This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Flea bites

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

The flea bite may only be noticed several days later as it is the delayed hypersensitivity to a specific toxin which causes the reaction. It may cause haemorrhagic spots, and/or papular urticaria. The lesions are asymmetric, often grouped.

Haemorrhagic spots are surrounded by wheals, and often occur as recurrent crops. They are more linear than in chicken pox and subside in 24 hrs to produce itch papules.

Papular urticaria are itchy papules occurring some 6 weeks after the bites.

Cat flea bites are numerous on the lower leg with few bites on the trunk, often on back of thighs and buttocks in young adults.

Human fleas tend to nest in the seams of clothes and are therefore more noticable on the trunk.

Bird fleas are more common on exposed skin of arms.

Another common source are hedgehogs and rabbits.

Scratching may produce thickened lichenified pigmented papules.

About 95% of the population of fleas related to a pet will be in the form of eggs, larvae and pupae (i.e. in the household) rather than on the animal (2).

Reference:

  1. Prescribers' Journal (1998), 38(2), 80-6.
  2. Kramer F, Mencke N. Flea biology and control. The biology of the cat flea. Control and prevention with imidacloprid in small animals. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2001.

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page