Cat Lice: How To Prevent And Treat?

Certainly less frequent than fleas, cat lice are especially to be feared in older cats and/or in bad health who live in dirty places and more particularly in groups as is the case with stray cats stray cats. So be careful if you have a cat that spends a lot of time wandering, because it is more likely to be infected. Let’s see how to know if your cat has lice, what are the best prevention solutions but also how to treat it in case of infestation.

What Is Cat Louse?

The domestic cat can only be infested by only one kind of louse : Felicola subrostrata mallophagous insect, that is to say, which has a chewing mouth apparatus. This parasite belongs to the family of Trichodectidae. The cat louse feeds on the secretions and dander of its host, reproduces on its skin and the females lay their eggs (nits) there, which hatch quickly.

Cat louse can cause an infection of the skin and/or mucous membranes. It is therefore very important to prevent its appearance or to treat the small feline as soon as possible because in the absence of treatment, the dermatosis can become chronic.

Let us be reassured all the same: humans cannot be infested by cat lice.

Cat lice: the signs that should alert

A cat victim of phthiriosis that is to say from an infestation by lice, does not take long to suffer from itching increasingly virulent. This is called the pruritus.

By dint of scratching, insistently licking or biting, the little feline ends up getting irritated, and its wounds can quickly become superinfected. In long-haired cats, the knots multiply of course, but in all cats, the fur loses its shine because these animals no longer groom themselves properly. The affected animal has dander that is to say dandruff, or local hair loss.

In the event of a very heavy infestation, the kitty ends up losing its appetite, it loses weight, seems anxious and sleeps badly. It’s necessary consult the veterinarian quickly at the slightest doubt so that the cat can be treated without delay.

Cat Lice: Prevention

The best prevention against cat lice is to prevent your little feline from hanging out with stray cats in order to limit the risk of close contact with infested animals.

You should also make a habit of check coat and skin of his cat when he comes back from a walk and brush his fur as regularly as possible, remembering to systematically look for the presence of nits or lice. To do this, we use a lice comb whose spacing between the teeth is reduced.

As to cleaning of the whole environment of the cat, it must be carried out very frequently and with great care. This includes the cat’s toys, bowls, brushing accessories, basket, cat tree, etc.

Of course, it is useful to equip your cat with a flea collar and of it preventive treatment against ticks for example through a pest control spray. These preventive solutions can prove to be quite effective against lice.

Be careful, you have to be careful insecticide that contains permethrin. Effective against lice, a synthetic pyrethroid of this type is toxic to cats.

Cat Lice: Treatment

If we have several cats and one of them suffers from phthiriosis, it is absolutely essential to treat them all against lice. Note, however, that cat lice cannot parasitize dogs. There is therefore nothing to fear for the latter if we raise cats and dogs together.

There is a wide range of head lice products but it is strongly recommended not to buy them without first taking your cat to the vet. It is dangerous to opt for any product.

Only the veterinarian is able to advise the lice treatment adapted to cats : it can be based on imidacloprid, selamectin, fipronil. In any case, you should absolutely never give your kitty an anti-lice dog because it can cause the death of the little feline. So we buy a head lice for cats only on prescription especially since it is essential to respect the posology to the letter (dosage, frequency of administration) as well as the duration of the treatment.