Flea Mystery

[Eve]

A friend of mine has an indoor only cat who has got fleas and now a tic.

It's all a bit of a mystery as he is a proper pampered house (well, flat) cat, doesn't go out at all and is in a modern apartment building.

Cat is being treated, as is she and the flat.

Does anyone have any idea where the fleas or tics could be coming from as my friend is baffled as to the source!

[boxtops]

unless the friend is bringing the fleas in from somewhere else.... or there are fleas elsewhere in the apartment block.... has she got any second-hand furniture?

[ruthann58]

could be in the carpets, living under the edges of the skirting boards or cracks in the floor boards

[jomifl]

They could have come in on you, they are quite mobile and ticks can get along at quite a pace. It is more likely that they came in on somebody who has cats or walks in areas where there is thick vegetation. They could have been in the flat already if you haven't been there for very long.

[Eve]

I will suggest all that to her, thank you all. I've not been to this flat so no transfer from me or my two catfinks.

I used to live in a flat in a different part of where she lives now (a number of different developments, blocks of flats and houses) and had a problem with getting bitten although a while after I had lost my cat I had then. I did wonder if there was a link with rats being around (redeveloped quays site with quite a few restaurants and such) as I'd seen quite a few bouncing about, especially as I was quite near one of the hotels. I was a lot lower down though as had a large ground floor flat with a cat flap.

[gen2]

You don't say how long she has had the cat.
A further possibility is that the feline associate was hosting parasites when your friend first got the cat. The level of infestation could have been very low and so nobody noticed. If recent cinditions have been favourable to parasite regeneration, then the low-level infestation could now have become a noticeable plague

[CatGirl4]

I think all the suggestions i was going to make,have all been stated.

[Nosha123]

I found this gross website - it says the eggs and larvae can lay dormant for weeks or months sometimes... so they may have been there from a previous tenant...

or apparently they hitchhike!!
http://www.myhealthyc.../flea-life-cycle.html

ewwwwww

[LoftyLottie]

I don't understand where a tic might have come from though?

[woofgang]

Ticks will hitch rides on human clothing, especially trousers

[jomifl]

woofgang is absolutely correct. I once spent 5 minutes doing some garden work amongst the shrubs at the bottom of my garden and when i got back to the house and de-ticked myself I found 27 ticks on my clothing.

[LoftyLottie]

Never thought of that, yuk!!