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A couple of years ago we had a really bad time with fleas and before I was able to get the fleas out of the house, my cat Leo got sick with a Mycoplasma haemofelis bacteria that infects the hemoglobin. He started losing weight and lost his appetite. I took him in for bloodwork and it showed he was anemic as well. And this was like 2 or 3 months of being flea free that his symptoms appeared. Fortunately it was treatable but there are only certain antibiotics that are effective against this mycoplasma and the bloodwork didn't really confirm but only indicated that a mycoplasma infection might be possible given the anemia. I got him on the antibiotics and started giving him an iron supplement and within a couple of weeks Sir Fluffernutter was feeling frisky enough to have WWE worthy throw down wrestling matches with his sister, lol. Now everytime I see one of the beasts scratching, I panic and I pull out the flea drops.
I remember reading several years back that scientists are now suspecting a bacteria as a cause for Crohn's after trial runs of doxycycline (If I remember correctly) caused improvement in the disease. I'm guessing it's both a bacterial infection as well as dysbiosis of the gut flora.
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