Fleas should give the plague

Heya Devs!

There's currently a way to avoid getting illnesses by just giving all of your wolves fleas. While this is a good strategy if you're new and just getting a feel of the game but want to avoid your wolves dying from a lethal illness, it also takes away from an intended part of the gameplay. I was thinking that there should be a way to have fleas for a short amount of time safely, but after a while, it'll have its consequences. But what could be a possible consequence of having fleas?

The bubonic plague!

Canines in real life can catch the plague from fleas that come from rodents such as prairie dogs, chipmunks, and squirrels. It'd make sense if our wolves could contract the plague this way.

The symptoms of the plague could be lethargy, fever, seizures, and headaches. The side effects could be an unwillingness to hunt, breed, scout, or do herbalist activities, reduced energy regeneration, depleting health, and death.

The cure should be relatively easy to make since fleas are so common and quickly spread. It could be made out of tobacco, ginger, and garlic. Tabacco would rid of the fleas, while ginger and garlic could serve as a natural antibiotic to rid of the plague.
As for what art change this would have, perhaps there could be more fleas than usual with parts of the wolf being swollen.

Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion!

[The plague's effect on canines]

Additions:

- If this gets added, the other minor illnesses [Diarrhea, Cough, Ticks, etc.] should also have tweaks so that people don’t just switch to a different illness loophole once this one gets fixed.
- When the minor illnesses get tweaked, there should be a way to ward off sickness so that casual and new players don’t have to worry about their wolves getting sick as much. Perhaps some form of an immune system booster? It should be made out of common/easy biome herbs so that everyone can have access to it.
- If left alone long enough, fleas could serve as a type of roulette of sickness. In real life, fleas can lead to anemia, severe cuts from scratching, infections, allergic reactions, and tapeworm infections. [Source]

Fleas also cause anemia (not enough blood), and they carry tapeworm eggs, which are ingested when an animal chews on itself when a flea bites it. 

While mild anemia isn't the end of the world for a grown dog, it can get worse the longer it is left unchecked; severe anemia can kill dogs and quickly kills puppies. 

I'm not sure the plague actually affects canines, but flea allergies can get so bad that they are susceptible to many other injuries and illnesses. they could make it so that lighter coats or mutes are more susceptible to fleas to apply this.  

I think that if fleas are left unchecked after so long your wolf could stop recovering health or stamina and eventually start to lose health, and it should be sped up by 2x for adolescents, and 4x for puppies. that would keep it decently accurate to long term severe flea infestations in real life. fleas also spread from animal to animal quickly if all the animals are not treated since the eggs live in the bedding/den/environment and not on the animal. 

I support this. If nothing else, for the realism and variety to illnesses 

@ [27857]

I also like the idea of fleas being able to give other types of illnesses after 3-7 days instead of just the plague, they could be like a horrible roulette of sickness.

The plague can affect dogs, though it is rarer for them to actually get it. [Source]

The fleas themselves being a harmful illness is also a great idea, it also makes sense that their effect on younger wolves would be worse than on adults.

@ [1248]

Thanks for the support! :D

support!! definitely sounds cool, although, because some new people or those who can't afford it keep it let their wolves have it so they don't get lethal illnesses, perhaps it should only be caused after a while of having it, like maybe around a week

thanks for the link with the plage in dogs. love learning new things. 

i support. 

for the realism 

@ [5764]

Yep, I definitely feel like there should be some sort of grace period before the wolves get the plague. Immediately tossing it on them just feels cruel, lmao. Thanks for the support!

@ [27857]

No problem! I didn't even know wolves could get the plague until earlier today.

@ [25645]

Thanks for the support!

@ lucid zenith # 6523 

you are very welcome for the support.

Support! I like the idea of fleas having consequences. It'd be more realistic, and the risk of plague or tapeworms or anemia would add peril and an exciting sense of urgency in players to treat it as soon as possible, I think.

I'm imagining that the likelihood of a flea-infested wolf coming down with plague (or any other flea-related illness or parasite) would start out low but then gradually increase the longer the wolf is left untreated. For adult wolves, the risk could increase very slowly (all while being super contagious, since fleas spread really easily)... while for pups, the risk could sharply increase each rollover.