Flea Anemia

Flea anemia is a condition where a pet has so many fleas taking blood from it that the pet becomes anemic. It is easy to under-estimate a pet’s flea infestation. Only animals allergic to flea bites will itch from their fleas. This means that the animal that is not allergic to flea-bites will not be scratching or losing hair thus the owner may not realize that a heavy infestation is present.

LOOK FOR FLEA DIRT

The black, pepper-like specks found in the infested pet's coat are actually bits of blood that have been sucked by the flea and excreted in a neat little package to feed the larval fleas that hatch in the environment. Even if live fleas are not seen, the presence of flea dirt means that live fleas are there.

WHO ARE THE VICTIMS?

It takes a lot of fleas to produce enough blood loss to create a life-threatening situation for the pet but it still happens commonly. The following situations are high-risk for flea anemia:

• Very young kittens being raised outdoors or by a mother cat who goes outdoors. Young kittens are very small and do not have blood to spare. Further, they are growing and trying to expand their blood volume; they are too young to effectively groom themselves and remove their own fleas.
• Elderly cats that go outdoors. The elderly cat is often debilitated from other metabolic problems. Grooming is less efficient plus the older cat is just not strong enough to withstand much blood loss.
• Outdoor puppies. Their situation is similar to that of the kittens. Too small to effectively groom and trying to grow in the face of on going blood loss.

Eventually, the weakness catches up with these animals and they will die.

EVALUATION AND TREATMENT

The good news is that these patients can still be treated even fairly late in the course of the disease. Often they will need blood transfusions or transfusion with blood substitutes. They also need to have their fleas removed and to be returned to an environment where they will be protected from further infestation.

The first step is recognizing the problem. This is not difficult for a trained veterinary health care worker but may not be easy for an uninformed pet owner. The affected animal will have pale gums (normal gums are pink, anemic gums can be completely white). In advanced disease, the patient will be listless and even cold. A flea comb can be used to check for flea dirt.

A test called a HEMATOCRIT or PACKED CELL VOLUME (PCV) is easily done in your vet’s office to assess the degree of anemia. The hematocrit or PCV reflects the percentage of red blood cells that should be present in a sample of blood. In dogs the normal range is 38 to 57 and in cats the normal range is 24 to 45. Blood transfusion becomes a consideration when values reach 20 or less.

Ridding the critically ill patient of fleas can be problematic. Often the patient is too sick to tolerate the stress of a bath and is too young or too small for flea control products. In this situation, your veterinarian will have to use his or her judgement on what is the safest route to removing the fleas. Recently, Capstar® and Comfortis® have become available. These are fast-acting flea-killing tablets with no known side effects for mammals.

RETURNING HOME

Of course after all the blood transfusions, heat support, and de-fleaing, the pet will ultimately go home potentially to the same environment where the infestation occurred in the first place. Usually, topical flea control products will provide adequate future protection and the use of a vitamin and iron supplement will help the patient rebuild his or her red blood cell reserves. In severe cases it may be necessary to treat the environment with foggers or yard sprays.