What is FleaTickRisk?
FleaTickRisk is a pests risk prediction service related to meteorological condiitons. Each week, maps show the risk of tick, flea, mosquito and sandfly infestation throughout Europe.
Ticks
Spring and autumn are good times for ticks. Larvae, nymphs and ticks live in the vegetation where they wait for the passage of the host (dogs, cats, etc., and even the man). They are hematophagous at all stages of their lives. They are attached to the host by "hooks" and a special saliva (cement) that ensure a secure fixation. They secrete an anticoagulant saliva and vasodilator to increase the blood supply and they start a single meal that lasts from 3 to 15 days. The pregnant female is the most greedy and can take several ml of blood to feed her eggs. This greatly increases its size and weight.
The preferred places for tick fixation are the head, chest and flanks. They cause itching, irritation and even after leaving an inflammation with swelling of the skin. But most importantly, it can transmit diseases. The most important are Lyme disease, which can infect humans and animals, especially the dog, where it causes anorexia, fever and joint pain. It can also transmit canine and feline Erlichiosis in less than 48 hours after its fixation, piroplasmosis (babesiosis) in dogs that causes anemia that can be fatal. These last two infections are mainly present in France and in the Mediterranean countries, but we are beginning to see them in Belgium. To remove them, you need a special clip that avoids contaminating the animal.
Fleas
Fleas are brown insects with a size of 1.5 to 6 mm and long, powerful legs that allow them to hop up to 1000 times their height. They absorb the blood of their host (dog, cat, but also other mammals) after injecting an anticoagulant. A flea can absorb 15 times its own weight of blood a day. The flea lays eggs (+ / - 3000 throughout its life) and these are transformed on the ground into larvae. The latter then makes a cocoon (pupa) from which a chip will come out, infesting its host and taking blood. This cycle lasts 28 days, but if the climate is unfavorable, she can stay 5 months in her cocoon.
The lesions caused by flea bites are very itchy red papules that cause the animal to scratch. These often start at the lower back and then extend to the ventral side of the abdomen and all over the body. Animals can develop allergies to the saliva of the flea, which increases the phenomenon. In addition, the chip can serve as a vector for tapeworms (flatworms). In humans, flea bites cause red papules especially on the forearm and lower leg.
Flea and tick treatments for cats and dogs
Regularly protect your pet against parasites is essential for his health.
To avoid the multiplication of the products to be applied to protect your cat against the ticks and the fleas, we have selected for you antiparasitic for cats having a double action anti-flea and anti-ticks.
Ringworm
Dermatophytosis (ringworm) is an important cause of cutaneous infection of the cat and dog. They are due to fungi of the genera Microsporum and Trychophyton; Microsporum canis constituting the most often isolated fungus.
These mycoses are very worrying because they can contaminate humans (zoonoses)
Ringworms are contagious diseases caused by parasitic fungi: dermatophytes. These fungi attack the horny layer of the skin, the hairs and sometimes the claws. If they affect animals of all ages, dogs and cats, it is the kitten who is the first concerned by this parasite. Ringworms are extremely contagious and contract by simple contact. Sources of contagion are: sick animals or carriers, but also the external environment where the spores of mushrooms survive for several months.
In dogs and cats, the clinical signs are very varied.
Generally, circular lesions of slow centrifugal evolution are observed, especially at the level of the head and the extremities. Appears dander, crusts, broken hairs, then depilations. The affected areas are more or less inflamed on their periphery giving the characteristic aspect of the disease.
It is also possible to observe an attack of the claws or a "kerion", nodular form in macaroon and raised with crusts, exudative, painful and purulent. In humans, Microsporum canis causes superficial mycosis manifested by circular spots on a pink background and itching (St. Catherine's wheel).
- Topical treatments should be used on the entire body in the majority of cases. Systemic treatment (oral), allows to prevent.
- The treatment of the environment is essential because the spores can survive up to 18 months.
- The treatment must be preceded by a mechanical cleaning using a vacuum cleaner whose contaminated bag will be destroyed.
Malassezia
Malassezia is a yeast that lives on the skin and causes itching. In most cases, it develops on skin weakened by inflammation or on the skin of weakened animals. Malassezia is microscopic.
Scabies
These are mites.
- Sarcoptic mange mainly affects the dog. The mite causes very important itching. The dog is scratching which causes wounds that can be infected. The lesions are most often located initially on the edge of the ears, elbows and knees. In the absence of treatment, they become generalized.
- Cheyletiellosis is a second type of scab. The mite cheyletiella parasite dogs, cats and rabbits. The presence of the parasite induces fatty skin and dandruff in the back. The itching is of varying intensity.
- Feline scabie . The mite responsible for this scabies causes intense itching and the appearance of gray scabs in the ears, head and neck
These three mites are extremely contagious from one animal to another, and can parasitize a human in contact with an affected animal. We can not see them with the naked eye, their identification requires the use of a microscope.
- Ear mite or otodectosis is a parasitic disease of dogs and cats due to the abnormal reproduction of a mite (Otodectes cynotis) in the external ear canal. The disease affects dogs like cats and is contagious between animals. Otodectosis affects mostly kittens and puppies.
- Demodectic mange due to tiny mites, very common on the skin of all mammals, they live in or near the hair follicles of mammals. Under certain conditions. They seem to play a role in certain dermatological conditions. An abnormal outbreak of demodex in dogs can cause severe pruritus in dogs.
- The chiggers: The larva 0.6 mm, bright orange. The eggs are laid on the ground and the larvae that emerge from it crawl over a mammal or bird. In our regions, they are present at the end of the summer and in autumn from where their name of chiggers. The larvae stings and then injects a histolytic enzyme. The bite is very irritating and therefore the dog or the cat licks enormously which causes deep lesions of the skin.
Lice
This parasite infests especially young animals sick and / or poorly maintained.
Small wingless insects, flattened dorsally ventral, greyish in color, and scarcely more than a few millimeters in length. Their head is wide and the mouthparts are suitable for biting and grinding or biting. Each species identifies first by the host in which it was found.
Cat's louse is distinguished by the triangular shape of the anterior part of the head; he uses his jaws to cling to the hair. Lice have a marked host specificity and they are permanent parasites.
Uncommon, but increasing since the late 1990s. Lice are sometimes found in animals that have lost the ability to groom themselves.