Fleas in cats: appearance, causes, destruction

Fleas in cats are quite common. They are found in domestic animals as often as worms. To protect your pet from infection is 100% impossible. Even if the cat does not have a walk on the street, there is always the possibility of the parasite larvae entering from the street on shoes or an adult insect penetrating through the threshold of the front door, slits of ceilings.

One flea will not drink a lot of blood and the traces of its stay are almost impossible to detect, but it can leave numerous offspring, which over time will cause a lot of trouble not only to the animal, but also to its owner.

Flea - appearance, structure, symptoms

Fleas are ubiquitous. This is a fairly large detachment of insects, which includes subspecies that feed on cat, dog, rat, and even human blood. They differ from each other in size, color of chitinous cover and some structural features of the body.

What does a cat flea look like?

Cat flea - one of the most common and small species among the flea order. The size of an adult insect rarely exceeds 3 mm. For comparison, fleas that feed on human blood have a body size of up to 5 mm, and moose often reach a length of 12 cm! They move quite quickly on the body of the animal, as they are perfectly adapted for movement in thick wool. They have a body flattened from the sides, allowing tacking between the hairs and long hind legs, with the help of which fleas are able to jump up to half a meter in length.
The color of cat fleas can vary from light ginger to dark brown. Sometimes there are almost black insects, which are almost indistinguishable in the coat of an animal with a dark color. A closer look at the abdomen reveals light strips that form at the joints of the abdomen. They become most noticeable when the insect is saturated, when its body increases in size.

What does a cat's flea look like on a body? Outwardly, they look like large grains of dirt stuck in the wool and only at the moment of their movement it becomes clear that they are insects. The feces of fleas that remain on the skin of the animal, which are sometimes mistaken for insect eggs, contribute a lot of deception.

Flea larvae are not at all like adult insects. Outwardly, they look like legless and eyeless dark-colored worms with rare setae on the segments of their body. They are very small, no more than 6 mm long, and 1-2 mm thick. Unlike adult fleas, the larvae do not feed on blood and live outside the body of the animal, in the folds of upholstery of upholstered furniture, pile of carpets, and slits of ceilings.

Flea eggs are small, white, about 0.5 mm long. Females lay them on the floor of the room, where they further develop to the larval stage. Flea eggs look like semolina grains sticking to a finger:

Interesting fact! Fleas do not live on animals constantly. They only feed on their blood, but live on the floor of the room, in various gaps and in the upholstery of furniture.

Body structure

If you look at a flea at close range, you can see that its entire body is covered with numerous bristles and spikes. They help the insect stay on the animal’s body. The bristles are located on the entire surface of the body, on the limbs, back, head. At the ends of the legs 2 claws are also clearly visible, with their help the flea moves in a dense undercoat. The hind legs are well developed and consist of 5 segments. The forelimbs are slightly shorter, they do not participate in the jump and are adapted mainly for movement along the coat of the animal.

The flea’s flat body is equipped with a small head and a voluminous abdomen. When eating, the abdominal part increases significantly in size. On the head you can see a small antennae and two dark eyes. Fleas do not have wings; they lost an aircraft in the process of adaptation to a parasitic way of life. A sucking-piercing oral apparatus adapted to pierce the skin and draw blood from the animal.

Female fleas are usually somewhat larger than males due to the voluminous abdomen, where they carry their eggs for the time being. In the back of the body for both sexes is a kind of tactile organ, equipped with sensitive hairs.

Symptoms of the appearance of fleas

How do I know if cats have fleas? Symptoms of their appearance are very specific. As a rule, cats immediately become restless, constantly itch and try to bite parasites from the hair with their teeth. When examining an animal, black dots can be found - flea excrement, small wounds, scratches on the skin. A closer inspection reveals the insects themselves. Usually they try to stay in places inaccessible to the cat:

• on the back;
• near the ears;
• in the armpit;
• on the skin in the thoracic and cervical region of the body.

When trying to get rid of insects, cats can seriously damage their skin. Microbes get into the wounds, which in some cases leads to inflammation of the skin and the development of all kinds of dermatitis.

If you suspect that fleas have appeared in the house, first check the skin of the animal. As a rule, it is possible to detect insect waste products on it - black lumps of digested blood. When rubbing between the fingers, they disintegrate into small particles. In the thick undercoat, there are usually quite a few such traces. In a shorter and less dense hairline, there are fewer of them, since they are combed by the animals on the floor, where they become food for flea larvae.

Interesting fact! Fleas after saturation jump from the animal and hide in the crevices of the floor or other inaccessible places. The next "feeding" occurs no earlier than a day.

Causes of fleas

Fleas in cats can appear completely unexpectedly for their owners. At the same time, it does not matter at all whether the pet is walking on the street or not. Parasites can be brought into the house on clothes, with dirt on boots. They can even come to your apartment through the threshold of the house or through the slots of the ceilings. The following ways of penetration of these insects are:

• on a walk in contact with an infected animal;
• through household items having eggs and insect larvae on their surface;
• when adult insects on clothes or their larvae with dirt on shoes are brought into the house;
• from neighboring apartments where there are infected animals.

Do cat fleas bite humans? A hungry flea attacks anyone nearby. There is no particular restriction in her diet, although she prefers nevertheless the blood of animals, moreover, of a certain type. There is evidence that fleas attack people in the absence of their pets. Single bites can be observed with a strong infection of the apartment with insects.

Fleas from cats are not transmitted to humans in the truest sense of the word. Insects only feed on animals and, accordingly, will not live on humans. However, they can migrate from place to place by jumping onto a person’s clothes. This can happen if it passes near their habitat or strokes a street cat.Fleas can also get into the folds of clothing if a person picks up items to care for an animal infected with insects.

Advice! To protect yourself from the attack of fleas, you must carefully monitor the sanitary situation in the apartment - periodically wash the floor, wipe the dust, wash dirty laundry. It is in dust and heaps of garbage that insects live and their larvae develop.

Methods of struggle

Flea bites are very painful. They cause a lot of suffering to the animal. Their consequences can be very serious. These are all kinds of skin inflammations, dermatitis, furunculosis. In addition, insects can be carriers of serious viral diseases. How to get rid of fleas, these insatiable parasites? To do this, you will have to arm yourself with patience, since it is necessary to process not only the animal, but also the room where it lives.

Animal processing

So, how are fleas in cats removed? Treatment can be carried out using insecticidal or repellent agents. Currently, there are a huge number of various chemicals that have good effectiveness against this type of parasite. The most popular of them are:

• shampoos
• sprays
• drops
• collars
• tablets.

Shampoos against fleas, which include an insecticide, have proven themselves well. With their help, you can get rid of insects on the animal from one time. They are relatively safe for cats and last quite a while after treatment. However, shampoos are not always convenient to use, especially if the pet is afraid of water. In this case, you can use a spray against fleas.

Insecticidal preparations in the form of a spray are applied to the surface of the cat's skin, while certain protective measures must be observed for both the animal and the person conducting the treatment. The face is covered with a gauze mask, gloves are put on the hands. It is best to wear a special collar on the pet, designed to prevent the animal from licking the preparation from the coat. You also need to cover the eyes, nose and mouth of the cat.

Drops from fleas are applied to the withers of the animal. Perhaps this is one of the easiest to use tools that is most popular with cat owners. It effectively relieves the animal of fleas and at the same time is practically safe for the animal, since the poisonous substance is applied to a part of the body that is inaccessible to the tongue of a cat.

Collars carry out rather a preventive measure of protection, scaring away insects from an animal during its walk in the yard. They operate for a limited time and must be changed periodically.

The tablets are intended for internal use. They are given to the cat with food or simply put on the root of the tongue and, stroking the throat, force it to swallow. As a rule, tablets can be used from 3 months of age, however, the condition of the animal must be taken into account and the dosage must be strictly observed so as not to harm its health.

Vaccination is a relatively new way to rid fleas of pets. It is quite effective and lasts a long time after injection. However, this method cannot be used on pregnant and lactating cats, since the active substance can affect the growth and development of kittens.

Advice! When choosing a drop from fleas, it is necessary to carefully study its composition and make sure that it does not contain pyrimethrin, since this insecticide is contraindicated in cats.

Handling a young animal

How to get a flea from a kitten? The peculiarity of the treatment of a young animal is that there is always a danger of its poisoning with an insecticidal preparation. Small kittens under the age of two months are breast-fed by the mother and any external agent applied to their fur will be immediately licked to it, and then it will enter the body of the cubs with milk. Therefore, mainly mechanical processing methods are used:

• combing wool with a frequent comb;
• catching insects by hand;
• swimming with decoctions of herbs.

There are also special shampoos for young kittens, but they can be used on babies already taken from their mother.

From 2 months, provided that the kittens are separate from the mother, the following drugs are used:

• shampoos for kittens;
• flea powder;
• spray.

Shampoos are bred in accordance with the instructions and applied to the pet's hair. After a certain time, it is washed off, and dead insects are combed out with a comb. The powder is rubbed into the kitten’s skin with the fingers, while making sure that it does not lick the preparation from the surface of the coat. The spray is first applied to the palm of your hand, and then distributed over the hairline. When processing, you need to be careful and not to bring your hands with the drug to your face.

Starting from 3 months of age, when treating kittens, you can use almost all preparations intended for adult animals.

Advice! Before the first treatment of a cat, it is recommended to test for the absence of an allergy to the components of the drug. To do this, a small amount of it is rubbed into the skin in a limited area, and then monitor its behavior.

Pest Control

Processing an apartment is one of the most important stages in a complex of measures against fleas. After all, even if it is possible to completely rid the animal of parasites, their eggs, larvae and adult individuals that escaped death will still remain in the room. Therefore, the disinsection of the apartment should be carried out simultaneously with the processing of the animal in order to avoid its secondary infection. The following tools are used for this:

• aerosols;
• powder preparations;
• means in the form of solutions.

Aerosols give a very fast and effective result. It is enough to process the room with them once and you can forget about fleas for a long time. However, this type of insecticide has the following disadvantages:

1. They do not act on eggs and pupae of parasites, so treatment will have to be repeated after a few weeks.
2. There is a possibility of toxic effects for humans through the respiratory system and skin.
3. The need to prepare an apartment before pest control.

Powders act for a longer time, however, they have to wait longer for the result. Disinsection with their help will require long-term wet cleaning in order to wash off traces of insecticide from surfaces. Powder preparations are scattered or sprayed in the room, trying to pay special attention to possible habitats of insects:

• cracks in the floor;
• corners of rooms;
• the space behind the skirting boards;
• floor surfaces under wardrobes, beds, sofas.

Liquid products are diluted in accordance with the instructions and applied to the places of accumulation of insects using a spray. You can also just wash the floor with them in the apartment. When processing, the following personal safety measures must be observed:

• put rubber gloves on your hands;
• cover your face with a protective mask;
• do not eat food and drinks during pest control;
• clean food, personal items.

Processing with liquid means gives a good long effect, however, it is quite laborious and will require significant investment of time.

About popular and effective means of combating fleas that bother your pets, we described in an article: The best flea remedy for cats. And after watching this video, you can find out about the most common mistakes made by animal owners when processing flea pets: