Serious question - how come I've never seen a tick on a cat?

[malaise]

Help!

[MLAA]

1. Uh, you don't get out much? Sorry, I know you said seriously...but I couldn't resist 🙂

And seriously, I have no idea….I’ve never heard of cats getting ticks either. I hope someone that is not a smartass like me answers!

[malaise]

4. LOL

I asked because one of the feral kittens got inside the house and I had a blast helping her get out but she has neither fleas nor ticks. Now I know cats can have fleas but we put flear powder on the patio. In all these years I've never seen a tick on one of them.

[Ohio Joe]

19. The powder you put out...

Does it also protect against ticks? I've had cats all my life and I'm trying to remember but... I can't recall any powder/collar for fleas that did not also do ticks. To be fair though, my memory is really not what it used to be

[malaise]

20. Well Ohio Joe it's called flea powder

and I have never checked out what else it kills.. Will have a look tomorrow

[Deminpenn]

2. One of mine had a tick once

Vet told me once the tick got full of blood it would drop off. That's what happened.

Probably only indoor/outdoor cats are at risk.

[malaise]

5. None of these is an indoor cat. They are feral cats

[Deminpenn]

7. Mine are DSH and mostly indoor, but they go out for

short periods.

[NNadir]

16. My indoor cat has had ticks.

[patricia92243]

25. Were you able to get feral cats down and look closely. The

ferals around my house wouldn't let me close to them much less to pick them up to look for ticks.

[malaise]

26. I work hard at taming the kittens so that I can

take them to the JSPCA to be given away.
Funny you ask because one of the wilder males was rubbing against my leg this morning as I was feeding them. He had a leg injury and I protected him so he could eat. Now he trusts me. Mind you I wouldn't dare try to pick him up

[marble falls]

3. They taste like Friskies cat chow?

[malaise]

6. LOL

[hlthe2b]

8. They do. And tick-borne disease, including Lyme Disease, Tularemia, hemobartonellosis are on

the rise in cats. Ticks have to be attached for at least a few hours to transmit most bacterial (Lyme & Tularemia) and probably longer to transmit parasitic blood or protozoan disease, so one might wonder if short-haired cats with constant self-grooming might be able to remove them fairly promptly on most areas of the body... But longer-haired cats give ticks the advantage.

Short answer though.. they do.

BTW, heartworm disease is exploding in cats in the South/Southeast, but even in my own state of Colorado. AND, lest one think that indoor cats are safe, entomologists have confirmed mosquitoes get in through housing vents (and of course open doors or screenless windows) which likely explains the more rare cases in cats reported to never go outside.

Only going to get worse with climate change--along with everything else. sigh...

[malaise]

11. Thanks

I learn something new every day

[Dale in Laurel MD]

9. I see some on our cats now and then.

(Fewer than I have to get off myself though.)

[MLAA]

12. Maybe it's high time you got a flea and tick collar? Haha

😬

[malaise]

13. LOL

The dogs used to get ticks but I've never seen them on cats

[PoliticAverse]

14. I've removed ticks from cats. n/t

[NNadir]

15. I've definitely seen them and pulled them off.

Usually you don't see them until they become engorged.

[malaise]

17. Thanks

This is new to me

[Ocelot II]

18. They get them but they probably pull them off pretty fast when grooming themselves.

[malaise]

21. Yes they do groom themselves quite a bit

[sinkingfeeling]

22. They have ticks. And in 2019 I had a beautiful, white Ragdoll die

from Bobcat Fever, transmitted from a tick.

https://www.caes.uga.edu/news-events/news/story/8635/Bobcat-Fever.html

[lastlib]

23. Because you never saw my cat.

I would bet that I pulled a couple dozen off of her--fortunately, most of them before they attached.

[UTUSN]

24. Because ticks like hosts who bathe?!1

Last edited Sun Jul 18, 2021, 01:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Yea, I know cats "clean" themselves - uh, LICKING themselves DUH!1 -- Am I the only one who thinks LICKING themselves is *NOT* good for hooman petting them?!1

*** ON EDIT: Inserted *NOT*.

[malaise]

27. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!