Like humans, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease can infect cats. However, Lyme disease is much more common in dogs and humans and the illness is rarely seen in our feline friends.
Add to this the fact that cats do not always develop symptoms and this can make reaching a diagnosis quite difficult.
So how is Lyme disease in cats transmitted? The bacteria that cause Lyme disease is spread by ticks. Cat ticks are very good at passing on infections from one animal to another. Ticks feed by biting an animal and feeding on its blood. They may stay on the skin for a few days and then once they’ve had enough, they drop off. The ticks can transmit microbes that cause diseases, such as Lyme disease or babesiosis but it’s unusual for cats to catch either disease.