“I found a worm a few times while changing sheets for someone I work for”, states this reader in her submission, though no picture is included. “He does have a cat who lately seems to be losing weight suddenly even though it seems to be eating ok. The litter box though has been unusually overloaded like never before. This has been going on now for the past 6 months. I was wondering if it has anything to do with the cat? The cat is approximately 12 years of age.” Without a photograph, it is nearly impossible to give a concrete identification of an organism. What complicates this situation further is the concern for the cat’s health.

In any case where someone’s health is potentially at risk, we cannot identify any organisms that may have to do with that. This is because we are not medical professionals, and only a medical professional is qualified and legally able to provide such an identification, as doing so is tantamount to providing a diagnosis – especially in the case of parasitic organisms. Of course, we are not saying that the worms our reader found are necessarily parasites: that is for a medical professional to determine. But the signs that our reader listed are more than enough cause for concern.

Our suggestion is that the person our reader works for take his cat to a vet to check if it has parasitic worms in its body. That way, the cat can get diagnosed and treated by someone who is equipped to do so, and the worm problem will then get handled in the safest and most efficient way. Now, if the vet does not identify any parasitic organisms, then we would say that the worm is most likely some kind of clothes-eating pest, maybe a clothes moth larva or a carpet beetle larva. They are often found on bed sheets munching on the organic fibers in the material.

In conclusion, we are not able to identify the worms our reader found on the bed sheets, because we are not medical professionals. We hope for the sake of the cat that these are not parasites, but the cat’s owner better be safe than sorry and take his cat to the vet to get it checked. Only a vet is qualified and legally able to make this sort of identification. We hope this helps, and we wish our reader, her boss, and his cat the very best!