Tux is a 7 year old neutered male cat who lives mostly inside. He came to us during his yearly exam and his owner reported that Tux had been very itchy.
Tux had a lot of fleas jumping around on him. His coat was sparse and gone in a lot of places and there were a lot of tiny scabs especially over his lower back. There were a lot of small black particles in his coat that we call flea dirt which is actually flea feces. Fleas suck blood and if you take the black particles and moisten them they will turn red from the blood they eat. Around Tux’s bum there was a lot of scabbing and hair loss as well so we checked his stool for parasites. It turns out, Tux also had tapeworms which comes from eating fleas when they are scratching. Sometimes cats who hunt can get tape worms from eating animals outside and the fleas that are on them. Most of the time, if you seen worms in your cat’s poop that looks like rice its tape worm from their own fleas.
We got Tux back on track. We did Bravecto for his fleas which lasts for 3 months. Generally, you have to use three months of a good flea preventatives to get rid of an infestation. We also gave him a dewormer that you put on the back of the neck. Finally, we gave him an antibiotic injection and a steroid to help with the skin infection from the fleas and get rid of the itching.