Health Diseases from Fleas and How to Prevent Them

Headnote

Flea comes in tiny packages, which doesn’t lessen their menace even a bit. A flea bite may be just a small irritation, but if the insects carry any diseases, they will transmit them to your body. Some of them are not only unwell conditions, but also fatal strikes.

Below are some problems your pets and you may catch if there are flea around. To get rid of the threats, look at the solutions for some ways to keep the insect away from your family.

Diseases You May Contract Due to Flea Exposure

Plague

You are not misreading; this is precisely the plague causes the annihilation of more than a third of European population in the Middle Ages. Nowadays, there are specific medicines and remedies against the disease and human no longer die because of it. However, it is still a severe threat to our health.

Plague is transmitted between animals and humans by the bite of infected fleas. Mice are the most common carrier of the pandemic since their fur can contain a large number of the insect, both eggs, and adults. Still, your cats and dogs can be infected and bring the bacteria to your respiratory system when you play with them.

Murine Typhus

The disease is also caused by flea living in animal’s fur, which is mainly rats’. Your cat may be the carrier if you let him chase the mice often and then cuddle him. Murine Typhus gets into your body through flea bites. The bitten area would be itchy, and scratching will facilitate the disease acquisition.

Check for these symptoms: a headache, fever, nausea, and body aches if you think you have caught the disease. After five or six days, a rash will start from your body trunk and spreads to your limbs.

The disease can be treated by antibiotics if you see a doctor in time. If you don’t the condition will stay for long and cause much trouble. People with diabetes, kidney problems, and are alcoholic will have more severe symptoms than others.

Mycoplasma Haemofelis

The disease can be transmitted to cats through infected flea or mosquito, causing the symptoms of fever and anemia. Usually, the human is not affected by mycoplasma haemofelis, but there are proofs that it can harm our bodies if our immune systems are compromised.

The disease causes blood cell destruction in cats since it hassles with the immune system of your pet. In the worst cases, treatment for your cat will take four to six weeks with blood transfusion and antibiotics.

Tapeworms

The disgusting tapeworms can occupy in adult flea, then move into the intestine of dogs and cats. They can get into the human body, too. Cat eating infected mice are the most likely to swallow the loathsome parasites.

Few cases have shown their appearance in adults, but children have tapeworms more often. Treating them is easy, though, just by a drug named praziquantel.

Cat Scratch Disease

Specific studies show that cats are usually exposed to flea at some points in their life. Some never get sick from the bug; some may have severe symptoms like vomiting, seeming lethargic, swollen lymph nodes, having red eyes, etc.

The disease can be transmitted to people when the infected cat scratches or bites the person playing with it. In some rare cases, the condition may affect human brain, eyes, and other internal organs.

Preventing Flea Bites on Humans

There are several methods to get rid of flea, such as:

1. Make a lemon spray. By spraying all the corner of your house and your pet with the aroma, you can keep flea away. Besides, it is a calming and comfortable smell.
2. Buy a diffuser and bless your sweet home with the aromas of lavender, cedar woods, or peppermint. Applying lotions of the scents can prevent flea exposure, too.
3. Keep the bug away by killing the main carrier: rats. If you are searching for a good mouse poison, go to the nearest grocery store. People there will know what you should have to annihilate the hateful animals.
4. Use an effective flea fogger to kill the loathsome insects right when you see them. Common insecticide will work, too. However, check the labels carefully to avoid health hazard from the flea fogger.
5. Let some nematodes live in your yard. The beneficial worms feed in fleas, so the number of the bug will reduce massively with the appearance of the new species. Beautiful ladybugs can be an alternative. You should go the nearest garden center to seek a flea predator which can work well in your local climate.
6. Bath your pets and take them to the vet regularly to check for any signs of fleas. If they have the bug on, you can use some flea drop and avoid playing with them until the problem is solved.

Last words

Flea is a threat to pet and human’s well-being. You should consider the above measures to find the best way to get rid of the bug.

If you have any other ideas about the solutions, or you have coped with the problems and solved it, please let us know. We are always ready to share your information to people.