Cats are commonly known as friendly companion of man. The cat is domesticated pet animal and has been widely kept as companion. Feline scabies is one of the most common and severe skin diseases of cats, caused by sarcoptic mange. Despite the high prevalence and severity of the disease, many aspects of feline scabies remain poorly understood. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, the study on cat scabies is limited in Pakistan.
A total of 214 cats were examined of these 96 (44.9%) were positive for sorcoptic mange it was observed that mange infestation was highest in cats under 1 year and above 2 year of age. Whereas the lowest in 1.5 year of age cats. As regard the sex wise prevalence of mange infestation it was high in female cats than males.
The samples were taken from the suspected cats having some skin problem irrespective of breed, sex or age, from Pet Center UVAS Lahore and Private clinics. After confirmation of the disease by skin scrapping test and identification through morphological standards, 5 ml blood was collected from the jugular vein of cat in a clean test tube containing a few drops of 1% EDTA as anticoagulant. Then these test tubes were labeled with specific number to each blood sample along with date of collection and hematological and serological studies were undertaken on the samples. The cats were divided into two groups (Group A and B) for treatment trial, each group will consist of further 4 groups, each group containing 4 cats and 16 cats in each group. Group A was treated with the Ivermectin 0.04mg/kg BW s/c on every week for consecutive 4 weeks. Group B was treated with Doramectin s/c 0.6mg/kg BW on every week for consecutive 4 weeks. To evaluate the effectiveness of a particular treatment, skin
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scrapings were collected from each treated cat at 0 day before treatment and at 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day post-treatment. But blood samples were analyzed at 0 day, 14th, 28th day, subjected to hematocrit, Hb, counting of red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs), and differential leukocytes count RFT (blood urea Nitrogen, Creatinine), LFT (ALT, AST, ALP, Total Bilirubin).
Out of 214 the positive cats for the Scabies were 96 so the overall infestation rate was 44.9% in cats. The cat scabies is mostly occur in more than 24month age of cats and on secondly age group was 07-12month. For therapeutic trail 32 cats were brought into clinical trial , each clinical score contains four cats and total 32 cats have been divided into 2 groups viz. Group A(Ivermectin) and Group B(Doramectin). In group A ivermectin 0.4mg/kg B.W S/C weekly for continuous four weeks. In group B Doramectin 0.6mg/kg B.W S/C weekly for continuous four weeks. There was no change in WBCs, significant increase in RBCs, also increase in creatinine, but significant decrease in ALT, ALP, Bilirubin, and BUN. There was no change in AST.
After four weeks of treatment trail ivermectin have better reduction rate of parasite. The ratio of pet animal was very less as compared to stray cats as the stray animal have no barrier to control the spread of disease. The percentage of previously infected and then cured animal or having disease history is less than that of newly infacted cats. This study proposed that the hospital acquired infection were more, the reason may be the contaminated clinical utensils or attendant’s hands. Scabies is the disease which spreads more in those animals which were in grouping as compared to randomly moving cats and very less in individual cats. Scabies is one of the most possible contact diseases. The more the contact more will be the chance of disease occurrence. The number of cats and percentage was very less of primary flea infestation, in the consequence of scabies infection. The fungal infection also existed at the same time of scabies
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infection and there were about 33 cats having fungal infection. As this disease is the cause of anemia, so it may be the one of the great source of bacterial infection as the hair loss is the major sign of this disease, the internal and external bacteria may infect likewise.