Ticks, Your Cat, and You
Most of us welcome the coming of spring and summer, with the longer days, warm weather, and freedom from shoveling snow! Unfortunately, the warmer weather also brings unwelcome blood-sucking pests such as fleas, ticks, and mosquitos. The dangers of heartworm carried by mosquitos have already been addressed in an earlier entry. Unlike mosquitos, which bite a host and then go away, ticks must attach to their host, sometimes for several days, to feed on their blood.
Ticks are arachnids that prefer to live in wooded areas and tall grass. There are two main types of ticks that live in the Northeast. The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, is larger and the deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, is very small. Ticks go through three life stages–the six-legged larval stage, then the eight-legged nymph and adult stages. At each immature stage, the tick needs to find a host to feed on before it can progress to the next stage in the life cycle. Once the tick reaches adulthood, it feeds and then mates. Female ticks lay thousands of eggs, and the life cycle starts again.
Ticks are yucky and nobody likes the idea of an insect attached to their body or the body of their pet! However, ticks are undesirable from a medical standpoint because they can carry a wide variety of diseases that are transmitted to the animals and people that they bite. Deer ticks can carry Lyme disease, a bacterial disease that can cause joint swelling and pain, fever, and achiness. In severe cases, it can affect the eyes, the nervous system, and various internal organs. Dog ticks can carry various species of a bacterial parasite called Ehrlichia, as well as a closely related bacterial parasite called Anaplasma. Bacteria in this family seek out various types of blood cells to colonize, and can cause fever, lethargy, and low red and white blood cell counts. Ticks must be attached to a host animal for 24 hours before they can transmit Lyme disease, but some of the other tick-borne diseases can be passed on within 6-12 hours of attachment.
Dogs are very susceptible to Lyme disease and Ehrlichia infections, as are horses. Luckily, most cats are resistant to infection and rarely get sick from tick-borne diseases. Cats do occasionally get Lyme disease and Erhlichia, however, and these diseases should be considered in a sick cat who has access to the outdoors, especially if the cause of illness is not immediately obvious. There is a very convenient blood test for sick animals that screens for the most common tick-borne diseases.
Our office cat in Nashua, Big Papi, contracted Lyme disease while he was a stray, and had terribly sore and swollen joints. Treatment has improved his joints considerably, but because he was ill for so long before he came to us he has been left with permanent arthritis.
Despite the fact that cats rarely get tick-borne diseases, tick control is still very important for outdoor cats. We want to prevent cats from getting life-threatening diseases, even if they are rare. Tick control is also very important for protecting other people and pets in the cat’s household. Ticks sometimes come into the house on a host animal, but then drop off and transfer to a human or other animal in the house. Since people are very susceptible to Lyme disease, and also can get Ehrlichia infections and become very ill, it is important to prevent exposure to ticks via outdoor cats.
The most important thing you can do to prevent your cat or yourself from suffering from tick bites is to check your cat for ticks every time he comes in from outside. This way you can remove any unattached ticks that could jump onto you as well as finding ticks before they have been attached for long enough to pass on an infection. A tick control medication, called Frontline, is also generally safe and effective at killing ticks once they have attached to your cat. Frontline should be applied every 3-4 weeks if you live in an area that has many ticks.
Frontline is available over the counter as well as in our office. We also offer several other parasite preventatives, such as Advantage, Revolution, and Heartgard. Please call if you have any questions about parasites and ways to prevent them. Other medications that are available in pet stores and grocery stores are not as safe for your cat and can cause life-threatening side effects and reactions. If you choose to buy medications somewhere other than our office, please do not purchase any product other than Frontline.