Fleas on your cat

Fleas are an external parasite which live and breed in your home, but feed from the blood of your pet and sometimes if a pet is not available, from you.
Although adult fleas live and feed on the cat, the female flea lays eggs, which fall off into the environment. Under favourable conditions, these eggs develop first into larvae and then into pupae. The pupae contain adult fleas that lie in wait for a suitable animal host. Modern carpeted centrally-heated homes provide ideal conditions for the year round development of fleas. Even though fleas may be in your house, you probably won’t see them; the eggs are too small to see without magnification and the larvae, which are just visible, migrate deep down into carpets, furniture or cracks in floors away from the light.
Fleas cause cats to scratch, wash and lick themselves a great deal, which may result in skin irritation and in severe cases, anaemia due to the amount of blood the fleas are sucking from the kitten.
The flea acts as the intermediate host for the tapeworm. Tapeworm eggs, which are shed within tapeworm segments in faeces, are eaten by flea larvae that develop into infected fleas. Pets become infected by eating infected fleas during grooming. Any pet with fleas is likely also to have a tapeworm infestation.

How can I tell if my cat has got fleas?
Fleas are easy to find if your catis heavily infested. If fleas are present in smaller numbers, it can be harder to see them. Try looking on your cat’s stomach, around the base of the tail and around the neck. Sometimes adult fleas cannot be found but “flea dirt” can be seen. This is a good indicator of the presence of fleas. Flea dirt is seen as small black specks and when placed on damp white tissue, they dissolve leaving a reddish brown blood colour. Flea dirt may be found in bedding even when they cannot be found on the pet.
However, there are many effective treatments available from your vet which can eliminate fleas from both the pet and from the surrounding home environment.
The most popular treatments are “spot-on” varieties, which are applied to the skin at the back of the neck every 4 weeks. These are designed to kill the fleas within a few hours and have a residual action for 4 weeks.
Kittens can bring fleas with them when they go to new homes, so it is advisable to start treatment straight away with a product that is safe to use in young kittens and before they go out to prevent infestation from outside.

Prevention is always easier than curing a problem.

Flea treatments should be kept up to date regularly all year round, as fleas still breed in your home when the central heating is turned on.
It is important to treat other pets in your home too. The carpet and soft furnishings can also be treated with special household sprays should a problem arise.
We would like to remind cat owners of the danger posed to cats by some supermarket spot-on flea treatments. Permethrin is a drug found in some spot-on flea treatment for dogs. The drug is, however, very toxic to cats Please be sure to check the label and instructions of any spot-ons you administer to your animals and take care not to put dog spot-ons onto kittens.

If you need any help or advice on which products to use then contact either surgery.