How to get a tick from a cat: useful tips

Affectionate, playful mouse hunters live in our homes, cats are our favorite family members. Sometimes a four-legged pet becomes a target for ticks, representatives of the arachnid family, drinking the victim’s blood.

There are three common types of parasites - bloodsuckers dangerous for cats:

• subcutaneous scabies mite - democodes disease
• ear tick - otodectosis disease
• ixodid (forest tick) tick, infects the victim (fortunately rarely) with hemobartonellosis disease.

To treat cats with an ear and scabies parasite, you need to seek help from a veterinarian; you can get rid of representatives of the ixodid species yourself.

Tick ​​activity peak

The sun warmed, foliage blossoms, insects and arachnids leave the state of suspended animation. Ixodid ticks are especially active in the spring (April, May). Unlike their twin cities - spiders and scorpions, they do not get food in an honest hunt, but stick to the victim, drink her blood.

Cats and cats walking on the loose, first of all become the object of attack. Pets who do not leave the apartment are not fully protected from a bloodsucker penetrating the house on people's clothes, with gusts of wind in the open window or crawling in the open door.

Due to the parasitic lifestyle, the tick has many adaptations for survival in the most adverse conditions.

1. A strong chitin cover protects the insides from mechanical damage (the best way to get rid of a tick is fire).
2. Tenacious limbs of 8 legs make it possible to firmly hold on to the victim’s body.
3. The blood-sucking apparatus - the proboscis, penetrates deep into the tissues, heparin sprinkles into the blood, preventing the blood from clotting.
4. A tick - an ascetic, for 5 years of life, drinks the blood of three victims, at different periods of development. The arachnid vampire can wait months and years, hiding its prey.
5. At one meal, the body of the tick increases in volume by a hundred times.

Reproduction and development of the ixodid tick

As all parasite mites reproduce productively, their offspring have a high degree of survival.

The development of the tick consists of 4 stages:

1. stage: in a female who has drunk the blood of an animal, larvae with six legs develop, which are attached to small rodents and birds.
2. stage: receiving blood from the victim, the larva turns into a mini-copy of an adult, called a nymph.
3. stage: the nymph, receiving blood from the victim, grows, changing the chitin cover.
4. stage: a sexually mature female tick selects a victim, after drinking blood, disappears, eggs form in it.

The process is repeated with a cycle of 5-7 years.

At each stage of development, each form of the parasite is a danger to the cat.

Tick ​​attacks

Climbing to the very top of the grass or branch of the bush, exposing the front paws, on which are located specific organs that respond to smell and heat - the tick waits for the victim. A cat, walking in the garden or in the park, becomes the object of attack. The parasite clings to the hair, moving around, looking for the most attractive place with less hair and thin skin. On the ears, head, groin, axillary region, a tick gnaws at the proboscis of the cat’s skin, painlessly, injects an anesthetic (another device developed over the centuries by a parasitic way of life) and sucks blood for several days.

How to get a tick out of a cat using different means

You noticed a parasite sucking blood on the body of your pet, you need to get rid of it with improvised or special means. Useful for this:

• various types of oil (vegetable, corn, olive)
• viscous substances (petroleum jelly, glycerin)
• corrosive liquids (alcohol, acetone, kerosene, gasoline)

The tick breathes through the spiracles, which are located on the side of the abdomen, behind the fourth pair of legs.

Taking a swab, liberally lubricate the body of the parasite with one of the listed means. The substance blocks the spiracles and slows the flow of oxygen. We pull the body of the tick with tweezers, a surgical clamp or a device in the form of a plastic hook that looks like a nail clipper or a spoon with a cut in the middle. You can use the thread that we tie at the bottom of the proboscis and carefully, swinging the body of the tick, pull it out so that the head does not remain in the wound. If nevertheless it was not possible to completely remove the parasite, we pick out the remains with a needle, like an ordinary splinter. Lubricate the wound with alcohol or any disinfectant. In the place where the tick was, the animal may remain a scar and no hair.

How to protect a cat from bites of an ixodid tick

1. During the peak of activity, we examine the cat, especially after walking on the street, the parasite does not immediately dig into the victim’s body, there is time to neutralize it.
2. In autumn, we remove the fallen leaves from the site - the place of the winter refuge of arachnids.
3. In the spring we mow the grass in and around the plot.
4. In a veterinary pharmacy we buy collars from parasites, choosing, we look at the instructions, it should mention the "ixodid tick".
5. You can use all kinds of drops, sprays, powder, aerosols. It is necessary to apply strictly according to the instructions so as not to cause allergies and not harm the health of the animal.

Our pets - cats cannot say how they feel and what worries them. Be attentive to pets, protect and protect from diseases and parasites, including from an ixodid tick. His bite causes suppuration in the wound area, allergies and a rare but terrible chronic disease of cats - infectious anemia (hemobartonellosis).

In early spring, get protection against the ixodid tick, take care of your pet's health in advance.

Video: how to get a tick from a cat