What Do Cat Lice Look Like?
According to Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, modern-day pet cats rarely get lice or pediculosis. But cat lice still exist, especially in cats forced to live in overcrowded and filthy conditions. Cat lice are important to get rid of, not only for the discomfort they cause, but because they can transmit tapeworms to the cat.
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Size
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Adult-biting cat lice grow to two or three mm long. They can be smaller. Eggs (called nits) can barely be seen.
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Color
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The colors of cat lice are usually a very light grey or white. Nits resemble tiny grains of white sand.
Shape
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Cat lice are flat and slightly teardrop or oval shaped, with a tiny head and a large behind. They resemble flakes of human dandruff.
Body Area
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Cat lice prefer to stay around a cat's head, neck, ears, shoulders and underneath the tail. They also prefer to reside in a cat's matted hair than in clean hair.
Misconception
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Cat lice (Trichodectus felis) so strongly resembles human head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) that some may think they are the same species. But cat lice only like to eat cat skin and will not harm people.
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References
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- Photo Credit "attitude" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: sa_ku_ra (sakura) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
