Flakes in bed, from cat?

Home › The Daily Kitten Cat Chat Forum › Cats & Kittens › Flakes in bed, from cat?

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • 31 January, 2014 at 9:32 pm #800899
    Jordan
    Participant

    A couple of nights ago I opened my covers to see my sheet littered with a bunch of yellowish-tanish flakes… they’re not really flaky, like skin that’s peeled, but like small little ovalish shaped things, smaller than a grain of rice, like maybe half the size.
    There were tons of them. I wasn’t sure what they were, I have really dry skin in the winter so I thought it was just dried skin flakes, my skin tends to get itchy in the night. they are around the color of my skin but maybe a bit darker. It was on most of the bed sheet. I washed the sheets and mattress pad last night and went to bed. This morning when I woke up, there were more of them again, all on my side of the bed where I sleep, seems to mostly around my torso and hip area.

    My 4 month old kitten sleeps with me, usually curled up leaning somewhere against my torso.. and I thought maybe it could possibly be him shedding the flakes… but he sleeps curled up on me on top of the covers, when the flakes are under the sheets, I don’t see how they would get there through a down comforter and a sheet. I freaked out and thought they were bugs at first, but looking at them closely they don’t seem to resemble bugs at all, just like tiny pellets of rice, and if they are then they are all dead by morning…and I have never have any bites or anything on me.

    Ludo doesn’t seem to scratch at himself very often, maybe his ear once or twice a day, and I haven’t seen any fleas on him. Does anyone know if these flakes could indeed be from my kitty?

    I tried researching and saw some posts about tapeworm, but the little pellets or flakes or whatever they are are pretty small, and there are tons of them. I checked the top of his tree (one of his favorite places to sleep) but didn’t see any up there. Maybe it is from me, it could very well be, but I thought I’d ask just in case my kitty might need some extra skin care.

    Thanks for any insights!

    31 January, 2014 at 9:33 pm #800900
    Jordan
    Participant

    Update: This morning there were more, around the opposite pillow. Here are photos I tried to take (sorry, they are small and my camera is not the best). They almost look like little seeds, they are around the size of chia seeds, a little bigger. The closest I’ve seen was maybe tapeworm segments, but they are always in the bed and there are tons of them. Could they be flea eggs?

    View post on imgur.com

    View post on imgur.com


    http:// imgur.com/IyyTa6w

    1 February, 2014 at 12:56 am #800909
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Racking my brain here trying to think of a parasite of cats (or humans) that is like what you described. Look closely at your cats fur by parting it with your fingers and see if you can see lice. They would be about as you described. Gently scratch the cats’ skin with your fingers and see if anything moves. The nits (or lice eggs) are attached to the hair follicle itself and they do not move. Now don’t freak out because lice are species specific, meaning you cannot get lice from the cat or the cat can’t get them from you. If you think your cat may have lice, then the vet can help you with a flea/tick/lice medication, such as Frontline.

    Another thing it could be is ear mites. Cats sometimes dig hard enough at their ears to dislodge ear mite dirt that is dark or tannish in color. You can check their ears by taking a little oil like baby oil on a cotton swab and swabbing down in your cats ears and taking the material that comes out and wiping it on a paper towel. If there are ear mites on the towel they will crawl away so you know they have them. The vet told me that Frontline doesn’t work for ear mites but Revolution does. Another indicator is if the inside of their ear looks really dirty then it may be ear mite dirt.

    Hope this helps and hopefully someone else will weigh in here!

    2 February, 2014 at 2:05 am #800954
    snowkitten
    Participant

    They look like dried out tapeworm segments, or possibly some other dried out worms. My cat had tapeworms a while back. I combed a couple out of her fur when it was still alive & moist (a wiggling white segment… ewww…). Later when I looked at it ready to bring it to the vet, it was all dried out and dead. When the segments were dried out, they were yellow… like small yellow grains of rice. Some were even dried out into small, yellow rounded mini balls.

    So to me it sounds like dried up tape worm segments.

    On a side note, pin worms mostly come out during the night… so it could be dried up & dead pin worms instead.

    2 February, 2014 at 3:04 am #800958
    Buttons
    Moderator

    Have to agree with snow kitten.. Sounds like tapeworm segments.. A really good wormer should sort the issue out.. It’s gross but it happens 🙁

    3 February, 2014 at 5:54 pm #801098
    Jordan
    Participant

    Thanks for your responses! I wasn’t sure if it was from him or me since they were under the sheets and covers and he sleeps on top of them, but when I got home Friday afternoon I lifted up his tail and saw a couple of them around that area. I called the vet and had him come in and they gave him a pill (Cestex) that is supposed to fix it. He also had his last flea treatment a few weeks ago and has never shown any signs of fleas (he’s an indoor cat). I don’t know how soon the tapeworm should be taken care of, but the past two days I have not found any segments in the bed.

    11 April, 2017 at 11:58 pm #857955
    Sara
    Participant

    I’ve been having the same exact problem!
    I think they’re something like tapeworm segments, which disgusts me. My cat sleeps on my bed every day. I came home today and found so many of them on my bed.
    My cat doesn’t see a vet, because my dad has been skipping every appointment of hers. She hasn’t seen a vet in about four years.

    12 April, 2017 at 12:13 am #857956
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Any cat can get tapeworms, and fleas, whether they go outside or not. Fleas are carried in on your clothes and shoes and you can get them in your home even if you don’t have pets. I would definitely try and get her to a vet to get good parasite treatment, as many of the kinds you buy in stores don’t kill the worms and can make your cat very sick–especially stay from any Hartz products.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.