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Cat Health Care – Signs Of Cat Flea Infestation And Prevention Tips
Fleas are horrible little parasites that attack cats by laying their
eggs in the cat's fur; the eggs will hatch into larvae and later will
develop into fleas. Depending on the color of the cat's coat, spotting
the fleas can be very difficult especially if infestation is light.
Excessive
scratching especially behind the ears or around the neck may indicate
that fleas are present and causing havoc to the cat's body. Another
sign of flea infestation is when the cat obsessively grooms the base of
its tail or along the spine. You might also want to take a closer look
at the cat’s body, if indeed infestation has occurred, highly visible
dark flaky specks can be seen particularly along the spine and the base
of the tail. In fact, during heavy or severe infestation, you can
actually see the fleas roaming all over the cat’s body.
Light
infestation is not really a cause for concern and you can easily solve
this by using a flea comb, this handy little grooming tool can be
purchased at most pet stores. Now, heavy infestation on the other hand,
requires more than just a mere comb. You need a flea treatment to get
rid of all the fleas such as the Frontline, even the most severe
infestation can be eradicated within forty-eight hours by using this
powerful cat flea treatment.
You can purchase the best flea
treatment available in the market but you can never achieve positive
long term results, if you do not take the necessary steps to prevent
flea infestation from occurring in the first place. After all,
prevention is always better than cure. There are three simple things
that you can do to prevent fleas from attacking your furry companion.
Provide your cat with a healthy, well balanced diet, this will
definitely help reduce the chance of flea infestation and at the same
time, improve the quality of the cat’s coat.
Next, make sure
that your cat’s surrounding environment such as the litter tray,
basket, furniture, condo etc are clean, try cleaning them at least once
a week, and also it wouldn’t hurt to keep your house clean as well. The
cleaner the cat’s environment equals less chance of getting fleas.
Finally, groom your cat regularly and give it a bath every four or six
months. Bathing your cat too often like once a week for instance, is
definitely not recommended, not only will it affect your cat’s health,
it may also leave a psychological scar on your cat. Although you mean
well, unfortunately from the cat’s perspective, bathing is excruciating
so unless your cat is really dirty, stick to bathing two or three times
per year max. Try using a waterless bath to clean your cat without the
need for water, it cleans and freshens your cat and may also help to
keep flea infestation at bay.
Cat flea infestation should not be
taken lightly and depending on the severity, it can be life threatening
especially to kittens because excessive biting by fleas can actually
result in massive blood loss. Further more, your cat might accidentally
consume some of the fleas while grooming which may result with
infestation by another parasite, tapeworm.
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