The tick, an unpleasant ectoparasite, is back in the news. We all know about Lyme disease carried by ticks but this is different. It’s a disease called babesiosis and it can be fatal to people in 20% of sufferers. And it’s on the increase in America where the incidence of the disease has more …
There is a lot of discussion on the Internet about domestic cat smelly poop😒. An unpleasant topic but one that needs to be addressed, nonetheless. There are many potential reasons for smelly poop. One reason is that the faeces are not, in fact, particularly smelly but the cat’s caregiver is sensitive to smell. They …
Flystrike in cats is particularly relevant right now, in the middle of the summer 2022, when there is the possibility of a record high temperature of 40°C in the UK (today) and across Europe there are very high temperatures specifically in Portugal, Spain and southern France. There is also a drought in northern Italy. …
The prevalence of endoparasites (internal parasites) affecting domestic cat in North America interests me, and it might (just) interest other cat owners too. America is the dominant domestic cat region and therefore they lead the world in terms of information on domestic cat ownership. This makes America the starting point, in my mind, when …
Cat Parasites – does your cat or kitten have them? Prevalence In China, for instance, a study found that 41.39% of cats had intestinal parasites. 2.78% had toxoplasma-like oocysts. Hookworms were present in 3.06% of the cats (360 cat faeces were analysed). Toxocara cati was the most prevalent species of parasite detected in 17.78% …
In my long experience of dealing with fleas (!) I know that they normally live on the shoulders and neck of a domestic cat. And yet, their flea dirt is always situated at the base of the tail, a considerable distance away from where they live. It’s a great conundrum. I am scratching my …
By and large feral cats put up with fleas; that’s how they deal with them. They accept them as a way of life and tolerate them because they have to. It’s strange because I’ve just written a story about a cat hoarding man in the UK. He was hoarding domestic cats and people outside …
Someone asked the question whether fleas don’t exist at a certain elevation above sea level. It’s a good question because my reference book on veterinary treatments for cats states that all cats can be affected by the cat flea “except for those living at higher elevations, because fleas do not live above 5,000 feet”. …
