Fleas are Lilliputian insects. A person with poor eyesight is unlikely to see them, because the color of their body is inconspicuous brown tint, and the length does not exceed 2 mm. Microscopic external parameters allow these creatures to jump from place to place without much effort.
Exist different types fleas, but they are all identical at first glance. Cat fleas They are very similar to human ones and the differences between them can only be seen by a specialist using a special magnifying device.
To understand how to deal with fleas in cats, it is important to be able to distinguish them from ticks; the latter has 8 legs, while fleas have 6.
Bloodsuckers can be transmitted to pets that go for walks from various sources:
Fleas on a cat cause him discomfort. The animal, with its restless behavior and constant scratching, will make it clear that it needs help. By spreading the hairs of the fur with your hands, you can see the presence of “guests”.
Other signs:
Also, ulcers may appear because the animal endlessly scratches the irritated areas - open wounds are formed that are accessible to various microbes.
There are studies that confirm the ability of bloodsuckers to transmit viruses of serious diseases, for example, salmonellosis.
How to get rid of fleas on a cat and eliminate them from your living space? In order for the liquidation to be successful, all actions must be performed comprehensively from the very beginning and possibly repeated more than once.
The fight includes the following steps:
The next method by which you can remove fleas is injections, which should be done once every six months.
For a short period, which is very convenient when moving, an anti-flea tablet will protect the animal (it is valid for 1 month).
This economical option, in most cases, 1 ml of shampoo is designed for 4 kg of pet weight, so you can use it for more than 1 year.
Before water procedures, you should check the water temperature, then wet the fur of the mustachioed creature and apply the drug evenly over it. Then comes the most crucial moment - you need to wait 10 minutes and at the same time make sure that the shampoo does not flow into the eyes of the purr. Afterwards, rinse everything off carefully.
If the procedure does not work and after 2 days the bloodsuckers are observed in the pet again, then you need to change the brand of the product, or resort to other methods, for example, purchase drops for cats containing celandine in combination with active insecticides.
It is desirable that fleas do not appear on kittens at all, because for small, fragile creatures, such “cohabitation” (especially in newborn kittens) can be disastrous.
To understand how to get rid of fleas on a kitten, just read the information presented earlier. It is necessary to use anti-flea drugs, the main thing is that they are suitable for the kitten’s age.
There are very few products that can be used for up to 1 month; usually there is a limit of 3 months.
Most in a convenient way To free a kitten from fleas, droplets are used, because bathing is a lot of stress for the fluffy, and the sprays are distributed throughout the fur, which the animal will then begin to lick, which can harm itself.
Flea collars for cats are also beneficial, but they cannot always cure an animal of bloodsuckers that have already appeared. They are very convenient to use when walking to protect your pet and as a preventative tool.
For little fluffies, you can buy a collar for kittens, but there is a limitation - use from 2 months. You should protect your baby from flea scourge as best as possible, because not every medicine is approved for use for young children.
A flea collar for cats has some disadvantages - if worn for a long time, it can irritate the pet’s skin and cause allergic reactions. But there are safer cat flea collars on the market, impregnated essential oils, such as celandine, wormwood, etc.
Opponents chemicals can rid a cat of fleas using folk remedies. It is important to understand that the first time will not have the desired effect; it will take at least a week of patiently treating your pet with the following remedies.
What to do?
Many people, especially those with small children, are afraid of the composition of insecticidal preparations, so rather than using chemicals to remove fleas from a cat, it is better to use a folk alternative.
The cat is probably
So what should you do if cats have fleas? Whether they are transmitted to humans or not, we have already found out. But this does not mean that these bloodsuckers are absolutely harmless. The insects in question are carriers of a wide variety of diseases. To get rid of them, it is necessary, firstly, to treat the skin of the animal itself, and secondly, to disinfect the room.
Removing fleas from cats can be done using either folk remedies, and through special purchases. In the first case, use wormwood or tar soap. Fleas really don't like wormwood. The grass is first dried and then gently rubbed into the animal’s skin. It is also recommended to pour the plant into bags and place them on the litter. The smell emitted by this herb will not kill fleas, but they will most likely leave. The inconvenience of this method lies, first of all, in the unpleasant aroma, which may not be liked not only by fleas, but also by the cat’s owners themselves.
them and the animal's bedding.
From chemicals Bars is especially popular. If you wish, you can buy shampoo of this brand, spray or drops. The latter are applied to the animal's withers and shoulder blades - that is, to those areas of the body that the animal cannot lick. Within about a day, the product distributes itself throughout the skin. Removing fleas from cats in this way is not a very difficult task, but it is effective. The products can also be used for prevention. Even if you do not let your animal out of the house, this is not a guarantee that it will not develop fleas. You yourself can bring the larvae into your home on shoes or clothes from the street.
So, we hope we have answered the main question of the article - “are fleas transmitted from cats to the owner or not.” Now you know that they cannot live on a person, but his blood is quite suitable for them. Therefore, the owner of the “mustachioed-striped” often suffers from flea bites, which, by the way, are very itchy. In addition, fleas are carriers of various diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to remove them from the animal.
Being a “cat person” today is fashionable, and under certain circumstances, even profitable. At the same time, the cat owner must be very attentive to the well-being of the furry pet, as well as its mood and behavior. Especially if a four-legged pet is allowed to walk on the street, because in this case the risk that he will pick up some kind of “infection” is huge. This is how, most often, cat fleas appear in the house.
The kitten is tormented by fleas - immediate action is needed
Cat fleas - photo of the head and mouthparts
To get rid of cat fleas in an apartment quickly, you need to diagnose them in a timely manner. The later this attack is noticed, the easier it is to destroy it.
People's bedding is also subject to washing, since a furry friend could spend time on a bed or sofa. Attention should also be paid to clothing that was worn during the period when the home was infested with fleas.
There are a sufficient number of anti-flea products on the market - synthetic or based on natural ingredients. They are offered as:
To be specific, we, for example, can recommend drugs such as Frontline and Tetrix. However, success awaits only if all recommendations for use are strictly followed. And, no matter what the manufacturers say, it is almost impossible to get rid of fleas in one go. Yes, adult individuals are destroyed effectively, but the product cannot always overcome the protective shell of eggs or larvae.
At any stage of the fight against jumping bloodsuckers, it is necessary to use a vacuum cleaner very often. This manipulation does not tolerate haste. You need to get to all the problem areas where fleas could theoretically find shelter. Wherein Special attention is given to areas where straight lines do not fall Sun rays. In particular, these are hard-to-reach areas in upholstered furniture, V bookcases and other cabinet furniture, under baseboards, etc.
Advice. You can put a piece of mothballs in the vacuum cleaner bag while fighting fleas. In this case, you can count on 100% destruction.
In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that this article provides a general algorithm for ridding an apartment or house of fleas. More detailed recommendations you can find in other materials in this section. In particular, we recommend that you read the description of the most popular anti-flea drugs, their components, composition and instructions for use.
29.03.2016
The cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) is one of the most common species among the flea order. Their color varies from red to dark brown. On an animal, these insects look like particles of dirt, and only when they move can you understand that they are fleas. Insect eggs look like white grains. Sometimes black flea excrement that remains on the animal's fur and skin is mistaken for eggs. The female insect does not lay eggs on the animal. Favorite places for masonry are cracks in floors, upholstery of upholstered furniture, carpets and rugs. The body of a cat flea is covered with spines and bristles, thanks to which it quickly moves through the animal's fur. The hind legs are well developed for jumping, while the front legs are slightly shorter and are designed for moving along wool. The body is flat with a small head and a voluminous abdomen.
Most often, fleas jump from cats onto people. They dominate the flea niche. Even human and dog fleas bite much less often. In this case, a reasonable question arises: can a person become infected with fleas from a cat? Fortunately, no, these bloodsuckers cannot live on people, but they can bite.
Blood-sucking insects from the flea family bite very hard. They do not have a proboscis for sucking blood, so they literally bite into the skin. In this case, the insect first pierces the skin with its teeth and injects an anesthetic substance, and then an enzyme to reduce blood clotting. At first the victim does not feel the bite, and during this time the flea manages to drink enough blood. After a few minutes, the bite site will turn red, itching and burning will appear. You will want to scratch the wound. This happens because the injected blood-sucking insects anticoagulants and anesthetics are foreign to the victim. As a result of scratching, red itchy spots are formed that disfigure the skin. Most often, fleas attack human feet. But if insects have settled in the bed, then the entire body will be covered with bites.
Can a person get fleas from a dog? The bloodsuckers themselves will not live in public; they will prefer secluded places in soft dog bedding. Many people don't even realize how dangerous fleas on dogs are to humans. The main threat is from infections that are transmitted through blood.
There are more than a hundred diseases that are transmitted as a result of their bites, some of them pose a mortal danger to people.
These include:
Having passed from the larvae to the adult stage, fleas begin to search for a food source. They move mainly by jumping, deftly jumping into the fur of animals. With a body size of 2-4 mm, the flea's jump height reaches 20 cm and length - 40 cm. Among insects, only pennies surpass fleas with record jumps of up to 70 cm in height! This is a hundred times their own height. The body of both types of insects contains resilin, a protein with the ability to accumulate elastic energy, which helps when jumping.
Interesting fact: in proportional terms, for a man 2 meters tall, a flea jump is equivalent to jumping 48 meters in height and 90 meters in length!
The effects of a flea bite vary in intensity depending on the person's level of sensitization.
Sensitization is the acquisition by the human body of increased sensitivity to foreign substances, for example, to flea bites and irritants contained in their saliva. The time of onset of allergies varies in proportion to the frequency of bites. The body gradually gets used to flea saliva, and with each subsequent bite the reaction intensifies.
Sometimes flea bites are very itchy, and then secondary skin infections from scratching appear as a result of bacteria entering the bite site. Infections appear as ulcers or abscesses. Children, as well as elderly people with weakened immune systems, are more likely than others to develop infection.
With the blood of sick animals, fleas acquire various pathogens and become carriers of infection. There are two known ways to become infected from fleas: orally - through contact of insect saliva with human blood, and through infected flea feces.
The danger of contracting infectious diseases does not come from any one type of flea, but a proportion of each species poses a threat. The risk to humans is mainly associated with the following species:
Despite numerous Scientific research, knowledge about how fleas transmit diseases is still insufficient. But what is known today makes the seriousness of the threat clear.
Plague - acute infectious disease, characterized by severe intoxication, fever, damage to the skin, lungs and other organs. Plague is deadly dangerous diseases. The first plague pandemic broke out in 527-565 and claimed more than a hundred million lives. The causative agent of plague, the bacterium Y. pestis, is spread mainly by rodents and hares.
The pathogen is transmitted to humans through the bites of fleas infected by blood-sucking on rodents. On the territory of Russia, foci of the plague cover the Caspian lowland, the North Caucasus, the Altai Mountains, the Republic of Tyva and Transbaikalia. The time from the moment of a flea bite to the appearance of signs of the disease is 7-10 days. There are three forms of the disease:
If treatment is started on time, the chances of recovery increase dramatically. But without treatment, the mortality rate from plague pneumonia reaches 100%.
Fleas carry the causative agent of this disease - a bacterium Ricketssia typhii- from gray rats, voles and house mice. A person becomes infected when flea feces come into contact with a damaged area of skin. The time from infection entering the body to the appearance of signs of the disease varies from 5 to 15 days.
A typical manifestation, as the name of the disease implies, is a profuse rash on the torso and upper extremities. The rash is preceded by an increase in body temperature to 40 degrees. The disease occurs without complications and is usually curable. The photo shows a rash on the torso typical of typhus.
Cat scratch fever or Mollar granuloma is a infection, which in some cases is transmitted by fleas. The causative agent of the disease is the bacterium Bartonella. Characterized by enlarged lymph nodes, increased body temperature and weakness.
The causative agent of this helminthiasis is a tapeworm or cucumber tapeworm. Dipylidiasis affects dogs, cats, arctic foxes, foxes and wolves. A person becomes infected when they accidentally ingest cat or dog fleas that contain tapeworm larvae. Fleas serve as intermediate hosts for worms. In the human intestine, they live in the lower part of the small intestine and mature in 20 days, reaching 70 cm in length and 3 mm in diameter. The average lifespan of worms is 1 year. In most cases, the disease is asymptomatic.
Signs that often appear in children:
The causative agent of the disease is the rat tapeworm (Hymenolepis diminuta), the intermediate host of which is also fleas. The larva swallows the helminth egg, and then the worm develops from the egg inside the flea's body. Then the flea, along with helminths, accidentally enters the person’s mouth, and he becomes infected. This happens to children because they tend to put everything in their mouth. The disease is unnoticeable, in rare cases, depending on the number of helminths in the intestines, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, diarrhea, itching of the anus and weight loss appear. The rat tapeworm reaches 60 cm in length.
