Should I worm my kitten or take her to the vet?

[felinepoorly]

We've had our two 5 month old rescue kittens for about 2 months. When we first got them kitten A was the lively, affectionate and adventurous one and kitten B was shy and cautious. About a month ago (I suppose round about when we started letting them out but not exactly sure) kitten A started getting less affectionate and lively. She has slowly become less and less lively and curious and in the last week I've noticed she doesn't really play much with kitten B like she used to. Other symptoms:

• She is also quite smelly (gassy)and last weekend had diarrhea and vomited twice.

-turning her nose up at chicken, fish etc which she ate before (She is eating dry food though.)

• She doesn't sleep like a cat, she sleeps really heavy and still like a log.

-Kitten B is growing faster than kitten A.

I am starting to get quite worried about her. DH thinks we just need to worm her and plans to do so this week (we don't have a lot of money for vet fees) but I am worried. If she has something else wrong with her will worming her damage her health?. She is so sweet, she lay in my arms purring tonight. We got the kittens for DC but I am so attached to them now especially kitten A. What should we do?

Hi

Are they both vaccinated?

tbh if it were me I would get her checked over - it doesn't sound like she is merely needing wormed. Could be a number of things but she would need to be looked at by a vet.

PDSA can help if you are in financial hardship.

HTH & let us know how she gets on.

Thanks Bella, yes both vaccinated. After writing this message last night I remembered seeing a long stringy brown thing hanging out of her bottom a while back. Believe it or not I've had/lived with several cats and none, to my knowledge, have had worms so I didn't think anything of it at the time. Could be worms?

Yes, she could well have worms (all cats ahould be wormed regularly) and a large worm burden could make her poorly but your other cat is likely to be just as infested. From what you've said she seems to have become quite lethargic, which you wouldn't expect in a 5 month kitten. That's why I would see a vet.

Make sure you worm her with a wormer from your vet (should only be a couple of pounds or so) as they are the only ones which will kill all worms she may be carrying. Many wormers sold in pet shops aren't effective.

Good luck whatever you decide.