For the past 4 weeks LeRoy has been freaking out at these miniscule gnat like creatures jumping around in our bathroom. Though he usually only saw 1 or 2 at a time in the tub when he would shower in the evenings, he was acting like we were having an full blown arachnid infestation and was insisting that they were fleas. I didn't see anything for the first 3 weeks but when I finally did see them there were several. Wondering if LeRoy was right on his flea theory I decided to research them (having never dealt with fleas in the past).
What I read was not in any way encouraging. There were several similarities between our unknown specimen and the pictures/descriptions that I was finding online. (I'll save the detailed descriptions or pictures of what I found in hopes that my readers will not itch for days having the thought of fleas stuck in their heads.) Even though there were similarities, there were major discrepancies. We do not have any itching, scratching or rashes on any of us or on the cat. If anyone would suffer from this it would be Justin because the cat has chosen his bed for a daily napping place, or Hyrum because he is constantly laying on the cat and playing on the floor. We also have not seen these things anywhere but in our master bathroom. Though the situation had my attention I wasn't worried about it.
Unfortunately, the cat was taking the brunt of LeRoy's frustrations and was banned from the house. As LeRoy's anxiety continued to grow at my lack of concern I figured that I was next so before LeRoy decided to ban me from the house I had to find out what these little buggers were. I set up a light trap in the bathroom with a shadeless lamp sitting on it's side to attract the tiny gnats to one spot on the bathroom floor. When I had a sufficient number of them in my sights I quickly but gently snatched them all up with packing tape, added another piece of tape to the sticky side and created my own microscope slide.
Then I called to make an appointment with the vet to rule out fleas. When I explained our situation over the phone the receptionist told me that we don't have fleas in this area (it's to cold evidently). Even after talking about it, I set the appointment. LeRoy wouldn't settle with a receptionists opinion (or knowledge).
On the morning of the vet appointment I realized that I didn't have my Yukon and the two trucks were not available. My last options were Levi's '76 Thunderbird (translation: low riding, lucky if it starts, barely able to see over the front of the 10' hood, teenager car) or the bike. I didn't really want to bike the cat the 4 miles into town so I sucked up my pride and climbed (down) into the T-bird, cat in hand.
Normally the cat doesn't mind traveling. We've taken him into town occasionally because he will climb into the Yukon while I'm putting the kids in and he did great on the trip from Utah. Actually, he seems to match his purring with the hum of the engine and just relaxes for the ride. I didn't think this trip would be any different. Then I started the T-bird. The low guttural growl of the 33 year old engine did NOT calm the cat in any way. As a matter of fact, he started yowling a mean string of angry noises at me and darting from window to window as if he were trying to escape. I was already late for the appointment so ignored most of it, though at one point I was a little afraid I would lose my ear in the jaws of an angry feline as he stood next to my shoulder. We were so close to getting there, only a block away, when, with fur flying all over, the cat suddenly started to sway back and forth, dropped his jaw and started panting like a dog. I've never seen anything like it! I thought he was going to pass out.
By the time we entered the vet clinic my 13 pound chill-about-everything furball was in a shedding, panting frenzy. The clerk just laughed when she saw him. From sharing the experience I learned that when a cat is extremely anxious they tend to act like a porcupine. They practically push out their fur, which explains the floating cat hair all over the car. And he was hyperventilating, which is why he started panting like a dog.
But this is not a cat post. It is about fleas.
Once we got the cat calmed down the vet started to inspect him for fleas. He could find nothing. Not even dirt. He said he is one of the cleanest cats he has ever seen. I guess cats in this area usually have dry scalp under all that fur due to the dry heat and temperature fluctuations but Harrison has a smooth, glossy, healthy scalp.
Again: flea post, not cat.
The vet was still intrigued at my story (and laughing at the fact that my husband, the tough guy electrician, is scared of a pin head size jumping gnat) so he asked if I had caught any of the bugs.
DUH! I forgot to grab my tape sample as I ran out the door with my hefty cat in tow. At the vet's suggestion (and curiosity) I left Harrison to get his shot (normal feline immunizations) and to rest in a kennel before the stressful ride back home.
I on the other hand, had to endure yet another ride on the now hair covered, low riding, teen mobile getting strange looks from neighbors who must have been wondering what I was doing joy riding in Levi's car.
Once I returned and handed over my homemade slides (at which the vet was impressed with since I didn't "squish" any of my specimen) we were able to look in the microscope and determine what the mysterious creatures were.
Not Fleas!!! That was great to hear. The crazy person that I am, I enjoyed comparing the magnified pictures with the current pest book that the doctor had and the best we could determine was that it is some kind of gnat, probably a grass or sand gnat. I almost laughed out loud when the vet said seriously, "we'll know if this is any kind of human or pet parasite if we squish it. If it is red it is feeding on blood. If not, it will have clear guts". Ha! Now that is professional talk. Squish and guts. Well, he squished and there were no red guts. So now we had ruled out human or cat parasite.
Still we don't know what it is. But we do know that we get to keep the cat, in the
What I read was not in any way encouraging. There were several similarities between our unknown specimen and the pictures/descriptions that I was finding online. (I'll save the detailed descriptions or pictures of what I found in hopes that my readers will not itch for days having the thought of fleas stuck in their heads.) Even though there were similarities, there were major discrepancies. We do not have any itching, scratching or rashes on any of us or on the cat. If anyone would suffer from this it would be Justin because the cat has chosen his bed for a daily napping place, or Hyrum because he is constantly laying on the cat and playing on the floor. We also have not seen these things anywhere but in our master bathroom. Though the situation had my attention I wasn't worried about it.
Unfortunately, the cat was taking the brunt of LeRoy's frustrations and was banned from the house. As LeRoy's anxiety continued to grow at my lack of concern I figured that I was next so before LeRoy decided to ban me from the house I had to find out what these little buggers were. I set up a light trap in the bathroom with a shadeless lamp sitting on it's side to attract the tiny gnats to one spot on the bathroom floor. When I had a sufficient number of them in my sights I quickly but gently snatched them all up with packing tape, added another piece of tape to the sticky side and created my own microscope slide.
Then I called to make an appointment with the vet to rule out fleas. When I explained our situation over the phone the receptionist told me that we don't have fleas in this area (it's to cold evidently). Even after talking about it, I set the appointment. LeRoy wouldn't settle with a receptionists opinion (or knowledge).
On the morning of the vet appointment I realized that I didn't have my Yukon and the two trucks were not available. My last options were Levi's '76 Thunderbird (translation: low riding, lucky if it starts, barely able to see over the front of the 10' hood, teenager car) or the bike. I didn't really want to bike the cat the 4 miles into town so I sucked up my pride and climbed (down) into the T-bird, cat in hand.
Normally the cat doesn't mind traveling. We've taken him into town occasionally because he will climb into the Yukon while I'm putting the kids in and he did great on the trip from Utah. Actually, he seems to match his purring with the hum of the engine and just relaxes for the ride. I didn't think this trip would be any different. Then I started the T-bird. The low guttural growl of the 33 year old engine did NOT calm the cat in any way. As a matter of fact, he started yowling a mean string of angry noises at me and darting from window to window as if he were trying to escape. I was already late for the appointment so ignored most of it, though at one point I was a little afraid I would lose my ear in the jaws of an angry feline as he stood next to my shoulder. We were so close to getting there, only a block away, when, with fur flying all over, the cat suddenly started to sway back and forth, dropped his jaw and started panting like a dog. I've never seen anything like it! I thought he was going to pass out.
By the time we entered the vet clinic my 13 pound chill-about-everything furball was in a shedding, panting frenzy. The clerk just laughed when she saw him. From sharing the experience I learned that when a cat is extremely anxious they tend to act like a porcupine. They practically push out their fur, which explains the floating cat hair all over the car. And he was hyperventilating, which is why he started panting like a dog.
But this is not a cat post. It is about fleas.
Once we got the cat calmed down the vet started to inspect him for fleas. He could find nothing. Not even dirt. He said he is one of the cleanest cats he has ever seen. I guess cats in this area usually have dry scalp under all that fur due to the dry heat and temperature fluctuations but Harrison has a smooth, glossy, healthy scalp.
Again: flea post, not cat.
The vet was still intrigued at my story (and laughing at the fact that my husband, the tough guy electrician, is scared of a pin head size jumping gnat) so he asked if I had caught any of the bugs.
DUH! I forgot to grab my tape sample as I ran out the door with my hefty cat in tow. At the vet's suggestion (and curiosity) I left Harrison to get his shot (normal feline immunizations) and to rest in a kennel before the stressful ride back home.
I on the other hand, had to endure yet another ride on the now hair covered, low riding, teen mobile getting strange looks from neighbors who must have been wondering what I was doing joy riding in Levi's car.
Once I returned and handed over my homemade slides (at which the vet was impressed with since I didn't "squish" any of my specimen) we were able to look in the microscope and determine what the mysterious creatures were.
Not Fleas!!! That was great to hear. The crazy person that I am, I enjoyed comparing the magnified pictures with the current pest book that the doctor had and the best we could determine was that it is some kind of gnat, probably a grass or sand gnat. I almost laughed out loud when the vet said seriously, "we'll know if this is any kind of human or pet parasite if we squish it. If it is red it is feeding on blood. If not, it will have clear guts". Ha! Now that is professional talk. Squish and guts. Well, he squished and there were no red guts. So now we had ruled out human or cat parasite.
Still we don't know what it is. But we do know that we get to keep the cat, in the
house, much to the kids delight. After the whole ordeal I called the extension office in Rexburg and found that I can take our taped (and one squished) visitors to be inspected there and the agriculture specialist will do his best to determine what they are.
Oh, but this story isn't over yet. We still have the ride home. (So I guess this is kind of a cat post too.)
I think Harrison was suffering from shock due to the ride there, the shot to his thigh, and sitting in a kennel next to a whining cat that was coming out of his drug induced "fixing" surgery so he was fairly calm, though still growling, during the whole ride home. Nathan however, was not calm at all.
Nathan called when I was about a mile from home and was crying in near hysterics. I was grateful to be blessed with a few minutes of the gift of tongues so that I could translate his panic: "Where are you? Is Harrison dead? Why did you make him have a shot?"
I hadn't even thought of what a panic Nathan might go into having stood in the driveway watching me leave with his cat jumping from window to window in protest of the ride, or to see me go running into the house catless grabbing a tape off the desk and running out again or to ask his brothers why I didn't bring Harrison back with me and his brothers telling him that Harry needed a shot. Oh, the three year old imagination must have run with all that information jumbled in there together.
I was finally able to convince him (in that l.o.n.g mile) that Harrison was alive, that he didn't cry when they gave him a shot and that he could open the door for me when I got home. He was waiting for me in the driveway. As soon as I was at a complete oil leaking stop he came running to my door to let Harrison out. Harrison nearly ran him over as he pounced from the car and ran to the porch. Nathan followed right behind him to assess the damage. I remained in the driveway talking to Derek and soon Nathan returned.
"Where's his bandaid, Mom".
Harrison got his bandaid, a nap and the luxury of living in the house again. LeRoy continues to itch since he is still bugged (hehe) by the unknown jumping specs in his shower, even though we haven't seen any in two days. Levi now has fur seat covers (or fur covered seats) in his car.
Oh, but this story isn't over yet. We still have the ride home. (So I guess this is kind of a cat post too.)
I think Harrison was suffering from shock due to the ride there, the shot to his thigh, and sitting in a kennel next to a whining cat that was coming out of his drug induced "fixing" surgery so he was fairly calm, though still growling, during the whole ride home. Nathan however, was not calm at all.
Nathan called when I was about a mile from home and was crying in near hysterics. I was grateful to be blessed with a few minutes of the gift of tongues so that I could translate his panic: "Where are you? Is Harrison dead? Why did you make him have a shot?"
I hadn't even thought of what a panic Nathan might go into having stood in the driveway watching me leave with his cat jumping from window to window in protest of the ride, or to see me go running into the house catless grabbing a tape off the desk and running out again or to ask his brothers why I didn't bring Harrison back with me and his brothers telling him that Harry needed a shot. Oh, the three year old imagination must have run with all that information jumbled in there together.
I was finally able to convince him (in that l.o.n.g mile) that Harrison was alive, that he didn't cry when they gave him a shot and that he could open the door for me when I got home. He was waiting for me in the driveway. As soon as I was at a complete oil leaking stop he came running to my door to let Harrison out. Harrison nearly ran him over as he pounced from the car and ran to the porch. Nathan followed right behind him to assess the damage. I remained in the driveway talking to Derek and soon Nathan returned.
"Where's his bandaid, Mom".
Harrison got his bandaid, a nap and the luxury of living in the house again. LeRoy continues to itch since he is still bugged (hehe) by the unknown jumping specs in his shower, even though we haven't seen any in two days. Levi now has fur seat covers (or fur covered seats) in his car.
2 comments:
too funny! i can't wait to hear what it really is...i'll be he's brought it from some house he's working on and they finally have somewhere more to escape. are they in is truck in the mornings?? that's a great story!
That is hysterical! I love the fact that LeRoy was the one freaked out about these gnats and my heart tore listening to what Nathan was worrying over at home... Loved the post and thank you for another laugh due to Harrison's ride to the vet's office. :)
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