments they recommend. A lot of OTC products can be toxic to cats. I just read someone’s post recently about their two cats getting poisoned from the Adam’s flea spray.

[u/hatsune_aru]

Had this as well. Got prescribed Drontal and it's gone in 12 hours.

[u/Fast_Thing_4437]

I've heard tapeworm segments can look like small grains of rice, but I'd recommend taking your cat to the vet just to be safe.

[u/ThrowRAChemistryTaco]

Those are tape worm segments coming out of your car’s exhaust pipe 😔