Flea Control

As summer approaches we tend to see more pets with flea infestations. When the temperature and humidity rise flea eggs hatch and adults become more active, looking for animals from which to get their blood meal.

Signs of your dog having a flea problem can range from mild to severe itchiness with sore-looking skin, and sometimes we actually see the fleas or their dirt. We know that at any one time only about 10% of a whole houses flea population will be on an animal, which means that we need to treat flea eggs and larvae that live in carpets and elsewhere in houses, as well as the dog themselves.

Preventing fleas on your dog is very easy, with plenty of spot-on treatments available, which should be used every 6 weeks. You simply pour the chemical onto the back of the dog™s neck, where it gets soaked into the skin and then blood supply. The next time a flea takes a bite they ingest some of the chemical and are killed.

Once a dog has a flea infestation though it often needs repeated treatments to get things back under control. It can be difficult to treat the resultant flea population in the house especially, with repeated treatments with special household sprays often necessary. Some of the prescription spot on treatments available from your vet such as frontline combo or stronghold actually help treat the flea population within the house as well, so we as vets always recommend these.

Remember prevention is always better than cure: treating your dog every 6 weeks with flea treatment will keep everything under control and avoid heavy infestations which can be difficult to treat, expensive and most importantly very uncomfortable for your dog.

Here is a bad case of fleas and why you need to keep check.


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