Creepy crawlies. Not pleasant, and not welcome on your cat or in your home! So, what exactly are they? 

Public enemy number one: Fleas

The flea is the most common ectoparasite (parasite which lives on the outside of the animal, as opposed to our previous blog about internal parasites), and the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, will live on both cats and dogs.

Adult fleas live on the cat; the female can produce up to 50 eggs PER DAY! The flea will complete its life-cycle off the cat – that’s right, in your upholstery… Once it becomes an adult, it will then climb on board an unsuspecting Felix, feed off the cat’s blood, and start the whole unpleasant merry-go-round again.

Many cats cope okay with fleas; the blood sucking may just cause a bit of an irritating itch. The issue is that some may produce an allergic reaction, known as “flea allergic dermatitis”. This looks like many little red dots on your cat’s skin.

Fleas can bite humans, but will not stay on you for long. It is important to treat your home as well as your cat.

Nasty little sucker: Ticks

Ticks hide out in long grass, jump aboard your cat, bury their head in the skin and feed on their blood. This is likely to cause inflammation and itchiness. Ticks can carry a nasty bacteria (spirochaete) of the Borrelia group; hence some ticks can cause Borreliosis, more commonly known as Lyme’s disease. Fortunately for Whiskers, this is less common in cats than in dogs. Nonetheless, be vigilant about looking for any presence of ticks on your cat.

Ticks can also affect humans.

A mighty foe: Mites

There are different species of mites which affect cats: most commonly, Demodex, Cheyletiella, and Scabies.

Demodex mites live in the actual hair follicles of the skin. They are transmitted by direct contact from a mother with Demodex to young kittens; interestingly, clinical signs of Demodicosis (the condition caused by Demodex) is usually only seen in cats with a compromised immune system. So, the mother cat may show no signs, but her kittens can still be infected. There is a condition known as “otic demodicosis”, where the ears are affected and itchy

Cheyletiella – the glamorously named “walking dandruff”! These can often be seen moving along the hair shaft. They generally cause itching and scabs. Typically transmitted from cat-to-cat by direct contact, the long-haired breeds are especially susceptible.

Scabies cause “sarcoptic mange”. Sarcoptic mange is more commonly associated with dogs and foxes, but can affect cats. This mite spends its whole lifecycle on the cat, unlike the flea; the adults bury into the skin to lay their eggs. It may be asymptomatic for several weeks.

Lice to meet you…

Commonly plaguing children, lice are actually rare in cats. The good news is that they are very species-specific, so cats cannot get human lice, and humans cannot get feline lice.

Signs of ectoparasites on your cat

To summarise, here are the signs to look out for:

·         Pruritis; itching. Your cat may seem agitated

·         Red patches of skin; these may appear like pin-pricks

·         “Scurf” or flakes in the hair

·         Scabbing of the skin

·         Pustules; this is when scabs become infected

·         Depression in your cat if he is very severely affected

·         Alopecia; hair loss

How do we deal with ectoparasites?

Always discuss with us at routine health-checks, or if you have a particular concern!

·         Fleas; “spot-on” treatment. These are applied directly to the skin. It is also essential to treat your house, particularly curtains, carpets and the cat’s bedding.

·         Ticks; always remove gently with tick-removers if you feel comfortable doing so (if not, our vets or nurses will be happy to help!)

·         Mites; these might (excuse the pun) need special shampoos, but generally, a spot-on treatment will be effective. Demodex may be harder to get rid of, as the cat is often immune-compromised to get them in the first place.

·         Lice; again, an effective spot-on will sort your cat out. Make sure you clean his brushes, too!

Don’t forget to also look at the ProActive Pets scheme, for treatment against these parasites and so much more!

Here’s hoping you and your cat stay itch-free – and apologies if you feel itchy just from reading…

“What greater gift than the love of a cat?” – Charles Dickens

Broadly, parasites of cats can be divided into two main categories; parasites we consider as worms, and parasites we call “protozoa”. The first category includes some fun shapes and objects: roundworm, hookworm, and tapeworms (whipworms also exist but are fairly rare). Roundworms are the most prevalent species in cats. The protozoa include Isospora, Giardia and Toxoplasma as the main offenders. Let’s take a closer look at what these mean for your cat. 

Roundworms: Toxocara cati (also known as Toxocara mystax), Toxascaris leonine

What are they? These are part of the class “Nematodes”; they are large, white worms, which can be up to 10cm in length! They settle in the small intestine.

How does my cat get infected? Cats can become infected when they eat infected animals (like rodents!) with roundworm larvae inside; rats play an important part in their lifecycle, so roundworm infections are commonly seen in hunters. Another way that cats can be infected is transmammary infection; if a mother queen is infected, her suckling kittens may become infected.

Why are they bad? The larvae spend a period of development in the stomach, before migrating to the small intestine, and they can cause inflammation in the stomach wall. Kittens can suffer from gastrointestinal upset; diarrhoea and constipation. If the burden is very high there can be anaemia and blood loss, because roundworms damage intestinal lining. Sometimes, worm larvae may burrow through the tissues, causing damage or cysts in other organs.

Hookworms Uncinaria stenocephala, Ancylostoma species

What are they? Nematodes of the small intestine; they are much smaller than roundworms, typically under 1cm.

How does my cat get infected? Commonly, rodents act as a paratenic host; this means that the larvae do not require the rodents in order to develop, however, they can ‘hang out’ (or rather, hang inside) the rodent, until the final host, the cat (or dog), eats it. Once inside the mouth, they are swallowed, entering the gut directly. There can be transmission through the skin but this is rarer.

Why are they bad? These parasites are blood suckers, but usually associated with a low pathogenicity – that is, they don’t cause very severe disease. However, both can cause protein loss and (very occasionally) anaemia, especially in heavy burdens, resulting in lethargy and tiredness in your cat (or dog!). They can also cause diarrhoea.

Tapeworms (Dipylidium species are the most common infections of dogs and cats)

What are they? They are descriptively named; their long, flat bodies resemble a ribbon, or piece of tape. Such a description is far nicer than the reality of these cestodes!

How does my cat get infected? These tapeworms have an intermediate host of fleas and lice; unlike hookworms and rodents, the tapeworm requires these ectoparasites in order to complete its life cycle. Cats with high flea and/or lice burdens (which we will discuss in the next blog post!) are therefore at higher risk.

Why are they bad? Tapeworms live (again…) in the small intestine. They absorb nutrients the cat eats – all that Sheba is going to waste, I hear you cry! This means that the cat will often lose weight and experience diarrhoea.

Isospora species

What are they? Protozoa are microscopic, single-celled organisms. Isospora are protozoa which cause “coccidiosis”, which is a cause of concern in kittens (and puppies!).

How does my cat get infected? The oocysts (early stage of the life cycle) are excreted, and cats pick it up when they ingest oocysts from faecal matter.

Why is it bad? Nearly all cats are infected – the good news is it rarely causes disease. The risk is that it causes damage to the lining of the small intestine in young kittens; the areas involved in absorption of nutrients are damaged, causing a mucusy-diarrhoea.

Giardia

What are they? Like Isospora, Giardia are protozoa; these are single-celled organisms which parasitize the small intestine.

How does my cat get infected? Again, they are excreted into faeces and picked up my cats who may be snuffling near faecal matter (or even eating it).

Why is it bad? Typically it causes diarrhoea, but it can be chronic, acute or intermittent.

Toxoplasma cati

What are they? These protozoa cause toxoplasmosis.

How does my cat get infected? Toxoplasma is different to its pals Isospora and Giardia; its dormant stages, known as cysts, encyst in the muscle of rodents. When a cat eats them, they infect the cat and live in the small intestine.

Why is it bad? These parasites rarely cause disease in cats. The bad news is that it is infective to people; the immunocompromised are at higher risk. In pop-culture, Toxoplasma’s claim to fame is that Tommy in “Trainspotting” contracted toxoplasmosis from his kitten, as he was severely immunocompromised. Interestingly, some modern studies suggest that Toxo infection leads to risk-taking behaviour (like speeding!) – but don’t try to use that as a defence in court!

How can I control parasites in my cat?

Good sanitation! Giardia is more common in multi-cat households, and the faecal-oral transmission of the protozoa means that cleaning litter trays regularly and gardens is essential.

Worming programmes; speak to us about what is most appropriate to keep your Felix happy. Hunters are at higher risk, as are cats in multi-cat households. This isn’t a reason to keep a cat who loves the outdoors inside, though!

Good hygiene; regular hand washing is essential for minimising your risk of exposure to the protozoa; Giardia and Toxoplasma are transmissible to humans, as are the roundworms (but this is quite rare!).

Controlling ectoparasites; lice and fleas are essential for infection by Tapeworms – see next week’s post to get the lowdown on ectoparasites.

Be vigilant about your cat’s health; weight loss, lethargy and diarrhoea can all be caused by endoparasites; speak to our vets if you have any concerns.

“Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I have never heard of one who suffers from insomnia” – Joseph Wood Krutch

We all want our pets to be as healthy as possible – and therefore, to keep them safe from illness and disease. However, with the internet, there’s now a lot of information easily available, and it can be really hard to decide what’s in our animals’ best interests. In this series of blogs, we’re going to look at the basics of Preventative Health for cats – ways that we can prevent problems from starting, rather than trying to react and fix them once they have developed.

Vaccination has probably saved more lives than any other medical intervention in the last 150 years (except possibly sanitation/freshwater). That goes for animal diseases as much as for human ones – but recently some people have started to question how useful, or even how safe, it is. So, we’ll start off by looking at cat vaccines.

How does a vaccine work?

Although the exact mechanism is really quite complex, in principle, a vaccine teaches the cat’s immune system how to fight an infection, without putting the cat at risk of contracting the disease.

To do this, either a weakened form of the disease-causing organism (an “attenuated” vaccine), or a dead organism (a “killed” or “inactivated” vaccine, usually containing an “adjuvant” – a chemical to trigger the immune system to respond to a dead organism) is introduced into the body. There are also “recombinant” vaccines where a harmless bug (e.g. canarypox virus, which can only cause disease in canaries) is genetically modified to vaccinate the cat against another virus, without causing any different disease. The immune system will recognise it, and take the next week or so learning how to fight it. This means that, when presented with the challenge of the “real thing”, the cat’s immune system can jump on it straight away, without that 4-7 day lag phase.

What can we vaccinate against?

The main vaccines we use are:

?     Feline Panleukopenia Virus, FPV; a nasty infection, related to Parvo in dogs, which breaks down the cat’s intestinal lining; at the same time, it attacks their immune system. The symptoms include bloody vomit and diarrhoea, shock, collapse and, in up to 90% of cases, death; unfortunately, the virus can survive for many months in the environment and can be carried into the house on clothing, shoes etc., so even a house cat isn’t safe. Vaccination is highly effective, and has been proven to last a minimum of 3 years in the vast majority of cats. You can learn more about this disease here. Vaccine protection lasts for at least 3 years once the primary course is complete.

?     Feline Herpesvirus, FHV; one of the causes of Cat Flu, which although only very rarely fatal, is persistent – once infected, a cat with herpesvirus is likely to remain infected for life, with symptoms recurring and the virus being spread at times of stress. Fortunately, the virus only survives a few days in the environment, so passive spreading of infection is less common. Read more here.

?     Feline Calicivirus, FCV, the other major cause of Cat Flu, this virus generally causes slightly less severe symptoms than herpes, but can also lead to stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth), arthritis (joint inflammation), and can occasionally mutate to cause life-threatening disease (Virulent Systemic FCV). Infected cats may shed the virus for weeks or even months before clearing it, but do not usually become persistently infected as with FHV. Like the FHV vaccine, full protection from the vaccine lasts a year, and there is some protection for another 2 years after that.

?     Feline Leukaemia Virus, FeLV; this virus is quite closely related to FIV (“Cat AIDS”), but as well as destroying the immune system, can also trigger cancers – typically leukaemia or lymphoma. Vaccine protection only lasts for about a year to most vaccine strains.

There are also vaccines available against Rabies (only needed if you intend to take your cat abroad), and Chlamydophila (“Feline Chlamydia”, another cause of Cat Flu, only usually necessary in catteries or breeding colonies).

What are the risks?

There is no such thing as a medicine without side effects – if a drug cannot produce side effects, it probably means it isn’t actually doing anything. However, the vast majority of these are very mild, typically lethargy, mild inappetence, or itchiness and discomfort at the injection site, lasting 24 hours or so. These are not signs of a problem – they mean that the cat’s immune system is “fighting” the vaccine, which is what we want to happen!

Occasionally, cats may develop more marked symptoms – sometimes vomiting, diarrhoea, lameness, fever, or a transient lump at the injection site. These are usually signs of the same immune activation, but more pronounced. None of these are likely to cause long-term or serious problems for the cat.

There has been a theoretical link made between vaccination and renal disease, however, there is no evidence that this occurs in reality (there’s a summary of a study here demonstrating no effects).

The one adverse effect we really do need to think about, however, is the Feline Injection Site Sarcoma (FISS). Some cats develop an invasive cancer at injection sites (not just of vaccines – the act of inserting a needle through the skin seems to be the primary trigger); it is thought that the use of adjuvanted vaccines may increase the risk slightly, so in cats with a familial history of FISS, a non-adjuvanted vaccine may be advisable. However, this is still a very rare condition – resulting from less than 0.005% of vaccine doses given.

Is it worth it?

For most cats, most of the time, yes.

Natural infection with FeLV, for example, results in more than half of infected cats dying within 3 years; FeLV vaccine reactions are far, far rarer than this (reportedly less than 0.1% of cats developing any side effects that needed treatment); and between 1 and 2% of all UK cats are carrying FeLV and are potentially contagious.

Likewise, as many as 26% of cats are carrying Feline Herpesvirus according to one study.

It is true that many cats who contract infectious diseases will survive them even if not vaccinated. However, this doesn’t take into account the large number of cats who, even if they are a minority percentage wise, are still loved and would be missed by their owners and families if they were to die of a preventable disease. The only reason that these diseases are as rare as they are is because of widespread vaccination, which gives some protection even to unvaccinated animals, by impeding the spread of the diseases through the population.

What about testing the cat to see if they’re immune before vaccinating?

This is a protocol sometimes called titre testing, and it can work for some vaccines. The FPV vaccine, for instance, produces immunity by generating antibodies. If the antibody count is low, the cat needs revaccinating. However, if the antibody count is high, do you revaccinate? It might drop next month, or it might last another year – there’s no way of knowing. If you’d like to go down this route, speak to one of our vets for advice!

Unfortunately titre testing is highly unreliable for FHV and FCV; and it is utterly useless for FeLV as this vaccine doesn’t have to induce antibodies, but can protect the cat by generating a cell mediated response, which we cannot yet test for. If you want to read more about titre testing and vaccine protocols, the WSAVA report is here.

If you want to discuss vaccines for your cat, please give us a ring and make an appointment to talk to one of our vets!

Yes, actually they do! It’s a commonly held belief that cats don’t suffer from arthritis, but it’s unfortunately a myth. 

What is arthritis?

Arthritis just means “inflammation of the joints”, but when we use the term, we’re usually talking about osteoarthritis. This is the common “wear and tear” arthritis that older cats (and dogs, and horses, and people!) get, after a lifetime of activity.

As a general rule, there are three causes of arthritis:

1. Normal loading on an abnormal joint – this is why you often see early onset of arthritis in cats who have injured a limb; the joint heals but may not be in perfect alignment, so there is increased wear.
2. Abnormal loading on a normal joint – typically in obese cats, carrying excess weight.
3. Normal loading on a normal joint for an abnormal length of time – in other words, old age!

There are other kinds of arthritis as well (septic arthritis, caused by infection, and immune arthritis, caused by certain diseases of the immune system), but osteoarthritis is by far the most common.

What does arthritis do to the joint?

In a joint, the bones don’t actually touch each other – they’re covered with a substance called cartilage, which acts as a kind of biological teflon, allowing the bones to glide smoothly over each other. To reduce friction even more, the joint is filled with a fluid (known, imaginatively, as joint fluid) which provides lubrication. This fluid is made by the synovial membrane which lines the inside of the joint capsule (the fibrous “balloon” around the joint that holds it together and keeps the fluid inside).

Whatever the underlying cause, arthritis results in wearing of the cartilage. As it is worn down, the cat’s body tries to compensate by producing extra lubricating fluid (resulting in swelling and pain). It may try to repair the cartilage, but this is unlikely to be successful, and so the joint tends to respond by growing extra bone around the edges to try and stabilise itself. Eventually, the cartilage “non-stick” layer is worn down until bone is grinding on bone.

So what are the symptoms?

All the symptoms of arthritis come down to joint pain and joint stiffness. An arthritic joint is usually:

• Filled with fluid (a synovial effusion).
• Painful (because of the cartilage damage, the excessive fluid, and the inflamed synovial membranes).
• Less mobile (because of the excess fluid and the extra bone growth).

Well my cat doesn’t limp, so he must be fine.

NO! Unlike dogs (who want everyone to know about it if they’re in pain!), cats will try to hide it for as long as possible. It’s very common for owners just to think their cat is suffering from old age, when actually they’re in severe pain because the common symptoms are:

• Reduced physical activity
• Reluctance to jump or climb
• Being less playful
• Grumpiness or bad temper
• Going off on their own to curl up away from people

What can be done about it?

The first thing to do if you suspect your cat has arthritis is to make an appointment to see one of our vets. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to help once the condition is diagnosed, and there are medications that are highly effective at relieving the symptoms.

• Management options include:
  1. Use of ramps – climbing stairs is difficult for an arthritic cat, so ramps can really help.
  2. Sunken or shallow litter trays – it can be hard for them to hop into a litter tray, so using a shallow tray, or one which is sunken or has a ramp, can be really helpful (as long as they can climb out again!)
  3. Use of ramps – climbing stairs is difficult for an arthritic cat, so ramps can really help.Sunken or shallow litter trays – it can be hard for them to hop into a litter tray, so using a shallow tray, or one which is sunken or has a ramp, can be really helpful (as long as they can climb out again!)
  4. Warm, comfortable sleeping places – yes, cats are great at finding these on their own, but it never hurts to help! A warm, well padded surface helps to minimise the pain from arthritic joints.
  5. Weight loss – 25% of UK cats are obese, and some studies suggest as many as 60% are overweight. Loss of one body condition score (for example, going from 7/9 to 6/9) is as effective in relieving arthritic pain as a dose of painkillers.
• Medical treatments:

Painkillers are the mainstay of managing an arthritic cat, especially the non-steroidal family of drugs (NSAIDs). However, NEVER use human painkillers in cats – many are lethally poisonous. It is also illegal to give a cat a human medication unless on a prescription written out by your vet. There are a wide range of different treatments available, mostly as tasty liquids to put on your cat’s food, so talk to one of our vets before you try anything else!

Joint supplements containing the “building blocks” for healthy cartilage (such as glucosamine and chondroitin are very popular. They may have an effect in some cats, but there isn’t much research into how effective they are.

If you think your cat is arthritic, make an appointment to see one of our vets so we can get them up and about again!