Summer brings fleas with a nasty bite
May 3, 2009
"In the spring a veterinarian's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of... parasites."
I can't tell you what a relief it is to my pets and me that spring is finally here! In North
Carolina, April means lovely warm, sunny days and longer evenings to enjoy the out-of-doors.
Unfortunately, the warmth and moisture that attend the
season also bring a bumper crop of hungry ectoparasites.
Ectoparasite is the scientific term for organisms that live and feed on the outside of other
animals. Springtime foes include fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. These bad boys not only cause
discomfort, but can also carry diseases affecting humans and other animals. We can discuss
ticks and mosquitoes in another column. Today I would like to get the jump on Ctenocephalides
felis, the common flea, which can jump 200 times its own length!
Fleas cause itchiness at the site of every bite. In susceptible animals, the saliva injected by
even one flea bite may also set off a hypersensitivity (allergic) reaction that causes extreme
itchiness, self-induced hair loss and skin lesions such as miliary dermatitis (small scabs around
the neck and tail base) or hot spots (an ulcerative superficial skin infection).
If the discomfort and skin problems caused by fleas aren't troublesome enough, fleas are the
carrier for cat scratch fever, a disease passed to humans when a cat scratch (or other wound) is
contaminated with flea excrement. Fleas are also an intermediate host for one of the common
tapeworms infecting dogs and cats in North Carolina. Less common health concerns associated
with fleas include flea-borne spotted fever, and the plague, the bacterial agents of which are
transmitted between humans and other animals via flea bites.
The flea lifecycle includes not only the adults that we find living and feeding on our pets, but
the eggs that fed adults have deposited (2,000 per female flea), and the larva hatched from
those eggs, feeding on the flea feces which the adults also shed into the environment. It is a sad
fact that the adult fleas that we see are truly the "tip of the iceberg," comprising only 5
percent of the fleas present in our homes and yards. Thus, what we sometimes perceive as
"treatment failure" of our flea preventatives (which are mostly adulticides -- products that kill
adult fleas) is often just the result of an overwhelming army of fleas repopulating our pets.
Fortunately, we now have access to a number of safe and effective topical, oral and
environmental adulticides as well as products that kill flea larva or inhibit insect growth.
To prevent flea infestation, all pets should be treated regularly as recommended by your
veterinarian. Without consistent treatment measures, our pets and environment may become
populated with fleas from neighboring pets and property, and loose, feral or wild animals.
Please consult your veterinarian before use of any flea product, and be careful never to use a
dog product on a cat, as these may cause severe toxic reactions. Of course, if your pet shows
adverse effects after administration of any product you should immediately seek veterinary
counsel.
Thank you so much for your interest in your furry family members' health and happiness!
Maia Tcheng Broussard is a general practitioner at Westside Animal Hospital. Her columns
appear on the first Sunday of the month in the Durham Herald Sun.
May 3, 2009
"In the spring a veterinarian's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of... parasites."
I can't tell you what a relief it is to my pets and me that spring is finally here! In North
Carolina, April means lovely warm, sunny days and longer evenings to enjoy the out-of-doors.
Unfortunately, the warmth and moisture that attend the
season also bring a bumper crop of hungry ectoparasites.
Ectoparasite is the scientific term for organisms that live and feed on the outside of other
animals. Springtime foes include fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. These bad boys not only cause
discomfort, but can also carry diseases affecting humans and other animals. We can discuss
ticks and mosquitoes in another column. Today I would like to get the jump on Ctenocephalides
felis, the common flea, which can jump 200 times its own length!
Fleas cause itchiness at the site of every bite. In susceptible animals, the saliva injected by
even one flea bite may also set off a hypersensitivity (allergic) reaction that causes extreme
itchiness, self-induced hair loss and skin lesions such as miliary dermatitis (small scabs around
the neck and tail base) or hot spots (an ulcerative superficial skin infection).
If the discomfort and skin problems caused by fleas aren't troublesome enough, fleas are the
carrier for cat scratch fever, a disease passed to humans when a cat scratch (or other wound) is
contaminated with flea excrement. Fleas are also an intermediate host for one of the common
tapeworms infecting dogs and cats in North Carolina. Less common health concerns associated
with fleas include flea-borne spotted fever, and the plague, the bacterial agents of which are
transmitted between humans and other animals via flea bites.
The flea lifecycle includes not only the adults that we find living and feeding on our pets, but
the eggs that fed adults have deposited (2,000 per female flea), and the larva hatched from
those eggs, feeding on the flea feces which the adults also shed into the environment. It is a sad
fact that the adult fleas that we see are truly the "tip of the iceberg," comprising only 5
percent of the fleas present in our homes and yards. Thus, what we sometimes perceive as
"treatment failure" of our flea preventatives (which are mostly adulticides -- products that kill
adult fleas) is often just the result of an overwhelming army of fleas repopulating our pets.
Fortunately, we now have access to a number of safe and effective topical, oral and
environmental adulticides as well as products that kill flea larva or inhibit insect growth.
To prevent flea infestation, all pets should be treated regularly as recommended by your
veterinarian. Without consistent treatment measures, our pets and environment may become
populated with fleas from neighboring pets and property, and loose, feral or wild animals.
Please consult your veterinarian before use of any flea product, and be careful never to use a
dog product on a cat, as these may cause severe toxic reactions. Of course, if your pet shows
adverse effects after administration of any product you should immediately seek veterinary
counsel.
Thank you so much for your interest in your furry family members' health and happiness!
Maia Tcheng Broussard is a general practitioner at Westside Animal Hospital. Her columns
appear on the first Sunday of the month in the Durham Herald Sun.
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