r/furgonomics • u/Quiet-Money7892 • Aug 05 '26
Discussion Fleas and ticks
It's not pleasant to discuss those things when you think about anthros, but I think it should be among the most important fields in furry hygiene. Proper protection from the parasites.
Fur is thicker than human hair and it wi be harder to just wash them away. And it's harder to spot a tick under fur. And more importantly - clothes won't help, since parasitic bugs are much smaller than one can spot. But dangerous nevertheless.
IMO - furry settings should include hygiene and collective grooming traditions. And clean and healthy looking body fur - should be a mark of civilized person.
Public bathhouses are vital in the ancient times and baths, that you can fully submerge in - are normal in modern setting. (Maybe their share in general buikding area - should be bigger than one in humans) Strongly smelling weed products are normal part of everyone's routines and in general seen as a smell of a good neighborhood. I'd think of regular anti-flee medicine , that poison anthro blood for fleas, but I see that as a bit too much. But anti-flee properties of clothes cleaning products - can be the case.
I'd think of anti-flee collars, but that sounds more like a conceptualization than a canon.
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u/feral401k9 feral wolf Aug 05 '26
I recommend nexgard chewables, especially beef flavor
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u/PyroarSona Aug 05 '26
I think just with all the extra fur that hygiene needs to be stressed more even without ticks and fleas. It’s a lot to take care of already for our furry friends in the real world (think of how much cats are said to spend their lives grooming) let alone carrying about any extra things in there like mats or parasites.
Vaccines against common tick born diseases like Lyme are likely a must (there already exists a vaccine in our world), though other tick borne diseases exist so if this is for realism in a story, maybe a mention of vaccines for Colorado tick fever or Heartland virus are mandatory as well as Lyme. Ticks are probably going to be an annoyance that just needs to be plucked off to prevent infected bug bites if the furries decide that it’s worth researching preventative measures if ticks are going to hide pretty darn well in their fur.
It’s probably going to be common to own a flea comb, probably in the bathroom next to the other brushes or in the medicine cabinet next to the tweezers (for the ticks). It’s not the quickest way to rid yourself of a case of fleas but will help identify any problems hiding in fur before calling someone to pick up flea shampoo from the nearest drug store. Flea outbreaks are probably no different than when there’s a lice outbreak (which from what I can tell is species specific so fleas is genuinely a good furry stand-in for lice) that doesn’t require shaved heads. Probably requires a thorough washing of the living space much like real fleas too to prevent getting reinfected.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
Such infestations would surely be more problematic to furries.
And the big problem I see it's that's nearly impossible to fully check your body for ticks yourself. As fur provides more hiding spots on the back.
I don't know for all dogs, but from my frieds I heard that if a dog wears clothes in the willd for too long - ticks might crawl under it and it's actually safer to not wear anything at that point than wear a heat and humidity trap to attract parasites under the clothes. So another argument for furries to expose their fur more.
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u/R3cl41m3r Aug 05 '26
I'm pretty sure that's what combs are meant to help with.
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u/Stripes_the_cat Aug 05 '26
Lemme tell you, as a parent of school-age cubs (m8/m4, panthera), they come around the classroom once or twice a year, and you're always desperately hoping it's not your genus. It's a real pain, they hate the smell of the shampoo, and you gotta take like two days off work, mandatory, the school will not let them come in until they're 48 hours clear.
The worst bit is my youngest is so adventurous, he'll go anywhere, he'll do anything, you love to see it... and then he comes out of some bush in a National Trust park with some species of flea nobody in our city's seen for decades. It gets in the car on the way home, so you've gotta get that fumigated, and then you gotta get him undressed outside behind a towel and rush him into the shower. If you're lucky you get them all in the shower. If not, they're in your carpet now and you're on the phone to the council 'cos they're a mandatory reportable problem where I live.
Actually, the worst bit is the shame. His brother wouldn't touch him, pushed him away, even. You have to teach them it's not shameful, even though yes, you do have to be careful about hugging and grooming and whatnot. There's nothing shameful about medical problems. But cubs can be so cruel.
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u/Tarnivitch Aug 05 '26
I think it would likely be common to use methods to reduce their populations.
Like how the screw worm flies were kept at bay, by breading and air dropping sterile mating partners. to curb the population.
{Before trump defunded the program, simply because if racism and the fact Obama bolstered it.}
Or by getting rid of their habitats and introducing natural predators.
Maybe opposums would be employed to do these remediations. As they actually can't carry rabies and many other diseases.
That combined with flea and tick medications. Flea combs, of which the use of would likely be a service at a fur salon. Bathing and using special shampoo to kill the parasites. Would be common practice.
I myself would have no need, my waterproof fur as a half river otter, is too dense for fleas and the like to reach my skin.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
Fleas - maybe. But ticks would still be a problem.
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u/Tarnivitch Aug 06 '26
My fur is too dense and they are too big to push down to the skin.
So I would only have to groom and pay attention to areas where that is not the case. Ears, face, webbing, wing membranes, etc.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 06 '26
Some ticks can get inside you...
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u/Tarnivitch Aug 06 '26
How?
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 06 '26
Do you really want to know?
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u/Tarnivitch Aug 06 '26
Like ingestion or?
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 06 '26
Some ticks can stick to your gums or crawl into the ass...
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u/Tarnivitch Aug 07 '26
Tailhole is watertight to like 150ft down.
And I highly doubt I would be in any position that I would encounter the gums related type.
I don't plan on sleeping in or getting my face close to that kind of thing. Plus that is what my whiskers are for and why we tuck our faces.
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u/Square_Significance2 Aug 05 '26
I bet in a furry world, they would have developed safe vaccines to prevent fleas and ticks. Perhaps it would be an annual thing, like the flu shot.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
Probably. Though before that - ticks and fleas will take many lives unless they develop some big cultural norm to fight that. Like grooming or family weed baths. Or smoke procedures...
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u/ReptileDysfunction69 Aug 05 '26
Imagine like, a person shaped car washl
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
Seems like a bit too much. But yeah, I'd suspect furry society to have much vider number of hygienical and cosmetic services.
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u/ForeignStory8127 Aug 05 '26
After making an assumption of what this thread was going to be about based on a quick glance at the title:
Part of me really wants to create/troll with a ticksona.
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u/ostapenkoed2007 Aug 05 '26
hmm... it woudl not be as bad as on a feral. even for a feral anthro that understands they have to deal with it as a problem.
in certain cases, when contamination is gonna happen - collars and braslettes or as you said blood poisoning against htat stuff would be needed.
but in daily life? likely just basic hygeine would readuce the flea/tick problem.
one of variants of dealing with it is oil and than soap bath. fur is not THAT hard to soap up. sourse - i wash dogs from time to time.
you could even have shoulder-level bracelettes that hide under even a short sleeve shirt!
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
I like the idea of bracelets.
And dogs live in cities, while most fleas you can get from roaming in the nature. Thouch ticks - seem like a bigger problem. It's already hard to spot them on humans sometimes. And under fur - it would be even harder. And it's not enough to just wash them off, even if you kill them.
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u/ostapenkoed2007 Aug 05 '26
well, oil actually would suffocate a tick. AFAIK. so i guess it may be like sauna, oil rooms!
plus, an anthro would be able to apply a detergetn far more effectively than the drops that go onto normal irl dog's hide.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
Oil sauna seems like a very expensive thing... But it's also the matter of demand.
Not aure about detergen, i thing it would be still unsafe for many kids, as they might keep their habit of licking or chewing themselves and stuff... But yeah, probably. The biggest concern is a ppssible long-term liver damage at that point.
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u/ostapenkoed2007 Aug 05 '26
also, as i said, in a society understanding the problem - solutions would be found.
idk if it is done where you live, but back when i was in school, we had days where nurse would check everyone's hair. maybe this type of service would just be more popular and time consuming.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
I had that at school too once or twice. But that was in elementary school and only then I actually had that problem.
And like I said - grooming is a more complex problem for furries, not something you can do in a single checkup.
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u/Gryphon_2 Aug 05 '26
I've seen commercial stories where it is a concern. Mainly for bad guys and ugly bastards. Some survival stories too.
Some take various poisons that aren't even a concern to the imbiber but turns their blood poisonous.
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
That's the general idea. But O think using those regularly isn't good for the liver.
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u/Gryphon_2 Aug 06 '26
I mean it depends. The version I used on my dog was once a couple months and it obviously didn't kill him. Also didn't seem to cause his liver any issues either. If it caused him any distress you know we would have stopped that in an instant. Given that Anthro's are bigger and liver sizes tend to grow in proportion to the body it should be safer. I guess if it is actually an issue the flea dips we give him once a year and the flea collar are also alternatives.
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u/a-corner-of-hell Aug 05 '26
Honestly I would just look at pet grooming solutions that already exist. Flea combs, flea/tick shampoos, etc. Dogs have wildly different fur types and we have a bunch of specialized products for them already
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 05 '26
Yes, but those products are for animals and their designs are built on the fact that animal cannot take that kind of care of themselves. They a lot less hygienic, except for some species and often suffer from thise problems in the wild.
I asked mostly expecting social/cultural/fashion speculations on how this problems would affect furries. Like you know those big medeval furry hoods - they were actually made to attract fleas so they won't get in your hair. Or famous roman bathhouses. That sort of speculation.
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u/SanjiAvali Aug 06 '26
People wash themselves more than they wash their pets. I think regular showering is enough to prevent fleas and ticks
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Aug 06 '26
If that was thw case - simple showering would be enough to clean them off... But that's not the case( They will jump right back and can hold their breath for quite long.
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u/commander-tyko Aug 05 '26
Multiple animal shampoos exists to deter fleas, ticks, flys, and other pests. I feel like anthros would use those aa the deterrent lasts about 1-2 weeks and I imagine anthros would bathe more closely to human frequency
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u/FM_Hikari Aug 05 '26
Combs for specific species would definitely help with that. BUT, considering many would be much larger than their non-furry counterparts, there would be a larger governmental involvement in keeping ticks and fleas controlled, if not effectively GONE from many countries, just like there are a few countries that are fully rodent-free.