How can I tell if my cat has a tapeworm?

Without going to a vet (I don't have a lot of $) can you tell if a cat has a tapeworm? She eats a lot but she is really skinny. She's not bulimic or anything... at least I don't think so but if she is throwing up her food I haven't found it in the house. So if she does have a tapeworm, what can I do?

If you cat or dog has worms s/he will sit up on the floor with her back feet in front of her and drag her bottom on the floor. She is scratching that part of her anatomy that it's not polite to scratch in public. Next go to Petco and see what kind for worm med's they have. Dose her up, then dose her again in a week. vacuum the floors good and keep an eye on her. she should be fine.Some cats, like some people will never be chunky. It's not fair it just is.

Take a stool sample to the vet for testing. If the cat does have worms, the vet will prescribe the correct type of wormer. If the cat does have tapeworms, that means you have a flea issue. You'll need to treat the cat (with something like Revolution or Frontline - avoid grocery-store flea products), and your home.

Tapeworms are generally only diagnosed when the owner finds a small segment of the worm either on feces, the cat or furniture in the house. These "segments" are actually proglottids--basically egg sacks that detach from the worm and pass out in feces when the eggs inside are ready to mature into the next stage in the life cycle. Fecal testing is very inaccurate for diagnosing tapeworms because the eggs pass out of the body in these "segments" rather than loose in feces.There there is more chance of finding 50 eggs than of finding 1 egg sack. All that being said, it is possible that your cat has tapeworms and you don't know it. But it is also possible that your cat's body type is slender or that there is something else going on such as an inadequate diet, other parasites, etc. If your cat is alert, active, eating well, has a good coat, etc and is slender rather than so thin that bones are showing, then it's unlikely that there is a health issue. But if your cat is unhealthily thin then you need to have a vet examine her and discuss the possible causes and the steps that can be taken to find a diagnosis.