Can Fleas Carry Lyme Disease

What Health Problems Can Fleas And Ticks Cause My Dog

With fleas, we’re concerned about an overabundance or flea infestation on your dog or cat, which can cause severe anemia. They can cause severe flea bite dermatitis. Something as simple as flea bite dermatitis can lead to a severe skin infection. Ticks can carry Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Ehrlichia, Anaplasmosis, diseases that humans can get.

What Is Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is an infection that is transmitted through the bite of a tick infected with a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. Ticks typically get the bacterium by biting infected animals, like deer and mice. The chance of contracting the disease increases the longer the tick is attached to the body. But most people who get tick bites do not get Lyme disease, and not all ticks are infected.

Do All Ticks Transmit Lyme Disease

No. In the northeastern and north-central U.S., the black-legged tick carries Lyme disease. In the Pacific coastal U.S., the western black-legged tick spreads the disease.

Other major tick species in the U.S., like the lone star tick and the dog tick, do NOT transmit the Lyme disease bacterium. But beware: All 50 states have reported Lyme disease, as well as Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

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What Should I Do To Prevent Raccoons From Spreading Fleas

In case you suspect that you might be having a raccoon infestation in your property, its important to act fast. In case you have pets you might have to respond immediately. The longer raccoons stay in your attic, the bigger the risk involved with spreading fleas.

Raccoons often feed on pet food left in the yard and around the home, when your pets access these areas, they are likely to pick up fleas from raccoons. Also, if there is an outbreak of fleas and other parasites in your attic, they are likely to spread fast throughout your house putting you at risk.

The fleas from a raccoon and other wild rodents are known to carry harmful pathogens that can cause deadly diseases such as plague. While raccoons might seem like cute, usually curious animals, they can significantly put your health at risk. Contact our raccoon removal Oshawa company to safely remove the raccoons from your property.

Article Updated: February 21, 2020

Why Protect Against Fleas

Ever see your dog scratching and it makes you itch too? Fleas are notoriously difficult to get rid of once you have them, and they can easily be picked up by dogs all year round, so it is important to make sure that your best friend is protected.

Not only do they cause your dog to itch and scratch but they can also carry nasty diseases and infest your home!

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Can Humans Carry Fleas From House To House

Can humans carry fleas from house to house? It is rare for a flea to pass from one body to another. An animal or person is more likely to catch fleas in areas where animals live and sleep. Its possible that bringing an infested pet bed to a new home could spread the fleas to another source.

What kinds of diseases can fleas cause in humans?

Diseases transmitted by fleas in the United States. In the United States, some fleas carry pathogens that can cause human disease, including: Plague most commonly transmitted to humans in the United States by infected ground squirrel fleas, Oropsylla montana, and worldwide by infected Oriental rat fleas, Xenopsylla cheopis.

How are fleas transmitted from person to person?

The disease is spread by encountering infected flea droppings, which is gross in itself it can also be transmitted by bites to the host. This disease can spread not only to humans, but also to pets. There are an average of 300 reported cases of flea-borne typhus in the United States each year.

Are Ticks The Only Culprit Dr Sponaugle Believes Mosquitos Are Also To Blame For Lyme Disease

However, the focus continues to remain too much on tick-borne when in fact, there should be more American research on mosquito-borne diseases. I suggested in 2009, when I took over my daughters medical care for Lyme disease, Bartonella, Ehrlichia, West Nile, Babesia, etc., that mosquitoes are surely carrying Lyme disease. This scientific fact was finally proven in Germany, the study was released by the University of Frankfurt in 2015.

Personally, I have never met a chronic Lyme patient who denied being bitten by a mosquito, yet, I have treated thousands who denied ever seeing a tick.

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How To Check Pets For Ticks

Your pets risk of tick exposure depends somewhat on their lifestyles. For example, dogs that accompany their owners on lots of hikes or walks in nature will be at higher risk. However, since ticks can be found in backyards and close to homes, its essential to check your pets for ticks any time they might have been exposed.

• Around and inside the ears

However, know that ticks can attach anywhere on your pets body.

Should I Get Tested By The Nhs Or A Privately Funded Laboratory Is There A Difference

If patients have a recent tick exposure but no bulls eye rash, guidance to NHS doctors in England is to take a blood sample and send it for testing at an NHS or UKHSA laboratory.

The tests work by looking for antibodies that a person infected with Lyme disease would produce.

The antibodies take some time to reach levels that can be detected,therefore, tests carried out within the first 4 weeks of infection may be negative and may need to be repeated on a fresh blood sample taken 4 to 6 weeks after the first test.

We recommend people exercise caution with private tests and speak to their NHS doctor for advice before spending money on private tests or treatments, as some private laboratories and clinics offer tests and treatments for Lyme disease which may not be supported by scientific evidence.

Diagnostic tests done outside the NHS may also produce false positives where the test shows positive for Lyme disease when the patient doesnt actually have it. Our advice is to seek help through the NHS.

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Lyme Disease In Ticks:

As we mentioned above, when it comes to the transmission of Lyme disease, ticks are not necessarily flying bug syringes that suck Borrelia from one organism and then simply inject it into another. The process, of course, is a little more complicated as it is the interactions between two living things, the tick, and Borrelia, that play a crucial role in the transmitting of the infection.

While Borrelia resides in the ticks gut, it produces a protein that enables the Borrelia to persist in the tick for long periods. The protein aids its survival until the tick feeds again. Then, when the tick begins to feed again, the spirochete decreases its production of that protein and focuses on producing a new protein, which allows the spirochete to move to the ticks salivary gland where it can then be transmitted to the new host by way of the ticks saliva.

Are Cases Of Lyme Disease Increasing

Studies in Europe estimate that 1-5% of tick bites can lead to Lyme disease. On average, between 2.55.1% of ticks are infected in England and Wales, although this range can fluctuate in different areas and across years.

Since data collection began in 2005, there has been a general trend of increasing cases of Lyme disease, although yearly fluctuations have been observed. In 2021, there were a total of 1,156 laboratory-confirmed cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales.

The rise in total cases may be due to a combination of increased awareness of Lyme disease as well as improved surveillance, better access to diagnostics, increased potential for encounters with ticks due to changes in wildlife populations and habitat modification that may have resulted in changes in tick distribution across the country.

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What Is Zika Virus

Zika virus is primarily transmitted through infected mosquitos however, sexual transmission has been described. It is a mosquito-transmitted infection related to dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and West Nile virus and is common in Africa and Asia. It did not begin spreading widely in the Western Hemisphere until May 2015, when an outbreak occurred in Brazil.

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Cleaning Your Environment To Make It A Flea

As Herold points out, removing fleas from your pets body is just the beginning.

Since fleas spend much of their life off your pet, just treating your furry friend will not make the problem go away, the American Veterinary Medical Association notes.

Your pet can become re-infested when fleas that are breeding in your home become adults and latch on to your animal. The AVMA recommends thoroughly cleaning your pets sleeping area and vacuuming the floors and furniture that your animal frequents. Cleaning and vacuuming these areas will help remove and kill fleas in all stages of life, the AVMA says.

If you can repeatedly get rid of eggs in carpeting, you then have to get rid of the vacuum bag that must leave your house, Herold says.

Getting rid of fleas in your home can be a time-consuming hassle, so patience and persistence are key to success.

Most strategies take time, Herold says. You wont get rid of fleas in a single day. You could bomb your house and still not get rid of all the fleas.

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How To Protect Your Pet

Making sure your pet is on a year-round effective tick control medication is the absolute best way to protect her from Lyme disease. If you need a refill or to start a preventive medication, please call us to we can get your pet protected right away.

Other methods of tick prevention can also help prevent your pet from contracting a tick borne illness, including Lyme disease. Some tips:

• Wear light colored clothing when hiking, and check for ticks frequently on yourself and your dog while outdoors
• Keep out of tick-y areas, such as brush, tall grass, and heavily wooded areas
• Control ticks in your yard by keeping brush and leaf debris cleared and prevent wildlife from entering your yard with fencing
• Inspect your pet thoroughly before you come inside from a hike or time outdoors. Pay special attention to the armpits, groin, ears, toes, and base of the tail
• Talk to your veterinarian to determine if the Lyme disease vaccine is a good option for your dog

Can Dogs Pass Lyme Disease To Humans

Lyme disease spreads from tick bites, and can infect dogs and humans alike. However, just like humans cannot transmit Lyme disease to other humans, dogs cannot transmit it to their owners — only the parasite that carries the disease can do that. While your dog cannot pass Lyme disease to you directly, he may carry the parasite that can do it, so you still must be vigilant in checking yourself and your pet.

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Do Raccoons Get Ticks Lyme Disease

Yes, raccoons can get Lyme disease. Lyme disease is an infection that contracts due to the bite of an infected tick, the vector of the disease. However, sometimes even wild mammals, such as deer or small rodents, can carry bacteria in the wild.

And it is from wild animals that naturally transport bacteria that ticks begin to spread. Ticks, in fact, get bacteria when they feed on infected blood. And once infected, ticks pass on bacteria and disease to wild animals, pets and humans whenever they feed on them.

Indeed, the spread of ticks and raccoon Lyme disease was so widespread at one time that a study was made in the 1990s on the relationship between ticks and raccoons and the spread of Lyme disease in North Carolina.

In any case, Lyme disease is transmitted only by ticks and their bites, which transmit the spirochete, the bacterium of the disease. As a result, there is no risk of contracting using raccoon bites or scratches, as far as we hope strongly that such a thing does not happen to you.

Thrushes May Hold Highest Lyme Risk

Species from the genus Turdus, commonly known as true thrushes, were found to have a significantly greater likelihood of competence compared to other taxa. This finding suggests that thrushes might be the riskiest bird species for Lyme transmission. Passerines, or perching birds, also tended to have higher competence, as did birds that primarily eat seeds and those that forage on the ground a behavior that would put them in reach of questing ticks.

Identifying Lyme-competent bird species could have direct implications for our health. Tick-borne diseases, especially Lyme disease, can be difficult to diagnose. Knowing where ticks and the diseases they carry are spreading can help medical practitioners prepare for diagnosis and treatment, improving health outcomes for patients.

Due to climate change, the breeding ranges of many birds are shifting north. As birds spread into higher latitudes, so do ticks and pathogens. Some bird species have taken up full or part-time residence in cities and suburbs. Birds that can succeed in developed environments, especially those that are overwintering in these new places in close proximity to people, increase residents risk of contracting a tick-borne disease.

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Fleaborne Diseases Of The United States

In the United States, some fleas carry pathogens that can cause human disease, including:

• Plague most commonly transmitted to humans in the United States by infected ground squirrel fleas, Oropsylla montana, and globally by infected Oriental rat fleas, Xenopsylla cheopis. Also, may be transmitted by improperly handling an animal infected with plague bacteria. Most U.S. cases occur in rural areas of the western United States.
• Flea-borne typhus transmitted to people by infected cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis, infected Oriental rat fleas, Xenospylla cheopis, or their feces . Most cases in the United States are reported from California, Texas, and Hawaii.
• Cat scratch disease transmitted to humans most often after a scratch from a domestic or feral cat that has been infected by a Ctenocephalides felis flea, or through flea feces being inoculated through a cat scratch. CSD occurs wherever cats and fleas are found.
• Fleaborne parasites, such as tapeworms can spread to people and animals if they accidentally swallow an infected flea. Small children are at a higher risk than adults, as they may spend more time close to the floor and carpeted areas where fleas are found. Most infected people will not show symptoms and will not know they are carrying tapeworms.

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Illnesses From Mosquito Tick And Flea Bites Increasing In The Us

Cases triple better tools needed to fight mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas

Illnesses from mosquito, tick, and flea bites have tripled in the U.S., with more than 640,000 cases reported during the 13 years from 2004 through 2016. Nine new germs spread by mosquitoes and ticks were discovered or introduced into the United States during this time.

These findings are in the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is CDCs first summary collectively examining data trends for all nationally notifiable diseases caused by the bite of an infected mosquito, tick, or flea. It provides detailed information on the growing burden of mosquito-borne and tickborne illnesses in the U.S.

Zika, West Nile, Lyme, and chikungunyaa growing list of diseases caused by the bite of an infected mosquito, tick, or fleahave confronted the U.S. in recent years, making a lot of people sick. And we dont know what will threaten Americans next, said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D. Our Nations first lines of defense are state and local health departments and vector control organizations, and we must continue to enhance our investment in their ability to fight against these diseases.

U.S. not fully prepared

Key findings

How can state and local public health agencies help?

What can everyone do to protect themselves from mosquito, tick, and flea bites?

CDCs efforts to prevent diseases from mosquitoes and ticks

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How To Get Rid Of Mosquitoes In Your Yard For A Party

When the weather is nice, theres nothing better than having a relaxed party in your backyard. Many families love the casual nature of a yard party. Unfortunately, mosquitoes can ruin the party if your guests become the dinner for these little insects.

There are steps that homeowners can take to reduce the number of mosquitoes in their yard for an upcoming party. However, planning ahead of time is crucial. The most effective way to get rid of mosquitoes often takes weeks to execute. Unfortunately, reducing the population of mosquitoes in your yard isnt a quick process.

Addressing any standing water on your property is the first step for homeowners to take. Many people dont realize how little water mosquitoes need to survive. Any water in outside pet water bowls, flowerpot saucers, pool covers or birdbaths are more than enough for mosquitoes to start laying eggs.

Other standing water sources that we often forget about include:

• trash cans and
• rain barrels.

If you notice any small, thin, light-brown or whitish larvae in standing water that are about a quarter-inch long, these are likely live mosquito larvae. Ones that have already hatched from eggs tend to hang out at the surface of the water. They may also twitch in a repetitive motion.

Ultimately, the best way to reduce mosquito populations before a party is to contact a mosquito control specialist. This specialist can use a combination of strategies to eliminate adult mosquitoes and mosquito larvae.