subject: Parasite Fleas And Ticks [print this page] Parasites Your Pet Doesn't Need Parasites Your Pet Doesn't Need
If your dog or cat goes out of doors, as most dogs and some cats do, they're bound to pick up fleas and occasionally ticks. Fleas are easily detected with a close inspection of your pet's body or seen in your carpeting or furniture. Ticks are a little more difficult to find. As opposed to fleas which are very active on your pet's body, a tick will burrow its mouth parts into your pet's skin and unless you feel it with your fingers you'll never know it's there.
Fleas
Cat Fleas are the most common flea in North America. It will infest cats, dogs, and humans.
The flea's main food is blood which they acquire from their host.
The flea's saliva includes an ingredient that softens or digests the skin of the host for easier penetration and feeding. The saliva is an irritant thus the itching and scratching resulting from a flea bite.
The flea's life span, depending on environmental conditions, can last from a couple of weeks to a few months (or years) in the pupa stage.
The adult flea lays her eggs on the pet. An adult female will lay around 50 eggs per day. The eggs are not sticky and readily fall off into the carpeting, furniture or bedding. In two days to a few weeks the egg will hatch into a lava stage. The larva stage lasts from 5-18 days during which time the larva lives off the feces of adult fleas and other debris it finds in the surrounding area. The larva spins a silken and enters its pupa stage where it can remain for as little as 3-5 days or as long as a couple of years. The adult flea will hatch from the pupa stage when the time is right. Vibrations from a passing host as well as carbon dioxide given off by the host could be enough to cause the hatching process to begin.
Flea Borne Diseases
The most deadly Flea borne disease is the bubonic plague. Other flea borne diseases are typhus and cat scratch fever. Fleas may also transmit tapeworm.
Ticks
There are two types of ticks, soft body and hard body. We will only deal with the hard body variety in this article but both varieties are very similar in their life cycles.
Ticks acquire a host by what is called questing. Ticks will crawl up a stem of grass or perch on the edge of a leaf with their forearms spread out. When the host walks by and brushes against them the tick sense it with its forearms and latches on.
Ticks progress through three distinct cycles after hatching from the egg. The first cycle is the Larvae stage. Here the tick has only three legs. When it finds a host it feeds for the first time. They take only one blood meal drop to the ground and molt to the nymphal stage where they acquire eight legs. The nymph will quest for another host, take only one blood meal again dropping to the ground and molt to the final adult stage. The adult tick, both male and female, quest for another host, thus the term three host tick. When both sexes gorge on blood, (their body size can increase 200-600 times), for the last time they will mate while still on the host. They then drop to the ground and the female will lay up to 3,000 eggs and then die.
Their life cycle can be as short as 2 months or as long as two years.
Diseases
The Deer Tick is known to carry Lyme disease which in humans can be fatal if left untreated.
Other diseases include Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Controlling Fleas and Ticks
Two very effective products you can pick up from your vets are "Advantage "and "Revolution". For severe flea infestation in your home you may need to spray you living area with a good flea spray designed for carpeting and furniture.
