Blight of Bugs

                I think we can all agree that this spring and summer has been especially chock-full of creeping, crawling, and buzzing bugs.  How many of us have complained about the mosquitos after all the rain we’ve received?  The fact is that pests and parasites are a problem all year, every year for us and our pets, but perhaps this warm and wet season has made us especially aware.  It’s easy for us to douse ourselves in OFF and resist licking our feet after traipsing through the dirt, but for our four-legged friends preventing parasites is a little more difficult! 

                There is a multitude of products available both by prescription and over-the-counter for controlling fleas and ticks for our pets, and most often it’s advertised for dogs.  However, preventing a larger spectrum of parasites is just as vital for felines, even cats that are strictly indoors.  This summer has made us painfully aware of the fact that our homes are not hermetically sealed boxes that keep bugs out.  How many mornings have you awoken to a new and especially itchy bug bite?  Flies, mosquitos, fleas, and ticks are all able to easily gain access to our homes by hitching a ride on people and other pets, through open windows covered by screens, and through cracks and crevices that all homes have.  Just by opening your patio door to sit outdoors and soak up the afternoon sun after a trying day at work creates an opportunity for them to enter your home.  A single mosquito that slips in the house can infect your cat with heartworm.  Microfilaria, or heartworm larvae, are especially damaging to cats’ upper respiratory systems and can cause asthma-like symptoms as they make their home in the lungs.  If, by chance, a heartworm is able to mature to adulthood, a single one of these spaghetti-like worms living in your cat’s arteries can be fatal.  Mosquitos also transmit West Nile Virus and malaria.  After taking a blood meal, a female mosquito can go on to lay three hundred eggs which hatch in about a week’s time. 

Cats that are allowed outdoors are even more at risk for picking up unwanted freeloaders with feelers.  Cats have a natural prey drive and will hunt birds, rabbits, mice, and other small animals.  They can easily contract fleas and intestinal parasites such as tapeworms and roundworms through direct contact with and consumption of these prey animals.  Fleas carry tapeworm, tularemia, bartonellosis, bubonic plague, can cause flea allergy dermatitis, and in severe infestations cause anemia.  Fleas can jump up to thirteen inches, and females can start laying eggs just six hours after feeding on your pet.  Ear mites are another common parasite that plague cats and are extremely contagious.  Just one cat in your home contracting ear mites can quickly lead to an infestation among all your felines. 

Is your cat lazy and much prefers sunbathing in the grass to hunting expeditions?  They are still at risk.  Ticks lurk in grass and under trees.  Moist weather has caused Colorado to experience a boom in the tick population.  West Ridge Animal Hospital is working with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment by collecting ticks from our patients and submitting them for testing.  The goal is to learn more about what types of ticks are moving in and what diseases ticks in our area are carrying.  Common diseases carried by them include Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.  Check out the Center for Disease Control(CDC)’s website for long list of conditions this tiny arachnid can transmit.

  Just walking across soil infected with the eggs of worms (which are basically everywhere), and then performing normal grooming activities can cause your pet to ingest the eggs or larvae of common intestinal worms.  Roundworms make their home in the intestines where they feed on blood.  Tapeworms also attach to intestinal walls and absorb nutrients from the food your pet passes.  Hookworms have the unique ability to burrow straight through the pads of feet and the soft skin on the abdomen. 

Contact your veterinarian to discuss the right parasite preventive for your feline friend.