Removing Ticks From Your Cat To Ensure Cat Health

Removing ticks from your cat is essential not only for the health of your cat but also for your family’s health.

What is a tick?

Ticks are blood sucking parasites (related to the spider family), which attach themselves to your cat by biting hard and burying there head into the cats skin. They remain there until they are full before dropping off.

Ticks can live for between 2 and 6 years, going through several stages of lifecycle:

• Egg stage
• Larval
• Nymphal
• Adult

Each stage needs to be receded by a blood meal for them to move on through the cycle.

picture by NIOSH on flickr.com

What do ticks look like?

Ticks start off as being quite small, about the size of a pin head, but once they have engorged on blood they swell to the size of a pea. It is only when they reach this pea size (takes a few days to a week), that they are noticed and are often mistaken for a wart as they are bluish / grey in colour.

There are several types of tick which can affect your cat, the most common ones are:

• The sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus, also known as the deer tick or castor bean tick, this tick can also infest humans.
  
  
• Hedgehog ticks, ixodes hexagonus.

Where do ticks live?

Ticks mainly live in damp areas such as heath land, woodland or moorland, in grasses and on plants. Although they can live in back gardens too.

Once hatched they climb up grasses and plants to await the passing of an animal which it can attach itself to for its first meal.

picture by Zenera on flickr.com

Will a tick harm my cat?

Ticks are a direct problem for your cat from several aspects.

• Local irritation from the presence of the tick in the skin. Soreness etc
  
  
• Infection from the bite
  
  
• Risk of disease. Ticks can carry a range of diseases, such as Lyme disease

Ticks are second only to the Mosquito for transmitting infectious disease to both animals and humans and so removing ticks and preventing there spread is vitally important.

How do I know if my cat has a tick?

The earlier you can detect a tick on your cat the better. So regularly check your cat’s fur and skin for small lumps and bumps which could be the tick attached to the body. If found removing ticks as soon as possible is the best way to help prevent any serious infections..

Signs that your cat may have been bitten by a tick which has since dropped off and may have caused illness are:

• Fever
• Lameness
• Loss of appetite
• Signs of pain in legs or body
• Lethargy
• Cough
• Local infection on the skin
• Inflammation

Medical treatment should be sort as soon as possible if you suspect your cat has been bitten by a tick and is showing signs of ill health.

Removing ticks from your cat

If there are only one or two ticks on your cat you could try to remove them yourself. However it is important that when removing ticks you ensure that you get all of the tick out completely as sometimes the head can remain imbedded in the skin and this will cause a serious infection (tick granuloma). Any more than one and your vet should remove them for you. You can ask to be shown how to do it properly for yourself for future reference.

There are many suggestions flying around on how to remove a tick from, burning them with a cigarette to covering them with butter to suffocate them. However the only reliable way to make sure that a tick is removed completely is:

1. Grasp the tick as close to your cats skin as possible with a pair of tweezers,
2. Twist the tweezers and pull away from the skin firmly whilst rocking them back and forth gently to ease the whole of the tick out.

There are specially designed tick removers which are very effective for grasping and removing the tick.

Your cat may be left with a little swelling or sore spot once the tick has been removed, this should go away after a few days. You could sooth the area with a mild antiseptic. If the swelling or soreness does not go away after a few days then medical treatment from your vet should be sought.

Protect your cat from ticks

The best way to protect your cat from ticks is to remove the tick’s habitat. So make sure all grass is always clipped short in your garden and that loose leaves and plant trimmings are disposed of.

If at all possible keep your cats away from areas of tall brush or grasslands, difficult I know if your cat is a rambler. If you cannot prevent your cat from entering these areas, make sure you check them often for ticks on their body.

There are spray on or spot on treatments that can be used on your cat which deters ticks from biting them, but even if you do use these, it is still advisable to check your cat regularly for these nasty little critters and ensure your cats helath by removing ticks whenever you find them.

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