Spider Bite Symptoms in Cats

Video Transcript

"Spider bite problems are not very common in cats in this area of New England, outside of that fact that just like if a person gets bit by a spider, it might swell a little bit and it might cause a minor reaction. But there are two spiders that really do cause some serious problems and that cats can get exposed to, and that's the black widow and the brown recluse. The black widow I think many people are familiar with. It's the black spider, it's about the size... about an inch in diameter, and it has the little hourglass, a red hourglass, on its back, at least the female does. Those can actually be deadly to kittens and small animals if they get bitten. The reason why a cat might get bit by a black widow is just curiosity. They're not trying to... cats aren't eating spiders or anything, but it might just be poking its nose into different areas, and get bit. Many times with a black widow spider, a cat will actually salivate a lot, and they can start going into... it's a painful situation, and they can have neurological problems, and not too much local, just it can effect the whole body. The other spider, the brown recluse, is more local. I don't know if it's... I haven't seen too many in New England, but the rest of the United States, they're pretty common. They're a brown spider, about the same size of black widow, but they have a little violin on the back, and not an hourglass. The violin is actually up behind their neck, and the base of the violin is pointing down towards the rear, so you can identify that. But, with that spider, it's not usually deadly, but it will cause a very bad sore on the cat, and initially it doesn't hurt, but then after a couple of hours, it'll start to... the cat might react to it. Treating those, you have to know... sometimes you don't know what you're treating because you haven't actually seen the spider, so you treat the symptoms. If you see a cat having neurological, lot of pain, you treat for pain and neurological symptoms. If you see an ulcerated area on their leg, or on their nose, or on their body, you'll treat it topically. If you actually knew that they got bit by either one of those spiders, you really want to consult your veterinarian."