Scabies in cats: symptoms and treatment. Is scabies transmitted from cats to humans?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

One of the common diseases of our furry pets is scabies. Scabies in cats is accompanied by itching, severe skin irritation, scratching and hair loss. The cause of the disease are ticks that can live on various parts of the animal's body. But especially often they take over the ears, genitals and belly of the pussy.

Types of ticks

The following types of ticks can parasitize on the body of an animal:

• Ear. Parasites cause otodectosis disease.
• Ticks Scabies. Rare insects. They are carriers of sarcoptic mange.
• Cheyletiella mites. Another rare variety. An animal attacked by these parasites becomes infected with hyletiellosis.
• Ticks Demodex cati provoke the development of demodicosis.
• The mites Notoedres cati cause a disease called notoedrosis.

Otodectosis

Ear scabies in cats (treatment will be discussed a little later) is a fairly common disease. Even a domestic cat can catch the ear mites that cause this disease. A simple contact with a sick street animal is enough for this.

Pathogen -microscopic mite no larger than 0.5 mm. Parasites live and breed exclusively on the body of animals. For humans, they are completely harmless.

Insects for their place of residence choose the inner surface of the animal's ear, capturing the eardrum and the ear canal itself. The cat experiences severe itching.

The following animal behavior will help diagnose the disease:

• the cat is very restless;
• constantly rubs ears against objects;
• shakes head;
• constantly scratches ears, tearing them to blood;
• meows and clings to the owner.

Scratched ears begin to fester without proper care.

If you look into the ears of an animal, you can see a strong plaque on the inner surface of the auricle. In addition, it emits a characteristic putrid odor.

Initially, ear mange in cats spreads to the outer and middle ear. If no measures are taken, then the inner ear is drawn into the infection process. And in the most advanced cases, the meninges are affected.

Treatment of ear scabies

Once a diagnosis of ear scabies has been made in cats, treatment should begin immediately. First of all, you need to clean the ear from crusts. To do this, you can use chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Simply soak a swab in the liquid and gently clean your ear. Fresh fluid and a swab are taken for each ear. This will help to avoid infection of a he althy ear (ifthe disease did not affect both).

Special drops are prescribed as medicines. Much less often, a veterinarian prescribes gel-like products and sprays. The medicine is injected into both ears of the animal, even if only one is symptomatic. Be extremely careful with the dosage. Otherwise, you can cause irreparable harm to the animal.

Demodicosis

Demodex mites are constantly present in the hair follicle and sebaceous glands of the animal. The disease develops if their number increases significantly, and the cat's immune system can no longer control them. Demodicosis brings a lot of physical torment to a pet. The disease affects the area around the eyes, face and neck of the animal.

Diagnosing this disease in a cat is not difficult. The first call is restless behavior, which provokes severe itching of the skin. The fact is that mites begin intensive work to gnaw through passages in all layers of the skin. Therefore, the cat strenuously combs the affected areas of the skin. Quite often, infection of damaged surfaces joins the disease.

There are three forms of the disease:

• scaly;
• pustular-papular;
• mixed.

The scaly form of demodicosis is characterized by slight itching and hair loss at the site of the lesion.

Noticing the first symptoms of the disease (scratching of the animal, accompanied by hair loss), the owner must take the cat to the veterinary clinic. Demodicosis detected in the initial stageheals fairly quickly.

How to treat scabies in cats

Mild form of demodicosis is treated in just 10 days. For external use, the use of the drug "Sulfodecortem" or ordinary sulfuric ointment is recommended. They are simply carefully rubbed into the areas damaged by ticks.

To speed up recovery, the animal is additionally prescribed restorative agents: vitamin complexes and immunostimulants, as well as antiparasitic injections. If the affected area of the skin occupies a large area, then the pussy is prescribed a course of antibiotics intramuscularly.

Sarcoptic mange or itchy scabies

Itching scabies is classified as contagious, i.e. contagious when touched, diseases. Caused by ectoparasites of the Scabies family. Diagnosed pruritic scabies in a cat is transmitted to humans and manifests itself in the form of papular-type rashes on the surface of the skin, disappearing after the termination of unprotected contact with an infected animal.

Symptomatics

As a habitat, ticks choose the areas of the ears, abdomen, elbow and knee joints of the animal. If left untreated, the affected area extends to the entire body of the cat.

The skin in the area of infection is covered with papules. Her additional combing by animals only exacerbates the situation. If no measures are taken, then blackening and thickening of the skin is observed, followed by degeneration into a neoplasm.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing yourself is impossible. In a veterinary clinic, a specialist makes a diagnosis based on clinical symptoms and laboratory tests of deep scrapings from the animal's skin. But even with the study, it is not always possible to identify a tick, so a trial treatment is often prescribed. If the animal's condition then improves, then a confirmed diagnosis is made and the procedure is repeated.

Treatment of sarcoptic mange

Here, a variety of drugs from a number of antiparasitic drugs are used. Itching is relieved with the help of antihistamines and hormonal agents. It is also mandatory to disinfect the place where the cat sleeps.

Heyletiellosis or wandering dandruff

Cheyletiella mites are a fairly rare type of parasite that lives on the surface of the skin. They do not penetrate into the skin of an animal, but parasitize on its surface, feeding on epithelial cells, lymph and tissue fluid.

The disease affects most often young animals. Adult cats can carry the disease without showing symptoms.

Cheiletiella infection

The full life cycle of a tick is 21 days. This should always be taken into account in the treatment of the disease.

Infection occurs in the classical way: during a walk and contact with a sick animal. Outside the host, an adult tick can remain viable for up to 10 days. Characteristic scales appear on the skin of the animal, very similar to ordinary dandruff. Hence the name of the disease. As scale disease progressesgetting bigger.

Cheiletiellosis is not characterized by severe itching. Sometimes it is completely absent. An animal may itch severely due to an allergic reaction to the parasite itself.

Is the disease dangerous for humans? You can get sick. A person will become infected with scabies from a cat only through close contact, when the animal is sleeping nearby, touching the open surface of the skin. In this case, rashes in the form of papules are possible, accompanied by mild itching. Lack of open contact with a sick cat helps the rash disappear.

Treatment of disease

Diagnosis is based on laboratory tests. For this, superficial scrapings are taken and a trichogram is performed. But cats are extremely clean by nature, so sometimes it is not possible to detect tick eggs. In this case, a trial treatment is applied.

Drops, sprays and shampoos used to treat cat hair are prescribed as medical preparations. In addition, tablets are prescribed. In advanced cases, injection courses are prescribed. Also mandatory thorough disinfection of the premises and bedding of the animal.

Treat all pets that come into contact with the sick cat.

Notoedrosis

The disease is provoked by the mite Notoedres cati, which settles in the skin of an animal. Infection occurs according to the standard scheme: during the contact of a cat with a sick individual. The disease is contagious and contagious to humans.

Young cats get sick much more often than adults, which is explained by theirunstable immunity. Notoedrosis is a fairly common scabies in cats. Symptoms at the beginning of the disease may be as follows: papular rashes are observed in the pussy, located on the surface of the superciliary arches, the back of the head and nose. The cat, experiencing severe itching, begins to comb them, spreading parasites over the entire surface of the body.

Treatment

When detected at an early stage, the disease is treated fairly quickly. Ointments and gels are used as therapeutic agents. Aversectin ointment has proven itself well, which is applied only twice a week.

If the wounds began to fester, then antibiotics must be prescribed. The treatment in this case is chosen by the veterinarian.