Mary Allen
If you look out of the window at the moment, you can see at first glance that it is the dead of autumn. You’re just glad to be in the warm little room, aren’t you? But because some parasites are happy to follow us there in autumn, we take a closer look at which pests are currently stalking our pets.
Fleas
Fall is the annual peak season for fleas – the jumping parasites of fall. They look for a furry taxi to the heated apartments and are happy to use dogs and cats for this. Dogs or cats are usually infected by their respective conspecifics. But even cute hedgehogs are not infrequently veritable parasite motherships, from which more than just one or two fleas can often jump if you try to get up close and personal.
Since tick activity decreases significantly in the cold season (but never disappears), many pet owners do without chemical prophylaxis in the form of tablets, spot-on, or collars. However, these products usually keep fleas and ticks at bay. Without this protection, the little hoppers have it very easily.
Smartass knowledge: with a size of 1mm, a dog flea can jump up to 25cm high. Compared to a human, it would have to climb more than 400m in height in a single jump. Crazy, right?
A few examples of the heights of famous buildings:
- Cologne Cathedral = 157m
- Eiffel Tower = 324m
- Berlin TV Tower = 368m
Symptoms of Fleas
The absolute main symptom of a flea infestation is itching. It usually occurs in fits and starts when a flea stings or bites its host animal and thus sets the stimulus. Of course, a flea found on an animal is considered evidence of an infestation. Under certain circumstances, however, this may not succeed, instead (especially if the infestation has lasted a little longer) you will often find small black crumbs in the fur of the animal – especially in the area of the back up to the base of the tail, as well as on sleeping pads or in the basket.
These crumbs are the parasite’s droppings and consist primarily of the blood of the host animal. If you are not sure whether it is actually flea excrement or rather a pressure, dust, or similar, this can be tested with a few drops of water. To do this, the crumbs are placed on a white handkerchief and moistened with a few drops of water. If they turn reddish within a minute, this is proof that it is dried blood. This means that a flea infestation is considered proven.
Get Rid of Fleas
The therapy is usually much more difficult than with ticks because fleas only live temporarily on their host and leave them in the meantime to lay their eggs in the area – like behind baseboards, in cracks on the couch, or even between floorboards.
If the infestation is severe and persistent, it may be necessary to treat the area in exceptional cases (sprays, foggers, etc.). In the vast majority of cases, however, simply treating the host animal is sufficient. Here you use your pet as your own furry exterminator, so to speak, who collects the fleas in every room.
If several animals live in the household (regardless of whether they are dogs or cats), the entire stock should be treated to avoid the formation of reservoirs.
When cleaning the apartment with a vacuum cleaner, there are three small tips:
- for devices with a bag, this should be thrown away immediately after use so that sucked-in parasites can no longer crawl out in the living area
- a mothball placed in the bag can help, since mothballs usually reliably kill fleas at such a short distance
- in the case of bagless devices, the vacuumed contents should be emptied into the dustbin outside the building immediately after each use
Can it be transmitted to humans?
The bad news is YES – fleas can jump onto humans (although they don’t really ‘taste’ us). Because fleas are rather host-specific and have usually specialized in one species. For example, there is the dog flea or the cat flea. But of course, also a human flea, which also likes to attack pigs.
Nevertheless, the fleas of our pets also try on us: this usually happens on the forearms and lower legs (because our skin is quite thin there). Fleas usually bite several times in a row or in a triangle because they have difficulty finding blood vessels. These bites or stings do not hurt, but they really itch – if there is an allergy to flea saliva, this can lead to downright self-mutilation in pets.
Crawling small children can be particularly affected, as they are very close to the ground and can sometimes react to the parasites with extreme skin rashes – so special caution should be exercised with this risk group.
By the way, fleas often contain tapeworm eggs! If a dog or cat catches a flea while grooming, possibly chews it, and swallows it, it has been proven that it can lead to infection with tapeworms. Therefore, sometime after completing flea therapy, deworming should be considered. Either by diagnostics using a 3-day fecal sample to rule out a possible worm infestation or, if necessary, to deworm blindly.
Smartass knowledge: By the way, the plague is not transmitted by rats – it is their fleas.
Autumn Grass Mites
These much smaller and therefore difficult to find pests are particularly active in autumn. In the veterinary practice, dogs are usually present, which are downright tormented by the small parasites in autumn. They look like tiny orange globules on the skin (singly or glued together to form regular colonies). In English-speaking countries, they are accordingly referred to as ‘red bugs’.
Important smartass knowledge: these parasites are larvae. The adult mites (also called harvest mites), on the other hand, are predatory and feed on small insects. Unfortunately, since the larvae of the autumn grass mites are anything but choosy, pretty much every animal is a welcome victim – from birds to mice, dogs and cats to us humans.
The life cycle of the fall grass mite
The parasitic larvae sit on the tips of blades of grass, on mounds of earth, or in fallen leaves, where they sometimes wait in hundreds for their potential hosts. Once they have made it and been able to attach themselves successfully, they generally use a suction proboscis to absorb liquefied tissue containing blood for three days. They then fall off their host and transform through a nymphal stage into an adult mite. As adult mites, they survive the winter in the soil.
They reappear next spring and the cycle starts all over again.
Fall grass mite symptoms
Similar to the flea infestation, persistent itching (here especially shortly after a walk in the area of the paws) is the focus as the main symptom. This itching can be so severe that dogs can literally bite their paws open to the bone. In absolute exceptions, the constant stress can even lead to cramps.
Sensitivity to fall grass mites varies from animal to animal – some show hardly any symptoms while others scratch themselves almost to death, refusing food and water altogether. Under certain circumstances, unclear lameness can even be the main symptom.
Get rid of autumn grass mites
Rinsing the legs with soap and water directly after the walk has proven itself as a therapy. Although there are several active ingredients that have a certain deterrent effect, the result is usually not satisfactory. In order to prevent an infestation, protective shoes on the dog’s paws when walking (especially when they come into contact with grass) are much more reliable – of course only if the dog tolerates them.
Every year, with the first frost, thank God the nightmare is over because all mites that have not yet grown up do not survive the cold and die. Incidentally, in Asia, autumn grass mites can transmit rickettsia (bacterial pathogens) and thereby trigger the so-called Tsutsugamushi fever. Here in Europe, they do not (yet) transmit any pathogens. However, the following parasites can do this in autumn, which unfortunately are too often forgotten in the cold season.
Ticks
Climate change and the associated global warming have been shown to have led to a significant increase in the tick population in Germany in recent years – both in number and duration of activity. Nowadays, ticks are active all year round in our part of the year – a lot more active in the warm half of the year, but never completely restricted in the depths of winter. Thanks to global warming, there have been no longer any sustained periods of frost in most of Germany in recent winters. As a result, the tick population has not been minimized due to the weather for some time. The three most important types of ticks are the so-called common wood tick, the alluvial forest tick, and the brown dog tick.
In addition to possible wound infection, the main danger from a tick bite is the transmission of infectious agents. In such a transmission, ticks form the so-called vector – they are the carriers. This year, in particular, we have been able to identify a particularly large number of tick-borne diseases in patients – above all anaplasmosis.
Anaplasma are bacteria. According to various studies, they are only transmitted around 24 hours after the bite of an infected tick. Until then, the parasite must be removed from its host animal. This can be done either by conscientious manual collection. However, there are now several prescription drugs that act as a repellent (deterrent) to ticks. There are also tablets or spot-on that reliably kill ticks shortly after contact with the host animal before transmission of anaplasia occurs.
Anaplasmosis Symptoms
The symptoms of anaplasmosis are rarely clear-cut. They are usually rather unspecific and can have many other causes. High fever (often in flares up to 41 or even 42°C) is very common and weakens affected patients immensely. Many infected people show a pronounced reluctance to move with or without lameness. They appear lethargic and hardly eat. Pale mucous membranes are also not uncommon.
Especially when these symptoms occur and when you know about tick bites, the appropriate laboratory diagnostics should be initiated. If the blood results are positive, the drug of choice is a special antibiotic for at least 3 weeks. If you divide the dose into morning and evening instead of administering it all once a day, the drug is usually much better tolerated by the patient, so that diarrhea or similar undesirable side effects hardly occur. Under certain circumstances, and especially in an advanced stage, additional symptomatic treatments may be necessary – but these vary from case to case.
Forecast
The prognosis is good with prompt diagnosis and successful antibiotic treatment. Nevertheless, one should not underestimate anaplasmosis, as it usually ends fatally if left untreated. For this reason, if there is any suspicion, a corresponding diagnosis should be initiated immediately and without delay.
Parasites in the Fall: a Glimpse into the Future
It mostly hits unprotected dogs or dogs that have been treated with ineffective home remedies. This is not a legend, but my experience, which unfortunately often had to happen in my everyday work. There has been an online discussion for years as to whether colloquial ‘chemistry’ is necessary or makes sense. It is up to each animal owner to decide what to do – but I would ask you to include possible anaplasmosis in the decision-making process.
If global warming is allowed to continue unchecked, it is quite possible that we in Germany will be allowed to bother ourselves with one or the other previous ‘tropical disease’ in the future. For example, leishmaniasis, triggered by a unicellular blood parasite, could be transmitted in Germany in the near future. Especially when the winters become so mild that the sandflies, which act as a vector for this parasite, can survive and multiply in this country. Incidentally, leishmaniasis is just one of many diseases that can affect both animals and humans.
You can see here that environmental protection affects us all.
Take care of yourself and your loved ones…