There are a lot of cats in the world that face deadly daily diseases. This can lead cat owners around to worry about the health of their cats and long to know different reasons and diagnoses for those illnesses, like Lyme, it is known that Lyme disease affects more dogs, and it has also been shown that this disease was always spread out within cats too.
Though many statistics showed indoor cats could prevent Lyme disease, the possibility of cat’s illnesses is still high if your cat can have any outside contact because keeping cats indoors will make them less protected to fight with other cats and to have any kind of infections, however, it is always a matter of questioning, can cats get Lyme disease? How can I protect my cat from Lyme disease?
NOTE: We want to inform our blog readers that before we publish any article, the team “Proudcatowners” does deep research based on experience and knowledge about cats and everything related to them, to guarantees reliable and precise information, satisfy the readers is our first priority.
What Does Lyme Diseases Look Like in Cats?
Lyme disease is well known in the pets world, especially dogs and cats. This disease is a famous tick-transmitted one that is caused by a specific bacteria called spirochete of the Borrelia Burgdorefiri group.
The problem of cats, in general, is cat’s symptoms are silent, many of them affected with this disease can have it because of joints inflammation. They can also develop kidney problems, and Lyme is untreated it develops to Glomerulonephritis, which is a sickness that causes inflammation and affect the function of the cat’s kidney.
The following symptoms as vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite, weight loss, and increased urination and thirst are all signs of kidney failure. Lyme disease comes with other health issues such as cats become so sensitive to be touched, a bowed back with a bowed walk and difficulty in breathing.
What are the reasons behind cats Lyme disease?
The reasons for Lyme disease in cats have developed with time. A study that has been made in the USA showed that Lyme disease is a bacterial disease that enters the animal body by a bite of a young tick or a young female tick. A lot of different kinds of ticks are responsible for Lyme disease.
This study shows that mature ticks are more active in spring after a period of sleeping in winter. Those ticks need blood, and female ticks need blood more to finish up their life cycle for mating. So, it is asked to check pets’ skin and hair in springtime in case there are any ticks.
Fleas are different than ticks, they do not jump that you can notice them. Their movement in the body is crawling and perching some plants and surfaces till they find a host body, when they step up in the host body, bacteria starts to be reproduced around the bite that the tick makes. Then, the host blood is filled up by pathogens, and after few weeks of infection, the symptoms we mentioned start to appear as fever, lethargy, and painful tension, and inflammation in the cat’s joints and muscles.
In this case, it is urgent to check the vet if any of those symptoms have appeared during spring, which is the season of ticks action and movements. Vets have explained that Lyme disease can be found through blood tests. Yet, any delay or ignorance of checking the symptoms has other consequences on the health of the cat.
How Can Cats Get Lyme Disease?
An infected bite of a tick that wants to feed on cat blood is the cause of Lyme disease. The duration that the bacteria takes to go to the blood is one to two days after the bite of the tick. So, even if cats are known by self-cleaning creators, it is necessary to have daily check-in springtime for possible ticks to remove it away.
Lack of cleaning and checking in tick times is among the causes of how cats can get Lyme disease. Some vets said that because cats are fastidious groomers, they will remove ticks in the grooming process yet, this will never be enough due to the rapidity of ticks’ bites, their biological development within time, and their high level of activity in springtime.
In the past, cats did not get this disease or were not projected to it a lot. Many vets still believe cats are rare to get Lyme disease, nevertheless, everyday new studies and statistics appear daily to show cats are just as dogs get Lyme when they are exposed to it.
What is most common on cats Lyme Disease?
Vets confirm that Lyme disease in cats is hard to be discovered because of the diagnosis. The Lyme disease diagnosis is showed just by signs of the diseases or because of the laboratory blood tests. Vets also say that laboratory blood tests differ from an area in the body to another area depending on the affected one.
The response to treatments differs from a pet to another, it depends on the period of infection and the symptoms that appeared on the vet. Vets confirm that some special treatments are not enough, which means another plan of treatment is needed when things are not discovered early. The danger of Lyme disease bacteria is when it affects the heart, the kidneys, and the nerves of the pet. It causes much pain to the cat and great damage to their internal organs. Therefore, vets always advise constant checking on the cat or any pets you have.
This disease has to be avoidable and controlled. Many products as sprays must be used to lower Lyme disease possibility in cats. You may check with vets always asking them about good product advice on how to check ticks in the body of your cat, and how to remove them not to have lung infections and fix any possible developed case of Lyme.
Lyme disease can get to humans yet, cats and dogs are not the reason where you can have it. Sometimes humans can get ticks and transmit them to their pets.
Is Lyme disease curable in cats?
The answer to this question is yes, Lyme disease is curable in cats, and it can be well treated. Cats that have Lyme symptoms are treated with antibiotics. Dangerous Lyme diseases are not curable with antibiotics only, most cats with further developed Lyme disease cases in Cats need other treatments with antibiotics. Lyme disease can hurt massively the limb and the joints of the cats that can respond quickly to treatments, mostly with the possibility of no complete recovery of the damaged organs.
This no complete recovery can be the first reason for some skin damages. In conclusion, Lyme is curable with antibiotics with vets’ instructions of continued check on cats’ health and skin because if it is untreated, it will be prolonged. Some other people ask if it is contagious, Lyme cannot be contagious after falling sick, whether it is from the human side or pets’ side.
However, both can be infected if pets or their owners have a tick, and this tick transmits to any of them and bites anyone of them. But in general, cats do not pass the infection, they may bring unattached ticks.
Questioning cats may be susceptible to Lyme disease, and owners better check themselves as well because it highly affects humans and dogs mostly. Yet, recovery is always manageable of Lyme disease in cats. It is always based on the time the cat had Lyme and also how the skin tissue in the cat has been damaged.
Vets till now have limited cure management for cats because felines illnesses history does not have a lot of information about Lyme only recently.
Vaccine:
Some owners question if there is an available vaccine for cats as it is available for dogs, but the answer is there is no such a vaccine against Lyme disease for cats. Yet, in warm weather of ticks, cats can be well safe if the owner uses cat safe insect repellent in case the cat goes outside and have any contact with other cats as well.
Some products that have been prescribed by vets for dogs before making a vaccine for dogs can be used with cats only with your veterinarian consultation because cats are sensitive to many products.
To protect your cat more, you should always check in this season its skin looking for any tick and remove it, especially if you have a yard, and your cat goes out a lot in warm weather. To remove a tick, you can just use tweezers that can reach the tick in the cat’s body.
If it was newly found with the daily check, it is totally good, you do not have to worry. As we mentioned above, ticks transmit Lyme after one day or two days after finding it. The daily check, cleaning with the cat grooming, and ticks removing can always lower the possibility of Lyme disease.
Vets advise those who are removing ticks – Lyme is not contagious, ticks can transmit from the cat to the man- to wear gloves and to clean well their hands after putting the tick in something mixed with alcohol to prevent further diseases because of the tick.
Why would cats be less prone to Lyme disease?
Cats can be less prone to Lyme disease because it is thought to be a disease that can happen only to humans and dogs. In the cat’s illness history, Lyme was not a strong disease and was not hugely found in many cats. Some vets believe it is just new that started to affect cats. For instance, Lyme vaccines for dogs exist only for dogs, but it is not yet developed for cats.
Lyme symptoms for cats are silent, and they may appear after a long while, vets never think it may be a tick bite and diagnose it as Lyme. In conclusion, Lyme disease is totally something that is recently discovered in cats. Follow up on how to check your cat in springtime and how to protect it from Lyme disease.
How can I protect my cat?
It is easy to make this illness preventable in cats by protecting home and by doing some simple procedures:
Check My Outside:
checking the garden, if you have a garden or a back home yard, consistently and cutting the extra weed will prevent the existence of ticks near your pets. If you do not know how to take care of your garden, bring an expert, especially in springtime, and use insecticides against ticks. Experts can tell you if there are ticks in your garden and help to give you tips about it. Ticks have specific places to hide under shrubs, for instance.
My Vet Spray:
Ask your vet about a product to use as a spray on your cat or your pets in the house that may kill any possible tick in warm weather. The product can be a spray or anything recommended by vets, yet sprays are easy to be applied to animals in general.
Check, Check, Check:
Many pet holders complain about having cats that like to be outside more than inside the house. So to prevent any possibility of having a Lyme disease, cats have to be daily checked in springtimes. Search well in their skins, brush their fur, and use a good medical recommended product as a spray on them. Spots in the cat’s body that are required to be checked are the legs, the neck, and inside the cat’s ear.
Hello Vet:
Try always to check with veterinarians about possible vaccines or products you may use always to help in protecting your pet. It always depends on the new researches and study of a vaccine against Lyme bacteria for cats. You just have to check because the consequences of Lyme can be dangerous on cats with time, it can be costly as well if it is a long period of treatment.
Watch Yourself:
Protecting yourself has also been a matter after mentioning that ticks can easily hop from cats to you. Look for ticks for your safety and your cats also because Lyme is a disease for both humans and animals. When you find ticks, use gloves, wash your hands, and wear appropriate clothes when checking the garden.
FAQ:
How do you prevent Lyme disease?
- Do a tick examination every time your cat returns from the woods o. Unlike mosquitoes, which attack and vaccinate pathogens quickly, a tick needs to connect itself and prepare a feeding tunnel before it injects any probably contagious saliva.
- This method takes a long time, around 30 hours! That implies, if you see a tick on your cat, it’s not too late! Shortly find tweezers and draw out the tick.
- Don’t worry if the mouthparts are still clasped in your cat skin: just remove as much of the head and body as you can.
- You do NOT need any special tools for this! Anything that lets you take and pull will be enough.
- Check your cat skin closely, as they could have bitten your cat someplace you wouldn’t usually see.
- Be attentive with tick checks, and the risk of a tick snapping your cat to finish without you realizing is diminished.
How is Lyme disease spread?
Untreated symptoms of Lyme can lead to other complicated ones. There are many stages of infections. Lethargy and fever are the first symptoms to indicate any illness in cats since they have silent sickness. You must have to check with your vet whenever you see those symptoms in your pets, especially when they have bites.
What happens if the tick’s head stays in the cat?
You need to be cautious not to squeeze the tick’s body. Do not allow its head to get stuck inside your cat. Squeezing a tick’s body can cause it to expel blood back into your cat, increasing the risk of infection, which needs an urgent consultant from your vet immediately.
Conclusion
Can cats get Lyme disease? The answer to this question has been well explained in the details we already have mentioned above. To remember, in general, the answer to the question is yes, cats can get Lyme disease. Cats in the past used not to have any touch with Lyme disease, which has raised this question to vets and pet holders if cats can get Lyme. Recently many cases showed that Cats could have Lyme and its consequences after a long time from discovering it will cause bad results on cats.
Cats, in general, have known by silent disease holders, which makes it so difficult to understand that they may have Lyme. Daily checking of any possible tick is always demanded in warm times as spring. Lyme has been known to be found in dogs mostly, but because of the biological and natural changes, cats can easily get Lyme as well. So, follow what we mentioned above, check on yourself and your cat! And have a nice warm time with your cat!
