Flea and tick bites are among the most common ailments for household pets, including cats. This is especially true if your cat spends time outside or if you also have dogs or other indoor-outdoor pets. Cats can suffer from flea and tick skin problems and illnesses, so you should know how to spot the signs of infestation and understand the health complications of flea and tick bites. Here’s what to know about your cat and flea and tick treatments.
How to Tell if Your Cat Has Fleas or Ticks
The most common signs of fleas in cats are scratching, hair loss, bumps or scabs on the body, and seeing flea dirt around the cat’s bedding or the fleas themselves may move quickly or jump on your cat’s skin or fur. Fleas are most often found around the cat’s neck, tail, and belly. Ticks also cause scratching, but the more often appear as a small, dark bump attached to the cat’s skin and will move slowly or not at all. They’re most noticeable near the cat’s ears and eyes.
Illness Caused by Flea & Tick Bites
If your cat has fleas, it may experience anemia, hair loss, scabs, or a skin infection such as flea allergy dermatitis. Ticks can cause anemia, appetite loss, swelling of joints, fever, and swollen lymph nodes. Fleas are also able to transmit diseases to cats that can be passed on to humans, such as typhus, plague, and a bacterial infection called Bartonellosis, also known as cat scratch disease. Ticks can transmit Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, ehrlichiosis, tularemia, and tick paralysis to humans.
Best Flea & Tick Treatments
The only way to combat fleas and ticks is to kill the adults, eggs, and larvae on the cats. You’ll also need to treat your home and the source of the infestation. The best flea and tick treatments for cats are ones that destroy all life cycles of the flea and tick, so that re-infestation doesn’t occur. You can use topical medication, flea and tick shampoo, or a flea collar.
Some flea collars can kill all life cycles of fleas and ticks and prevent future re-infestations, but not all of them are effective for all stages. You can also give your cat an oral treatment such as nitenpyram or spinosad. To kill fleas and ticks in your home or yard, you will need to use a spray or powder that is safe for animals and humans.
At Bactronix, we offer BactroBug– a breakthrough product that kills fleas and ticks on contact and is non-toxic to both pets and humans. BactroBug can be applied as a spray directly to your pet’s fur and skin, as well as to indoor and outdoor areas of infestation.
It not only kills fleas and ticks, but also bed bugs, roaches, ants, lice, mosquitoes, aphids, mites, carpet beetles, centipedes, and millipedes. And it is safe to use on pet bedding, carpets, curtains, upholstery, bedspreads, and even mattresses. To talk with a certified specialist about BactroBug, schedule an appointment or give us a call at (412) 375-7886. You can also find BactroBug online and in retail stores.
