Fleas are persistent little devils and can be very common and very annoying for both pet and owner. They are, without question, the number one most common external parasite affecting dogs. They are small, jumping insects that are light brown in colour, although humans generally cannot see them – they move far too quickly for that!!! Only the adult flea lives on your dog. Here they will bite and suck blood and lay eggs which fall off into the dog’s (and your) surroundings.
The bites cause much irritation and subsequent damage from self-mutilation, which often needs treated separately. The life cycle of a flea moves very rapidly from stage one (egg) to stage four (adult flea), which means they’re capable of multiplying with staggering rapidity.Each species has its own flea, but the cat flea is seen on dogs and cats. Fleas will bite humans too and you see a big, itchy “heat spot”.
The symptoms of a flea infestation are unmistakable. A dog with fleas will scratch almost constantly, often at areas that fleas seem to favour, such as the ears, the base of the tail, the belly and the stifle (the area of soft skin between the thigh and the abdomen).
It’s not the flea bite itself that causes the irritation but the saliva of the flea and some dogs have a genuine allergy to this saliva. Dogs with allergies will suffer much more significant reactions to a flea infestation and “hot spots”.
Hot spots are areas of sore, inflamed, flaking, bleeding and infected skin, cause by the flea saliva and your dog’s own reaction to it. Bald patches will sometimes develop too from repeated scratching and ongoing inflammation.
If you think your dog has fleas, you can examine him to confirm your suspicions. You probably wouldn’t be able to see the fleas themselves, but if you inspect his skin and coat, you should be able to see a thin sprinkling of fine black grains that look like pepper. This is flea poop. If you are unable to see this, try grooming your dog with a flea comb, which is a very fine-toothed comb. Wipe it on a piece of white kitchen roll and if red blotches show up on the kitchen roll, you know your dog has fleas.
Prevention is the best treatment, so it is advisable that you keep your dog up to date with his flea treatment – mark it on the calendar when he had his treatment and when the next one is due.
Fleas only spend a small amount of time actually on your dog. The rest of the time, they’re leaping and jumping all through your house laying eggs and feeding on human food. Therefore, it’s not enough to just treat your dog – you also need to treat his bedding and the entire house, including human bedding, carpets, curtains, soft furnishings and even the garden! Fleas will lay eggs in the garden too and even if it’s really cold outside, that won’t kill the eggs – they just go into a state of hibernation until the weather warms up again and then out they hatch and you have to start all over again with the flea treatments.
You need a broad spectrum treatment that not only kills the adult fleas but any developing fleas and eggs. You’re best to get such a treatment from your vet as store bought treatments aren’t normally very effective. This is because different dogs need different strengths of treatment, depending on their size, age and how active they are. Also, prescribed flea treatments don’t just do fleas – they prevent many other parasites, like mites, ticks and heartworm, from affecting your dog.
If you find that your dog has fleas, there are a couple of ways of dealing with the problem. You can treat the dog with a prescribed flea treatment and then treat your house and garden with chemicals. These flea-pesticides come as foggers which coat each room and garden with a fine mist of pesticide and sprays which are applied manually to each surface in the house and garden. They are very effective at killing fleas and eggs and are the quickest solution, however, the chemicals are highly toxic to humans, dogs and the environment. You need to evacuate the house for a certain length of time and they really are not suitable for anyone who has allergies or health problems – and this includes pets!
The next and more health friendly option is to again treat the dog with a prescribed treatment (for example Advantage but your vet will keep you right on the correct treatment) and then to thoroughly clean the house on a regular basis until the flea problem has gone. You would need to thoroughly vacuum the entire house on a daily basis. Putting a flea collar in the vacuum bag will kill any fleas that get sucked up. You need to wash all human and pet bedding on a hot wash on a daily basis – every second day as a bare minimum.
You’ll know when you’ve exterminated all the fleas and eggs because the dog will stop scratching and his skin and coat will not show any signs of flea poo when you inspect it.
Don’t forget to treat all the animals in the house at the same time – if one animal has fleas, they will all have fleas.
Don’t use more than one flea product on your dog. You’ll only make him sick because you’ll be overloading his system with toxins – you won’t get rid of the fleas any quicker.
Don’t use flea collars. To be effective, a flea collar has to be worn 24/7 and vets have discovered that having a highly toxic material directly next to your pet’s skin for long periods of time is extremely detrimental to his health.