Cedar Creek Veterinary Clinic

Key Facts:

• The adult dog and cat flea spends most of its life time on your pet. Within a couple of days after taking a blood meal it begins laying eggs in your pet's hair coat. The eggs must go through several developmental stages before becoming a blood sucking adult. A complete life cycle can be completed in as little as three weeks. One adult female can produce upwards of 50 eggs a day. An average life span for an adult flea is 30 days.
  • Treating the pet and the house as well as minimizing contact with other flea infested animals provide the basis of a complete flea control program.

  • Although treatment of the entire house is usually necessary, flea control efforts should be concentrated in areas where the pet spends the most of it's time because eggs and larvae will accumulate there. Be sure to treat the area with a product that will kill both the adult fleas and the flea eggs.

• Ticks are second to mosquitoes as carriers of disease. They may also cause toxicosis, hypersensitivity and paralysis, and blood loss. Lyme disease, the most important vector-borne disease in the United States, is trasmitted by an infested deer tick when it bites a host to take a blood meal. Ticks have a long life which perpetuates both the tick species and pathogens within the tick.
  • Ticks have an elaborate system to help them find mates and hosts. They sense carbon dioxide of a potential host as well as ticks that have already found a host. Most ticks lay in wait on vegetation and jump on a host when the host makes contact with it.

  • To remove a tick, use tweezers and grab it close to the skin trying to get as much of the tick out as you can. If the head does not come out, it will act like a splinter and puss up and come out over time. Wash the site with alcohol.

Flea Treatment Recommendations:

1. Use a good quality flea and tick shampoo no more than once every two weeks.

2. We have a product called Capstar which begins working in 20 minutes to kill the adult fleas on your pet. The medication is out of the pet's system within 24 hours so follow up treatments may need to be done.

3. Use an indoor premise spray with an IGR on areas where your pet spends a lot of time.

4. Wash bedding frequently for removal of eggs, larvae and pupa stages of the flea. Frequent vacuuming will remove these intermediate stages from your home.

5. Frontline and Advantix are topical products that are placed on the skin for flea and tick prevention. Revolution is also a topical product applied to the skin for flea and tick prevention as well as heartworm prevention. Sentinel is a pill given once a month for flea control and heartworm prevention. Your dog will have to be heartworm free before starting on Revolution or Sentinel.
6. Yard and kennel sprays are available to diminish the flea numbers in your yard and outdoor living areas.

7. Should your home become infested with fleas you may need to consult the services of a pest control business. You can also purchase house foggers to treat your entire home. Just make sure they contain ingredients that will kill both the adult flea and the flea eggs.

          

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