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CBSmom · Jul 22, 2013, 12:24 PM

My cat went to the vet for an upper respiratory infection on Wednesday (5 days ago) and on late Friday she coughed up this worm/grub... does anyone have a clue as to what it is and possibly how I should treat it! I called the vet to make another appointment, but they can not see her until tomorrow. Any help is much appreciated! NOTE: We live in Virginia.

>moved again to find an answer<

Catsmine · Jul 22, 2013, 03:53 PM

The picture does not appear to be of any of the common parasites, so it should be safe to assume that kitty went hunting and ate an egg, or perhaps found some dry food that had been out long enough for an egg to be laid on/in it.

Without examination of the larva, any attempt at identifying it would be guesswork.

Your best bet is to take it to the Vet with kitty, just to be on the safe side.

CBSmom · Jul 23, 2013, 06:14 AM

Catsmine, thank you for the response! I have asked three vets and they all say that this larvae more than likely came from the GI tract. My question: would it be able to survive in the stomach due to the stomach acid (i.e. if it is not a parasite, how would it survive)? When my cat coughed it up, it was alive and moving. I should have taken a video of it. I witnessed it being expelled by my cat. She was having a VERY hard time breathing and was coughing as if having an asthma attack. You could tell she was trying to get something out of her airway. Once this larvae was out, she no longer wheezed or coughed (for a period of time). She continues to have these type of episodes. I really feel like she has more of these things somewhere in her, maybe her lungs or sinuses? We have already given her dewormer but would a dewormer work on a larvae (i.e. not a parasite), especially if it is not in the GI tract? Ugh. I know these questions are not so much for an entomoligst. We are just desperate. :-( She is going to the vet this afternoon. Hopefully we will get some answers.

Wondergirl · Jul 23, 2013, 06:28 AM

I had moved your question from Pest Control to Entomology because you wanted to identify the "object" that your cat had coughed up. Should I move this thread to Cats now, to see if any cat owners or vet techs, etc. have had similar experiences as you?

CBSmom · Jul 23, 2013, 08:21 AM

Wondergirl, feel free to move this post wherever you see fit. Thank you.

Catsmine · Jul 23, 2013, 10:46 AM

Many insect larvae can withstand extreme conditions for a short time. The larva in the photo seems excessively large to be a cat intestinal parasite, which is why I think it hatched in the stomach and kitty threw it up. The shape is similar to the larvae of several beetles, a couple of moths, and some fly species. I won't rule out worms, but it seems huge for a worm in a cat.

LadySam · Jul 23, 2013, 04:46 PM

I'm going to go out on a limb here and throw in cuterebra. It is the larvae of a Bot fly.
They enter the body through open orifices and then migrate through the respiratory tract and subcutaneous tissue. You usually notice them on the body, they migrate outward and settle in the tissue where they grow making a "lump" or nodule, and they come complete with a breathing hole. Given how they migrate it does seem possible that your cat could have expelled a larvae.
However, from your picture this would have to be a larvae in a early stage of development.
Keep in mind that this is only a guess on my part. And some of this would depend on what part of the country you are in.
http://www.capcvet.org/capc-recommen.../cuterebriasis

I found this pretty straight forward info on the subject.
The short video looks like a different creature but it is at that stage of development that they are usually noticed under the skin of the animal.
Do let us know what your vet says when you take her back, I'm curious.