New Member

Hello all from Dallas.... by way of marriage I have been a cat owner now for about three years. We have a ten year old maine ****. overall she's in good health. she may have feline IBD but labs have all come back normal. no other problems really except for food allergies. anyway, that wasn't what led me to this site. in short, today i noticed a tiny bug on her hind leg. she's an indoor cat and has been that way all of her life although she would LOVE to be an outdoor cat and constantly stares at birds and squirrels through the windows! we do let her out sometimes supervised just to walk around a little usually less than five minutes. she was out last saturday for a few minutes walking around outside but we gave her a bath on sunday (only bc she had been at the vet for awhile and hadn't had a bath in a long time). in any case, i'm attaching a picture of this bug. i found another one on the ground right next to it. my question is has anyone seen anything like this before? is this a standard feline parasite or maybe just something that was in the house that got on her? The fact that I found two of them makes me a little more concerned. she has been a little more "itchy" lately but not to the point that we would think something is really wrong. no other symptoms. nothing crawling in her ears that i can see. i brushed her just now but no other bugs found. none found on the towels in her carrier where she goes to sleep sometimes. the bug is very delicate...i'm fortunate to have gotten it in one piece. it is striped on the back, has six legs and two antennae on its head. i'm planning to bring it into the vet in the am to see if he has any idea. until then.... any advice would be welcome! thanks in advance....

rick