Scabies in cats and cats - symptoms and treatment

Of course, it is very important for cat lovers that their pet is always cheerful, playful, active and sparkling with joy. But it is worth remembering that if a domestic cat often goes for a walk on the street and communicates with other animals, then it has every chance to get scabies. The disease is quite serious and serious, it causes a lot of torment and a lot of problems to the mustache pet. What kind of illness is this cat litter, what does it look like, can it be cured at home, and what should the owner do so that the meowing pet does not suffer from it?

What is this disease

Scabies in cats appear due to the fact that animals are bitten by tiny mites. In general, the pet's hair (whether it is a dog or a cat) serves as a permanent den and refuge for many microscopic organisms, only the majority of them behave calmly enough,no claiming its existence. But there are some types of ticks that fall on the body of the animal and begin to bite it mercilessly, sucking blood, lymph and vitality. This is what the Demodexcati mite, which causes suffering to ordinary domestic cats, belongs to. If you look at it through a microscope, you can see a tiny worm with short tiny legs, with a proboscis attached to its head. It is with this proboscis that he digs into the skin of the animal and sucks the vitality. He lives in the hair follicles and for the time being behaves calmly. What factors are needed to activate this parasite?

1. The animal has decreased skin protection properties.
2. Sharp decrease in immunity. This may be if the pet has suffered any illness and has not fully recovered from it.
3. Feline age. As a rule, very young kittens or young cats that have not yet turned two years old get sick.
4. Predisposition of the breed. It happens that the representatives of any breed are prone to certain diseases. In this case - to scabies.
5. Heredity.

Signs, symptoms

The main symptom of the disease is constant itching, the cat is scratching the skin before the appearance of blood, trying to get rid of parasites, literally gnaws them out of its body. The cat muzzle, the places around the ears and the neck are most severely affected by the tick. If the cat began to itch violently, you need to carefully watch him and inspect the animal, if he has the following symptoms.

1. Wool falls out. The main places where this happens are the ears, eyebrows, areas around the mouth and on the paws.
2. In the place where the parasite infiltrated, cuticles are visible - formations in the form of balls, similar to a bump after a mosquito bite.
3. On the cuticles there may be a small hole or a dot; when pressed, a thick white liquid flows from there.
4. Inflamed skin around the ball.
5. There are a lot of red acne.

In addition to these mandatory symptoms, there may be other signs indicating infection:

1. Pet becomes restless and aggressive in relation to the owners and friends.
2. Cat becomes apathetic.
3. Lost your appetite.
4. The skin becomes covered with boils, wounds appear.

If you experience such symptoms, you should immediately contact the veterinarian and begin treatment, otherwise there may be complications up to the death of a pet.

How to treat scabies in a cat

The first step is to accurately diagnose the disease. Some diseases (allergies, dermatitis, eczema, etc.) have very similar symptoms. For diagnosis, it is best to contact a veterinary clinic, where experts will take a wool scraping from a suffering animal, conduct microscopic examinations and tell you exactly what a pet suffers from. Having made the diagnosis, the veterinarian will precisely select the treatment and prescribe the necessary drugs, from which it will be clearly easier for the tailed patient.

In the treatment of scabies need to use a comprehensive treatment. That is, use ointments that cope with the destruction of ticks, external solutions, anti-inflammatory agents and give the animal the necessary vitamins. A veterinarian in such cases prescribes the necessary course, which the sick cat must adhere to from a week to three (depending on the severity of scabies).

Sulfuric ointment is the main remedy; sulfur is a part of this drug, from which parasites die.

Also, benzyl benzoate is used as an external agent, but this medicine is rarely used - it is very toxic and the cat that has licked it can get poisoned and even die.

But to prevent this, a special collar is used, which is worn over the cat's neck for the entire period of treatment and prevents access to hair and skin.

Disinfection and disinfection

After treatment is prescribed, it is imperative to disinfect the room where the cat lived, all items used for the care and the surfaces touched by the cat.

The disinfection procedure is carried out simply: all of the above is treated with a special solution, washed with water and boiled over. And this action should be done regularly, until the sick animal symptoms disappear. At the end of the treatment, you should go to the veterinarian again to make sure that the disease is defeated. Because it may happen that the visible symptoms disappear, and the consequences remain.

Can a person get cat litter?

Mites may well move onto human skin and multiply there, but they do not leave moves. Due to the fact that people do not have such a thick coat like animals, the parasites have nothing to catch, and there are no conditions for reproduction.

A person has a kind of scabies, but it is much weaker than a human disease. However, after a person communicates with a sick animal, an itchy, rattling, inconvenient rash appears on his hands and around his hips and abdomen.

This condition may remain after the pet is cured, so you should go to the doctors. And we should not forget - the means by which the animal was treated (except sulfur ointment) is not suitable for a person.

Precautionary measures

While treatment is being carried out, it is necessary to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of infection:

1. If there are children in the house - to forbid them to play with the cat until the animal recovers.
2. If there is a possibility - to place the animal in a separate room.
3. The owner, who is engaged in treatment, should not needlessly touch the cat once more, and should contact as little as possible with the things that other household members use.

Treatment of the cat is usually done at home, only in rare cases when the disease is neglected, the animal is placed in the hospital.

Often, doctors prescribe not only ointments and injections, but also baths, to which anti-parasitic agents are added. Owners should keep in mind that even though the cat does not suffer from it (even quite the opposite), but the interior items (for example, acrylic or porcelain baths) can be damaged. It should also be noted that many preparations that contain sulfur have a very unpleasant smell of rotten eggs.

The best thing - carrying out medical procedures, wear protective medical gloves. This will protect your hands from harmful components and mites that are ready to cling to the skin.

If possible, bathing a sick animal is best carried out on the street, and run into the house only when the wool dries completely. This will allow not to spoil the furniture and carpets, which, after falling on the drugs they turn to yellow.

Traditional methods of treatment

Many cat owners, especially in places where there are no veterinarians nearby, treat their pets with folk methods. And although official medicine does not have data on their effectiveness, it must be said that these methods work. Here are some of them, the most common and approved.

1. The buckthorn bark is crushed and cooked for 10-15 minutes. The decoction is infused for about half an hour, filtered. The skin is wiped twice a day with the resulting solution at the same time.
2. Crushed bay leaf and mixed with butter until a homogeneous mixture. Apply on the skin three times a day.
3. Skin chalk is powdered and rubbed into the skin.
4. Thrice daily, the skin is smeared with lavender oil.

Prevention

Far from every owner wants to spend time curing his pet from scabies, so the best thing to do is to take preventive measures so that the cat does not catch this attack. What do you need to do for this?

1. If you suspect that the cat is going to communicate with the itching animal suffering from scabies, do everything so that the communication does not take place.
2. If the pet is used to living at home, then it is better for her to live at home, as rarely as possible going out into the street. If the pet went for a walk - if possible, it is worth checking whether there are infectious relatives in the area where he went.
3. Often wash your pet bowl or plate and follow its hygiene in every possible way.Although cats are famous for cleanliness, but only the owner can do some things.
4. Even an absolutely healthy cat needs to be vaccinated every six months. Then he will not be ill not only with scabies, but also saved from other diseases.

And finally: it is recommended to take the animal to the veterinarian every year for examination and testing. Then the specialist will be able to detect signs of incipient diseases, and help the cat to prevent the development of the disease.

Video: pet scabies