ticks are not often found on infected cats since cats typically groom ticks off their fur). Signs of disease seen on blood work include hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, increased or decreased white blood cell numbers, icterus, and elevated liver enzymes. Death usually follows the onset of clinical signs within a few days. However, more recent studies show not all cats develop clinical signs after infection, and some cats survive the infection. Life cycle and transmission The life cycle for Cytauxzoon felis has not been completely described. Bobcats become persistent carriers of the organism after they develop mild or subclinical infection and then serve as the reservoir host. C. felis is transmitted by the Lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) that feeds on an infected bobcat then transmits the organism to another bobcat, or to a pet cat. Many other types of ticks may feed on the cats, but the only other tick that has been shown to transmit the organism is the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) but only in a research setting. In the past, domestic cats were thought to always die from infection so they were considered terminal hosts or "dead end hosts". Now there have been documented cases of cats that get sick and survive the infection and even those that never show clinical signs at all. Cats cannot catch the infection from another cat directly without being bitten by a tick. The life cycle of the protozoa has a tissue phase and an erythrocytic (red blood cell) phase. The organism goes through asexual reproduction phase that is called schizogony which occurs in the mononuclear phagocytic cells. In the tissue phase, the macrophage cells that are infected often clog venules in organs such as the liver, spleen, lungs, and lymph nodes. It is this phase that is associated with clinical disease if the schizonts are numerous. Schizonts next form merozoites that break out of the macrophage cells and infect the red blood cells (erythrocytes). The erythrocytic disease is not as important for clinical disease, but is often used to diagnose C. felis because piroplasms (erythrocytes that have phagocytized merozoites) can be seen on a peripheral blood smear under the microscope. It is not clear why some cats become clinically affected with C. felis while others never show any signs. There are speculations about resistance in some cats, and speculations about different strains of C. felis with differing virulence. There