Help Your Pet Away From Flea
2008-08-27

Help Your Pet Away From Flea

Pet flea is a kind of vermin, which prefer staying in your pet’s coat, drinking blood of your pet and make your pet feel uncomfortable; the flea’s bite can cause itching for the host but for a sensitive or flea-allergic animal, this itching can be quite severe and leads to hair-loss, inflammation and secondary skin infections. Some pets, hypersensitive to the flea's saliva, will itch all over from the bite of even a single flea! It’s more dangerous that fleas can actually kill your pet if an infestation is severe. Blood loss, anemia, debilitation and death awaited these two kittens if the shelter had not been able to assist them.

Know something about flea •When and where the flea comes Fleas are small dark brown insects like temperatures of 65-80 degrees and humidity levels of 75-85%, so for some areas of the country they are more than just a “summer” problem. And also, flea is not just native-born. Dogs and cats often get infested with fleas through contact with other animals or contact with fleas in the environment. The strong back legs of this insect enable it to jump from host to host or from the environment onto the host. (Fleas do not have wings so cannot fly!)

•Flea’s life cycle Anyone who has ever battled fleas knows how difficult they are to eradicate. Once a home becomes infested, control can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive. By mid- to late summer, pet owners often find themselves fighting a losing battle against established flea populations that are enormous. In order to understand how we should help our pet, we must first understand the flea’s life cycle since the various modern treatment and prevention products work on different parts of this life cycle. There are several stages to its life cycle: egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa or cocoon, and adult. The length of time it takes to complete this cycle varies depending upon the environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and the availability of a nourishing host. The various flea stages are quite resistant to freezing temperatures. The adult female flea typically lives for several weeks on the pet. During this time period she will suck the animal’s blood two to three times and lay twenty to thirty eggs each day. She may lay several hundred eggs over her life span. These eggs fall off of the pet into the yard, bedding, carpet, and wherever else the animal spends time. Adult fleas (the biting stage) spend virtually their entire life on the pet, not in the carpet. Eggs are laid on the fur and fall off into carpeting, beneath furniture cushions, and wherever else the pet lays, sleeps or spends time. After hatching, the eggs transform into larvae, pupae, and eventually adults to renew the cycle.

•How do you know whether fleas annoy your pet? How do you know if fleas are causing all that itching (called pruritus)? Generally, unlike the burrowing, microscopic demote or scabies mites, fleas can be seen scurrying along the surface of the skin. Dark copper colored and about the size of the head of a pin, fleas dislike light so looking for them within furry areas and on the pet's belly and inner thighs will provide your best chances of spotting them. Look for "flea dirt", too. "Flea dirt" looks like dark specks of pepper scattered on the skin surface. See the image of flea dirt near the bottom-right of this article. If you see flea dirt, which is actually flea feces and is composed of digested blood, pick some off the pet and place on a wet paper towel. If after a few minutes the tiny specks spread out like a small blood stain... it's definitely flea dirt and your pet has fleas! Flea dirt may be your only evidence of a flea infestation but believe the evidence! If there is flea dirt there are surely fleas present. You need to begin your war on the pests.

•Ways to get rid of pet flea 1. Apply a topical treatment directly to your dog's skin. Place a few drops between the shoulder blades or at the nape of the neck, and these few drops will spread throughout the fur and kill fleas on contact for one month or more. 2. Visit your veterinarian for a prescription of oral flea medication. These medications will disrupt the flea life cycle, causing the fleas to be unable to reproduce--think of it as birth control for fleas. 3. Wash your dog with a good flea shampoo. Read the label to make sure you choose a shampoo that will actually kill fleas on contact, since if all you're doing is washing the fleas off your dog, they can just hop right back on once he's out of the tub. 4. Dip your dog to get rid of a bad infestation. A good, thorough dipping will kill all the fleas on your dog's body, but it will not prevent a flea problem from recurring unless and until you treat the fleas in the environment as well. 5. Vacuum your floor thoroughly. Many people swear by sprinkling the carpet with salt or borax to kill the fleas, then letting it sit for 48 hours before vacuuming. You can also buy commercial flea powders meant to treat carpets and furniture. Whether you use such a treatment or not, you must be sure to dispose of your vacuum bag or empty and clean your canister every time you vacuum so that any fleas and fleas eggs you may have vacuumed up do not continue to breed and to hatch. 6. Wash your pet's bedding thoroughly in hot water, and then dry it. Any bedding that cannot be washed should be treated and vacuumed .Spray or "bomb" your house with a flea killer. You may wish to use both of these--a flea fogger or bomb for a good general extermination, then a spray to get in the hard-to-reach cracks and corners that the fogger may have missed. 7. Treat your yard with a yard spray or sprinkle-on powder if your yard is small enough to permit you to do this. If you have a very large yard, you may wish to treat the area immediately around your house, especially if there is a possibility of your being able to keep your dog confined to this area during flea season. It also helps to keep your grass mowed as short as possible 8. A better way to manage fleas is through prevention. By taking action before fleas are abundant, pet owners can avoid severe infestations later in the season. Preventive flea control has been made possible by new product innovations and insights into flea biology.