How to Understand and Identify Feline Parasites

The thought of feline parasites camped out on (or in) your cat can truly freak out many cat owners. You see your little furry friend and think there couldn’t possibly be any feline parasites bothering her. Yet, the only way to truly know if your cat has any kind of feline parasites is to become educated about what they are--and how to detect the signs that they are having a feeding frenzy on your cat.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Many cats are allergic to flea bites. An infestation of fleas can cause many cats to become anemic. You may not ever see fleas on your cat, but you can spot their droppings. Look through your cat’s fur and see if you see any red colored blots on her skin. If you do, these are flea droppings.
   
   If your cat has fleas you should go to the pet story and purchase flea control products. You should clean your cat and home thoroughly. You should also apply products to your home that will prevent any missed flea larvae from developing.

2. Ear mites are also feline parasites. If your cat has ear mites she is probably tormented with itching ears.
   
   Look inside your cat’s ears to see if there is a lot of dark ear wax. If there is and she is constantly scratching her ears, she probably has ear mites. Take her to the vet. The vet can clean your cat’s ear and prescribe a medication that will kill these nasty feline parasites.

3. Ticks do not generally bother cats. However, if your cat should have one of these nasty feline parasites on her, you will usually know it. A tick’s body will blow up as they feed on your cat’s blood.
   
   You should remove ticks with tweezers. The key to removing a tick is to pull its whole body off of your cat. Place the tweezers around the ticks head and pull it straight out of her body. Drop the nasty feline parasite in a small amount of alcohol until it dies. Once it has died, flush him down the toilet.

4. Internal feline parasites include worms of all sorts--round worms, tapeworms and heart worms.
   
   If your cat has roundworms you will notice them in your cat’s feces. If your cat has tapeworms you will notice that she probably has tiny rice shaped eggs around her rear and in her feces.
   
   Heart worms are also a feline parasite. They are more common in canines, but they have been found in cats, too. You should take your cat to the vet to be checked for these worms. They are very nasty feline parasites which can be killed with medication.

[momandpopoften]

on 6/22/2008 Great information. Thanks!