Blacula And Flea Allergy Dermatitis

During college, I had the privilege of living at Wilshire Animal Hospital in California. It was the perfect place for a pre-veterinary student to live as it provided lots of animal hospital experience and free room, phone, laundry, and electricity, as well as a decent salary. I lived at Wilshire Animal Hospital for three years while I finished my undergraduate studies before going to Vet School. They were wonderful times, to say the least.

While living in the back apartment of the hospital, I adopted one of the blood donor cats as my pet. Her name was "Blacula" because she had a pure black fur coat and longer than normal fang teeth that stuck out all the time. She was more than happy to relinquish her life as a cage dwelling blood donor and at least have some family life with me.

Blacula had Flea Allergy Dermatitis though, that I had to manage by giving her a once a month injection of Depo-Medrol. That's the long acting corticosteroid medication that I have mentioned before that reduces inflammation in pets and people and works really well in cats, especially for flea allergy dermatitis.

Cats get a miliary dermatitis (small scabs that look like millet seeds on the skin) from the bites of fleas. Cats are actually allergic to the saliva of the fleas and it is this antigen/antibody reaction that produces the lesions of flea allergy dermatitis. In areas of great flea infestation, the problem sometimes never goes away.

Dr. Ian Coster, who I worked for at Wilshire Animal Hospital told me one time that seventy five percent of his hospital's business was flea related. He even had a friend, that was a very wealthy veterinarian, who drove a Rolls-Royce and had a flea painted right under the Rolls-Royce car logo. Fleas had made that man rich.

Blacula did well with her dermatitis treatments and she brought great joy to my life as a pre-veterinary student. Two things she did in particular still make me laugh today. The first was, every morning she would go out and take a poop in the flower box right outside our kitchen table window. I can still see Blacula's back arching and flexing as she defecated right in front of my roommate, Steve Smith (also now a veterinarian), every morning while he ate breakfast. For some reason, it didn't seem to bother him, and would make an America's Funniest Videos winner today.

The other thing Blacula did was sleep on my wife Kelly's neck at night. With absolute stealth, Blacula somehow would sneak up on the bed at night and curl herself around Kelly's neck so Kelly looked like she was wearing a black scarf by morning. Somehow Blacula got there and never woke Kelly during the night.

I will always remember Blacula for the dear sweet kitty she was. She gave blood that saved many other kitties' lives, and gave us love and entertainment that even the best money could never buy. Our love still goes out to you Blacula, even though now you are in cat heaven, and a part of eternity.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/