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Cats and ticks

What Are Ticks And Do They Infest Cats?

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What are ticks and do they infest cats?

 

A recent study found that 6.6% of cats in the UK are infested with ticks. So what are they, how can you protect your cat, and what is the best tick treatment for cats?

Where are ticks found?

Ticks are closely related to spiders, with adults having eight legs. They feed on blood and attach to their hosts by anchoring into the skin using their mouths. They are most commonly found in areas of grassland and woodland shared by deer and livestock but can also be brought into urban environments by small mammals like hedgehogs. This means that cats can be exposed in a wide variety of environments.

 

Cats and ticks

What are ticks and do they infest cats?

 

Will ticks make my cat ill?

When ticks bite, redness, swelling and irritation can occur – and sometimes these areas can become infected with bacteria. Cats appear to be relatively resistant to the effects of Lyme disease, but can suffer from other tick-borne diseases such as anaplasmosis, which may require treatment. Infected cats may develop a high fever and raised lymph nodes, so if your cat appears unwell, or if there is a visible reaction at the site of a tick bite, it is best to take your pet to the vet for further advice. The good news is that potentially fatal tick-borne infections such as Babesia felis and Cytauxzoon are not present in the UK.

Are ticks on cats a health risk to people?

Ticks found in the UK can transmit infections such as Lyme disease to humans. People are usually exposed to ticks by walking through pastures, fields and woodland. It is advisable to check yourself every 24 hours if spending time in these areas, and to also use tick repellent spray on skin or clothing. Because cats do visit areas inhabited by wildlife infected with Lyme disease, it is also the case that they may bring infected ticks into homes and gardens. Although owning a pet does not directly increase the risk of Lyme disease in humans, preventing the spread of infected ticks is another good reason to use preventative products on your pets.

 

How can I keep my cat safe from ticks and tick-borne diseases?

Ticks can be managed by physical removal or the use of preventative products.

Physical removal of ticks

As the bulk of tick-borne infections in the UK are thought to take at least 24 hours to be transmitted after tick attachment, pets should be checked every 24 hours and any ticks should be carefully removed. However, this may be easier said than done, as some cats spend long periods of time away from home, and others may not be entirely cooperative!

 

Tick remover

A green tick twister.

 

Rather than sticking to a rigid daily regime of tick checking, do so while grooming or stroking your cat. Run your hands over their body, especially around their face, neck, legs and feet. A tick will feel like a small lump on the skin, and may vary in size from 1mm-1cm. They can be removed with a tick hook, using a simple ‘twist and pull’ action. A fine pointed pair of tweezers can work too, with a ‘straight pull’ technique being used. Crushing the tick with your fingers or a pair of blunt tweezers will increase the risk of disease transmission. Traditional methods to loosen the tick such as the application of petroleum jelly or burning are also best avoided, as these are likely to stress the cat and tick alike.

If in doubt, visit your local Young Vet’s branch, and a vet or nurse will be happy to remove the tick for you and demonstrate the best techniques for you to use at home for tick removal.

 

What are ticks and do they infest cats.

What are ticks and do they infest cats.

 

Use of tick prevention products

The use of products that rapidly kill or repel ticks is useful in reducing tick-borne disease transmission, and also the number of ticks that have to be physically removed. These days, a number of different highly effective preparations should be available from your local vets. If applied correctly, the best tick treatment for cats offer up to a 100% success rate in killing ticks. However, it is still important to check your cats for ticks regularly.

 

What if my cat is travelling abroad?

There are different ticks and tick-borne diseases abroad that are not present in the UK. It is very important, therefore, to treat cats travelling abroad with an effective tick prevention product before, during and after travel. In addition, you should check your cat at least every 24 hours while abroad, and remove any found with a tick removal device. Finally, it can be beneficial to get a vet to check your cat for ticks on return to the UK.

 

If you are concerned about ticks on your cat, do not hesitate to contact our friendly team for more help and advice.

This blog and images have been written and produced by Catdialog team.

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Lungworm causes heart failure in a dog

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We have recently seen another dog with lungworm infection. This dog showed signs of heart failure, as the worm can infect the large arteries (pulmonary arteries) around the heart. This caused high blood pressure in the pulmonic artery which in turn caused heart failure to occur.

This is a video of the heart with a leaky tricuspid heart valve cause by the high blood pressure. The heart is on its side and the top chambers in the picture are to the right side of the heart. The colour flow shows leaking of blood back across the leaky heart valves. Normally the bottom chambers (the left side of the heart) would be bigger than the top right sided chambers, but due to the heart failure you can see that the top chambers are bigger.

Lungworm is becoming more prevalent in West London due to foxes spreading the disease. It is spread to slugs and snails and if your dog eats a slug or snail or the slimy slug trail lungworm infection may occur. We strongly recommend that owners treat dogs monthly with Advocate to the back of the neck to prevent this disease. Please see www.youngvets.co.uk for contact details of our nearest surgery to you.

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Kitten litter training

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Kitten litter training should  start as soon as you get them home, usually at 6-8 weeks old.

  • Place the litter tray away from the feeding area, in a quiet area, away from busy passageways.
  • Place the kitten on the litter tray immediately after each feed, and reward them with praise if they perform their toilet.
  • Clean the litter tray out daily (scooping out soiled areas and replacing with fresh litter), and completely wash the tray out once weekly.
  • Different types of litter are available,  but some cats may have a preference for a certain type.  I would suggest avoiding types with citrus fragrances. Clumping type sand like clay based litters are usually very well accepted.
  • Clean up any “accidents” with enzymatic washing powder and warm water. Do not use ammonia or hypochlorite containing bleach based disinfectants as they can smell to the kitten like another cats urine, and so encourage them to go toilet again in the same area.
  • You should have one litter tray per cat in the house plus one extra tray, in different locations.
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Puppy toilet training tips

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Puppy toilet training should begin as soon as you get them home.

Newspaper training

  • Place  newspaper on the kitchen floor, and after each meal pick him/her up and put them on the newspaper. If he urinates or defaecates on the paper reward him with attention such as “good boy!” and give him a little treat with one of his puppy biscuits.  Do this after each meal and he will soon learn that he is praised and receives a treat each time he does this.
  • If you come in and find that he hasn’t used the newspaper, do not tell him off, just ignore him for a few minutes. Being ignored is the best way of disciplining a puppy, as he really wants your attention.
  • Once he starts using the newspaper regularly, reduce the amount of paper put down and move it near to the back door.
  • When he is using this newspaper regularly, put some lightly soiled newspaper outside the back door and start placing him on this after each meal.
  • Once he has the hang of this remove the newspaper and start placing him further into the garden after each meal. It can help to put him on different surfaces so that he doesn’t develop a preference for doing it only on one surface. try concrete surfaces, grassed areas, areas with and without trees.
  • Finally you can start to vary the routines and vocal cues, so that he doesn’t become too habitual. This can help avoid problems in the future if his circumstances are changed, such as if an unfamiliar person is caring for them.

Crate training

Your puppy is introduced to a plastic crate or cage, by being fed in it, having toys thrown into it and eventually being closed in for short periods.

  • The crate should be large enough to turn around in, but should not be too large or your puppy may rest at one end and toilet in the other end.
  • After a few days you should be able to keep your puppy in the crate for a few hours.
  • You can work out the length of time between toileting for your puppy by using the number of months age, plus one if a small breed, or plus 2 if a large breed. Thus a 2 month old labrador can wait 4 hrs, but a 2 month old pekinese 3 hours.
  • The puppy should be taken outside to eliminate  and should be praised and then given a treat if it does so. It should also be taken outside after each play session and meal, but should be kept in the crate at all other times.

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Choosing your puppy – top ten tips

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Choosing your puppy from a large litter of cute pups can be difficult-

miniature schnauzer puppies

My top ten tips are as follows

  1. Make sure that the puppy is lively and responds to your stimulation.
  2. The puppy should have clean bright eyes, clean nose and a clean coat, without excessive scabs or scaling. There may be occasional scabs around the head or neck which can be caused by rough play with littermates which is fine.
  3. The puppy should be eating solid foods well  and generally be more than 6 weeks old.
  4. Ask to see the mother and if possible the father of the pup. This will give you a good guide of the temperament of the parents which is likely to be passed to the pups. It will also give you a guide to the adult appearance and size of your puppy.
  5. If a pedigree puppy, ask if there are any screeening schemes that the parents have been through. These may include hip scoring for hip dysplasia (lower score is better, but there is an average score for each breed -generally less than 20), elbow scoring for elbow dysplasia (possible score is 0-3 where 0 is normal and 3 is severly affected), eye testing for genetic eye diseases (categorised as affected or unaffected) . If they have been screened ask to see a copy of the screening results. If you are unsure how to interpret these, make a note of them and speak to your local vet. Further information is available at http://www.bva.co.uk/canine_health_schemes/Canine_Health_Schemes.aspx
  6. Ask when the puppy was treated for worms. They should generally be treated from the weaning age at around 4 weeks of age, and then every 2 weeks. All pups will be born with some worms and so will require treatment, often with  a liquid wormer such as Panacur to start with . It is a good sign of a caring and responsible breeder if they have been regularly worming the pups.
  7. Try to see where the puppies and mother are actually kept. If they are kept in a dirty barn with many  other different breeds of puppies, there is an increased risk of transference of diseases between the pups. The commonly seen diseases include skin problems such as mange, gastrointestinal diseases such as parvovirus, and giardia, and respiratory diseases such as kennel cough. Look for excessive scratching of the puppy, diarrhoea, or coughing which can be a sign of disease.
  8. Look in the mouth to check the jaw is not overshot or undershot (ie that both upper and lower jaws are the same length and meet normally). This cannot be corrected surgically, but is usually only of cosmetic consequences.
  9. Feel the belly to check for sign of umbilical hernia , which is a soft fatty swelling under the skin in the middle of the belly, in  the region of the umbilical cord. This is caused if the  hole that the umbilical cord came through does not close completely after birth, leaving a small hole that fat from inside the belly can pass through. If present this may require surgical correction at a later stage.
  10. If the puppy is male you may want to check the scrotum for 2 testicles. The testicles normally descend shortly after birth, and are normally visible in the scrotal sac when a puppy is bought at 6-8 weeks of age. If there is only one testicle present, it is possible still that the other testicle will descend a little later, but not guaranteed. If the testicle(s) has not descended by 6 months of age, this is called cryptorchid and your vet will usually recommend that the dog is castrated, to reduce the chances of testicular cancer developing in later life.
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Cat nail clipping

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Cat nail clipping is possible at home, as long as you have a little knowledge.

  • First of all what type of nail clippers should you use ?

nail clipper

These nail clippers are the type that i use most commonly in practice, but there are smaller variations on this design that also work well. The type of clippers that i would avoid are the “guillotine” type.

  • How do i clip the nails ?

This is ideally a two person task, and is easier performed on a table at about waist height.  While one person holds your cat still, you can the hold a paw and clip the tips of each nail.  If you look at the diagram below you will see an area of the claw marked with dotted lines called the ungual process. This is the sensitive part of the nail that contains sensory nerve endings and a blood supply (also called the quick), and should NOT be cut.

anatomy of cat claw

When you look at the claw from the side, often the tip of the nail is much finer, and it then thickens as you move towards the base. This thicker region contains the blood vessel and should be avoided.

So if you can see the fine tip of the nail this is the part to be clipped.

  • How often should i clip my cats nails?

If your cat goes outside,  or uses a scratching post you may never need to clip your cat’s nails. However the nails can  grow quickly just like our own nails , and so can be clipped whenever the sharp points have regrown.  If in doubt clipping every 3 months should be fine.