Pet talk

I am sorry Jessika that you experienced such a horrible time in getting rid of your dog’s fleas.  Fleas are a real problem especially for those who have both cats and dogs living in the same home.  They are difficult to get rid of and animals can get very sick from the products sold to treat the problem.

Diagnosing fleas is as easy as taking a good look at your pet’s skin.  Seeing them is common, but even one flea can cause your pet to chew and scratch as though it is infested with hundreds of them.  A quick way of determining if you have fleas without actually seeing one, is to take a wet, white paper towel and place dirt from your pet’s skin on it.  If the section of paper turns red, it is “flea dirt” or digested blood and is positive evidence that you have fleas.

By the way, the best way to avoid treating for fleas is prevention.  Brewers yeast tablets given daily seem to be the best bet overall.  Also avoiding dog shows, boarding kennels, and wildlife are other ways to keep pets from being introduced to them.  Cats need to be kept indoors not only to protect them from predators and cars, but from fleas and ear mites as well.

Once you are sure you have fleas, the most important thing you can do is treat your house for them.  Fleas do not live on your pet.  They only jump on to eat a meal.  Then they are on to making more fleas in your carpet, pet bedding and rugs.  The entire house has to be treated and the most effective tool for that treatment is the vacuum cleaner.  Intensive vacuuming of all surfaces the pet touches actually will suck up most of the fleas and their eggs.  But you have to remember to either throw out the bag after each time, (or they will crawl out the hose), or put a flea collar in the bag to kill them once they are sucked up.  That is the only use for flea collars in my opinion–in the vacuum cleaner bag.  Attached to a pet, they can and do, cause severe skin blistering and overall sickness in a pet.

Next, the house has to be treated with a product that has a residual effect.  This means the product will stay on the surface even after you vacuum daily.  (The house needs to be vacuumed daily for at least 2 weeks)  Foggers are readily available from pet stores, but buy the sprays too for areas under the beds, tables and sofas.  Follow all directions on the label TO THE LETTER.  These are harsh insecticides and need to be handled properly.

As for the animal, I am much more cautious about using chemicals at all.  In practice, I evaluated each situation individually and recommended products based on the circumstance of each pet.  A nearly hairless pet with sores from chewing itself is a good canidate for flea allergy testing.  If allergic, then treatment for the allergies is coupled with flea abatement.  If the dog is merely scratching, then maybe just taking the fleas off with a flea comb, (while treating the environment), is the answer.  Over the counter stuff can be appropriate.  But use caution with any chemicals.  Look on the label for directions.  Many can not be used on cats, young puppies, or pregnant bitches.  Buy shampoos more than sprays because they kill the fleas and then rinse off.  Buy them with pyrethrins (which come from flowers), rather than the more toxic synthetic pyrethroids.  They are much less dangerous and work very well.

Jessika asked about “spot on” products.  Personally, I only directed owners to use them when the animals had a severe problem with fleas and the owners could not, for some reason, rid their home of fleas to prevent re-introduction.  Giving any substance to a level that kills fleas when they bite your pet is just not something I routinely recommend.  I am opposed to doing anything that drastic when other, less intrusive/toxic methods can be used successfully.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.