Drontal is a deworming tablet for cats that kills tapeworms, roundworms, and hookworms in a single dose. It contains two active ingredients, praziquantel and pyrantel, which work together to cover the most common intestinal parasites cats pick up. It’s one of the most widely used feline dewormers worldwide and is given as a one-time oral tablet rather than a multi-day course.
How Drontal Works
Each Drontal tablet combines two compounds that attack different types of worms through different mechanisms. Pyrantel targets roundworms and hookworms by overstimulating their nervous systems. It mimics a chemical signal that causes the worms’ muscles to contract uncontrollably, leaving them paralyzed. Once paralyzed, the worms can’t hold on to the intestinal wall and get swept out naturally through your cat’s digestive tract.
Praziquantel handles tapeworms. It damages the outer surface of the tapeworm, making it vulnerable to the cat’s own digestive enzymes. The tapeworm essentially gets broken down and absorbed in the gut, which is why you often won’t see tapeworm segments in your cat’s stool after treatment.
Because these two ingredients cover different parasite families, a single Drontal tablet provides broad-spectrum deworming without needing to combine multiple products.
What Parasites It Treats
Drontal is effective against the three categories of intestinal worms most commonly found in cats:
- Tapeworms: These flat, segmented worms are often picked up when cats swallow fleas during grooming. You might notice small rice-like segments near your cat’s tail or in their litter box.
- Roundworms: The most common intestinal parasite in cats, especially kittens. They look like thin spaghetti and can sometimes be visible in vomit or stool.
- Hookworms: Smaller worms that latch onto the intestinal lining and feed on blood. Heavy infections can cause anemia, particularly in young cats.
Drontal does not treat lungworms, heartworms, or external parasites like fleas and ticks. If your cat needs protection against those, a separate product is required.
Dosage and How to Give It
Drontal is dosed by body weight. The standard tablet treats a cat weighing up to 4 kg (about 9 pounds), with an XL version available for larger cats at one tablet per 6 kg. For smaller cats under 2 kg, half a tablet is used. It’s a single oral dose, not a course you repeat over several days.
The tablet can be placed directly into your cat’s mouth or hidden in food. There’s no requirement to give it with or without a meal, so you have flexibility. If your cat is difficult to pill, tucking it into a small piece of soft food or a pill pocket often works. Wash your hands after handling the tablet.
How often you give Drontal depends on your cat’s lifestyle. Indoor-only cats with minimal exposure risk are typically dewormed less frequently than outdoor cats or those in multi-cat households. Many vets recommend deworming every three months for cats that go outside or hunt, since reinfection is common.
Safety and Side Effects
Drontal has a strong safety profile. In clinical field studies, 83 out of 85 cats showed no side effects at all at the recommended dose. Of the two that did, one temporarily lost its appetite and the other had brief loose stools. Both resolved on their own.
Even at ten times the recommended dose in safety testing, the only effects seen were drooling and vomiting, with no lasting harm. After the product went to market, occasional reports of temporary unsteadiness (ataxia) surfaced, though this appears to be rare.
Most cats tolerate Drontal without any noticeable change in behavior or appetite. If your cat does vomit shortly after taking the tablet, contact your vet about whether a repeat dose is needed.
Kittens, Pregnant Cats, and Restrictions
Drontal should not be given to kittens younger than 6 weeks old. For kittens that meet the age requirement but weigh under 2 kg, a half-tablet dose is used. It is not approved for use during pregnancy. However, it can be given to nursing (lactating) cats, which is useful since mother cats can pass roundworms to kittens through their milk.
Drontal for Cats vs. Drontal for Dogs
Drontal exists in both feline and canine formulations, and they are not interchangeable. The dog version (sometimes called Drontal Plus) contains a third active ingredient that targets additional parasites found in dogs, and the dosing is completely different. Never give a dog formulation to a cat. The feline-specific product is labeled “Drontal Cat” or “Drontal for Cats and Kittens” and contains only praziquantel and pyrantel.
What Drontal Doesn’t Do
Drontal is a treatment, not a preventive. It kills worms that are already present in the gut at the time of dosing but provides no lasting protection against future infections. A cat that hunts or has flea exposure can pick up new worms within days of being treated. That’s why regular, repeated dosing on a schedule is the standard approach rather than a one-and-done treatment. Pairing Drontal with consistent flea control is particularly important, since fleas are the main route of tapeworm transmission in cats.