Flea Bite Hypersensitivity
Flea Bite Hypersensitivity (FBH) is implicated in many cats with pruritic or alopecic skin disease but can be easily misdiagnosed.
Many cat owners do not adequately flea treat pruritic cats.
- They use a veterinary quality product but not often enough (Merial’s customer research ascertained that the average client using their product only used 1.6 pipettes per year).
- Clients use pet shop products which are usually not efficacious e.g. cat collars, sub-standard spot-ons etc.
- They use no product at all.
This can be partly the vet’s fault since at consultation, he/she proudly exclaims after flea combing that no fleas can be seen. Cats with FBH are much more effective than normal cats at clearing fleas off their body. They often excessively groom, the client may not venture this information if you don’t ask for it, or they may even think it is normal behaviour.
Please review flea control in any cats where a behavioural diagnosis or one of feline endocrine alopecia has been made, and then treat accordingly including in-contact cats. Please avoid megoestrual acetate except as a last resort.
I currently recommend program injection as a preventative since it automatically gives 6 months control instead of 1.6 months as discussed previously. If fleas are seen, spraying the house with a suitable treatment and using capstar will lead to a rapid kill (within 1 hour) of any fleas on the cat. Nitempyram is very short acting so I use it every other day until the box is finished. In very sensitive cats, program and a veterinary quality spot-on (such as stronghold) may be required.