Finding the Best Dog Flea & Tick Prevention For Your Dog Talk to your veterinarian and decide which prevention products will work best for your dog, your environment, and your budget. You certainly can’t control all of the parasites in your environment, but you can take steps to protect your dog from suffering the consequences. “So if you have more than one pet, your other pets will be at risk.”Īll of the above reasons should convince you that prevention is the way to go when it comes to fleas and ticks. “Fleas and ticks also serve as vectors that spread a large number of diseases between animals,” says Dr.
One more reason to practice flea and tick prevention with your pets is to help keep your home and family safe from an infestation. Humans are also vulnerable to many of the complications and diseases that ticks and fleas cause, and they are equally hard to get rid of. Fleas have also been known to cause anemia from blood loss in very infested dogs. Fleas carry the larvae of the tapeworm, and these larvae will mature into adult tapeworms inside your pet’s intestines. Often this results in your dog swallowing the flea. The first thing your pet will most likely do when bitten by a flea is chew at the spot where the bite is. Also, fleas are the most common cause of tapeworms. The bite of one flea can send your dog into a whirlwind of scratching, biting. If your pet has an allergy to fleas, you may observe these uncomfortable symptoms and more if he has fleas. Itching and scratching, redness, flaky skin, scabs, hot spots, hair loss.
So it’s very important to locate and carefully remove ticks from your dog as quickly as possible. A tick bite will take about 12 hours to transmit anaplasma and 24-to-36 hours to transmit Lyme disease. Klein suggests that during tick season, in addition to using a preventative treatment, it is critical to do a daily tick check on your dog. Treatments for tick-borne illnesses are lengthy and can be very costly.ĭr. These diseases can be very difficult to recognize and are easily misdiagnosed due to varied and vague symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that vaccines are not available for most of the tick-borne diseases that dogs can get. In addition, ticks are the host of several debilitating diseases, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis. Ticks can cause infection, abscesses, paralysis, and even death. Your vet will also consider whether you have more than one pet, have dogs that swim, or have young children in your household.Ĭhoices for flea and tick preventatives now include: It is best to work with your veterinarian to decide on the right regimen that will fit your pet’s age, health, and breed, as well as the environment you live or vacation in. Our choices have grown exponentially over the years, however you must always consider the safety of your dog when using a flea and tick preventative. Plethora of Productsįirst of all, there are flea and tick preventatives on the market today that are safer and more effective than what was available 10 years ago. There are big benefits to being consistent when protecting our dogs against these pesky parasites. And unfortunately, these parasites can have a serious effect on your dog’s health. Whatever we do to keep our dogs healthy and protect them, it is impossible to keep them from meeting up with ticks and fleas when they go outside. Unfortunately, it also rings in the full-blown season of fleas and ticks. Spring and summer is a time when the lure of the great outdoors calls to us and our family pets.