Hey guys! As many of you know, I have been doing my internship/working at a new job since the first part of May in a veterinary clinic. Yay!! It feels great to be back in the working world, by the way! Anyway, working there it took no time at all for me to learn something *very* important, so all you pet lovers please listen up!!!
I don't know about elsewhere in the United States, but down here in Louisiana we didn't really have a winter. You know what that means! More fleas and mosquitoes =( Here is why this little bit of information is important for you and your animal!
FLEAS
Besides being a nuisance themselves and causing some serious itching, there are some other issues that can be caused by fleas. For one thing, some pets are allergic to the flea bites. The bites can cause some big time inflammation and irritation on your pet's skin. Of course this is even more itchy than just a regular flea bite =( Poor pet. Also, where your pet is itching and scratching, the hair can break off (which is just unsightly!) or bite themselves. The biting itself is an issue. Why? Because they can cause sores on themselves, or even make themselves bleed. We had a little dog in the clinic the other day that had to have a place on each haunch shaved because she had caused herself to bleed and we needed to clean and disinfect it. Not easy to do with hair in the way!! *FLEAS ARE ALSO THE INTERMEDIATE HOSTS TO TAPEWORMS* Your pet can get worms from fleas. Here is how this works. The fleas ingest the tapeworm egg. The flea bites your pet. Your pet scratches with his teeth. Your pet accidentally eats the flea. The egg develops into an adult worm in your pet's intestines. Your pet passes gravid segments of the tapeworm in his bowel movements. The egg packets stick to your pet's fur and on the ground, etc. Fleas ingest these eggs and the cycle starts all over again. For more information on tapeworms you can visit the Web MD site, Merck Veterinary Manual, and several articles from the Cornell University website.
MOSQUITOES
You know how mosquitoes can carry yucky stuff for humans like West Nile virus and Malaria? Well, for dogs and cats, mosquitoes carry something else: heartworms. Here is how it works: Mosquitoes ingest blood from an infected dog or cat. The blood contains microfilariae that develops into infective larvae within the mosquito. *The microfilaria must be ingested by a mosquito to become infective to other animals.* Your pet can not get heartworms through blood transfusions or any other way than by being bitten by a mosquito carrying infected blood. So, your pet is bitten by a mosquito carrying the infective larvae. The larvae move to the right side of the heart and develop into adult worms there where they become sexually mature and produce more microfilarae. Within 6 months your infected pet can pass his heartworms to other pets. Heartworms cause serious damage to your pet's heart and can even kill him. There are two treatment options for heartworms, but both of them carry risks. The first is to just put your pet on heartworm preventative. This will *eventually* kill the adult worms in your pet's heart, but until then the worms are doing continuous damage. The other treatment is expensive, but if your pet survives it he will be heartworm free.
SO WHAT DO I DO?
The solution to these problems is simple. Use heartworm and flea preventatives.
For heartworms you can use Heartguard, Iverhart, Sentinel, Interceptor, and ProHeart.
For fleas, Advantage, Advantix, Frontline, and Certifect are pretty good.
And, of course, you can use combo drugs like Trifexis, Comfortis, and Revolution.
Speak to your veterinarian to figure out the best preventative for your situation and your budget, but please take this seriously! Especially if you live in the south. Flea and mosquito populations are skyrocketing this year due to the fact that we did not have a winter to kill them off.
