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5 Serious Diseases Your Cat Can Get From Having Fleas

5 Serious Diseases Your Cat Can Get From Having Fleas

Updated On April 6th, 2017

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Reviewed By Christie Long, DVM

Veterinarian

Fleas themselves are despicable little creatures. They bite your pets and they can bite you as well, living, breeding, and raising their awful little flea children in your carpets and upholstery. But beyond just the annoyance and itch of flea bites, there are several diseases that range from mild to extremely serious that are caused directly by flea bites. Read on to get educated about five more good reasons to keep your cat flea-free.

Anemia

Anemia isn’t a disease – it’s the state of having a less-than-normal amount of red blood cells, and it’s caused by [diseases that leave the body with depleted of red blood cells](https://www.petcoach.co/article/top-6-questions-about-anemia-in-cats-answered). Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body, and without adequate numbers of them, the tissues are starved for oxygen. What starts out as a bit of lethargy can end up becoming severe, and ultimately the cat can begin breathing very rapidly and shallowly in an effort to get more oxygen into the body.

When a small cat, or especially a kitten, has a substantial number of fleas on its body, the amount of blood lost to the sucking parasites can actually leave the cat with anemia. Getting the fleas off the cat is the first step to treating this type of anemia, but sometimes the blood loss is so severe and the cat is so anemic that it needs a blood transfusion to aid recovery.

Plague

Plague – that’s right, good old Monty Python plague – is transmitted to cats from flea bites. Cats that roam outdoors near prairie dog colonies are especially at risk, since the disease is often present in prairie dogs, and when fleas bite prairie dogs and then turn their attention to a neighborhood cat wandering by, the disease is spread to the cat.

Plague turns out to be not quite as deadly as it was in the Middle Ages – it responds pretty rapidly to the right antibiotic (thank you, modern medicine) – but the problem is that it’s not typically on the radar screen of many veterinarians or even human doctors. Since one of the first signs of the disease is enlarged and abscessed submandibular lymph nodes in an affected cat ([the set just under the jaw](https://www.petcoach.co/article/nose-to-tail-tour-how-to-assess-your-cat-s-health-at-home)), it’s important that any sick cat that roams outside and has swellings in this area be treated as a plague suspect until proven otherwise.

Bartonellosis

(Cue the Ted Nugent intro) Bartonellosis is a bacterial disease that is transmitted to cats through flea bites. It’s often called cat scratch fever, and while it can cause a bit of a fever in the cat, it’s when the cat bites a human that things really get ugly.

Cat scratch fever is actually most commonly transmitted to humans via a bite, not a scratch, although theoretically it can happen. Humans experience fever, lethargy, and enlarged lymph nodes. The disease resolves fairly easily with appropriate antibiotics, but you’d have to have an extra-sharp physician to think of it, or remember to mention a recent cat bite during your visit.

Tapeworms

Probably the least lethal problem on this list is likely the most disgusting to pet parents. Fleas harbor the tapeworm larva, and our fastidious feline friends groom the fleas away with their tongues, ingesting the fleas and giving themselves a raging case of tapeworms. Luckily, most of the time tapeworms don’t bother the cat very much, but if the infestation persists, weight loss can occur. Sometimes the owner notices a bit of scooting due to perianal irritation, but typically the disease is detected when tapeworm segments are seen near the cat’s anus – sometimes still moving, which doubles the disgust factor.

It’s important to remember [two universal truths](https://www.petcoach.co/question/?id=198993). Number 1: if your cat has fleas, it probably has tapeworms, so deworm it with a product that contains the medication praziquantel, which kills tapeworms. And Number 2: if your cat has tapeworms, it almost definitely has fleas, so use a high quality flea preventive, and keep using it every month.

Flea allergic dermatitis

A few fleas can quickly turn into a pretty dramatic flea infestation. And many cats can easily become so sensitive to the saliva of the flea, which invades the area just under the skin when the flea bites the cat, that they actually become allergic to it.

Allergies are never easy to deal with, but flea sensitivities are heart-breaking, because owners can try to do everything right – sanitizing the environment of fleas, using quality flea preventives on the cat – and just one flea bite can set off an intense allergic reaction.

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Related Questions

I have a cat that as a kitten was very ill. We got him from 7 months old. We knew he’d had cat flu prior to him coming here. He is now nearly 5 yrs old. He picks huge fights with our other cat. He keeps urinating and scratching at doors and windows around the house. We allow him to go out via the cat flap unlimited. What is happening to him

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