If you glance down at your cat’s bed and see a small dark speck that suddenly disappears, your cat probably has fleas. Fleas mean flea bites for you and your cat.
Fleas are reddish-brown, and about 1/8 of an inch long. If you were to examine a flea under a magnifying glass, you'd see that its body is flattened and that it has long claws on its legs. Both of these are adaptations that enable the flea to travel between hair shafts. If you look even more closely, you'll see that the flea also has spines on its legs, back and mouth to help keep it from being groomed off.
Cat fleas, or Ctenocephalides felis, as an entomologist would call them, are more common on dogs, cats and humans than dog fleas. In fact, one of the great ironies in the flea world is that dogs are most often infested with cat fleas and not dog fleas.
While cat fleas prefer cats and dogs, children can become flea infested if your cat sleeps or rests on the same bed as your child. Cat fleas will also infest certain kinds of wild animals, including possums and raccoons. This is why people who spend a lot of their time outdoors, fishing, hunting or camping, are more likely to experience flea bites then those of us who spend the majority of our time indoors.
Cat Flea Life Cycle
Cat fleas are one of nature's toughest and most tenacious creations. Cat fleas reproduce rapidly. Plus, they have a four-stage lifecycle, which begins when an adult female flea lays eggs on your cat while it sleeps or rests. Since they are not sticky, the eggs will fall down into your cat's bed -- where their offspring will most likely find food.
These eggs soon hatch into tiny, 1/8" larvae. These have chewing mouthparts but they don’t suck blood. However, the larvae will feed on feces from the adult fleas as well as bits of feathers, dead skin, and other such debris.
After growing through three molts – or shedding of their exoskeletons – the larvae become pupae. The pupae then spin silken cocoons, which they can actually camouflage by attaching bits of debris. These cocoons are so tough, they defy almost every insecticide known to man.
In its final stage, the pupae emerge from their cocoons and become adult fleas. The female fleas begin laying eggs and the cycle starts all over again.
Why Fleas Bite
Fleas bite because they are bloodsuckers and must ingest blood to live. So what looks like a cat or dog to us looks like a meal to a flea. Fleas have been constructed by nature to find hosts. This is why a flea can jump as high as 12 inches. In addition to this, newly emerged fleas tend to move upward on your drapes, carpet or furniture to improve their chances of finding a passing host. They can detect the presence of warmth and carbon dioxide which is another factor that helps them find a host.
Why Flea Bites Itch
When a flea bites your cat, they leave a certain amount of their saliva on its skin. It is this saliva that makes flea bites itch. And if your cat is particularly sensitive to this saliva, it can develop an allergic reaction. If you see dried patches of skin on your cat, you can bet it has developed this allergic reaction to flea bites, which is called flea allergy dermatitis.
If your cat has only a few fleas, this is not much of a problem and can be easily treated with an anti-flea spray. Or, if your cat will stand still for it, you can give it a bath using a flea shampoo.
However, if you have a small cat and it has a big flea infestation, the flea bites could become a serious problem. As the fleas continue to drink your cat's blood, your cat will become more and more anemic. If this anemia continues over a long period of time, your cat could actually die.
Cat Flea Treatment
Even if your cat has been seriously infested with fleas, there are some easy solutions. As noted above, you can spray your cat with a product such as Frontline Spray or Sentry Pro Flea & Tick Spray. If your cat will stand still for a bath, you could shampoo it with Hartz UltraGuard Flea & Tick Conditioning Shampoo or a similar product or dust it with a flea powder.
While these sprays and shampoos will rid your cat of fleas, they do not provide longer-last protection. If you live an area where fleas are plentiful, you will want to use a longer lasting product such as flea drops or one of the new oral flea medications – that will protect your cat for 30 days. Of course, this means you will have to treat the cat once a month to keep it from becoming re-infested. Two of the more popular flea drops are Hartz UltraGuard Plus and Revolution for Cats. Or you can give your cat an oral flea medication such as Program Tablets - also a once a month flea treatment – or Capstar which will kill all fleas in one dose.
In short, if your cat develops a flea infestation, don’t worry. There is a lot of good help available. But do consult with your vet before using any of these treatments. This is because only your veterinarian can recommend the right treatment for your cat, given its health, weight and age.
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