External parasites and their treatment dogs
External parasites and their treatment dogs:
What is a parasite?
The external parasites are quite common among the dogs. A parasite is an organism that lives on the resources that your dog has to offer: namely, fresh blood (which most parasites drink) and a warm place to stay (inside and on the skin and fur).
What are the common parasites that can affect my dog?
There is a wide range of parasites that affect dogs:
All these parasites cause adverse reactions in your dog: Typically, itching and inflamed skin, an opaque and bald coat. In advanced cases, your dog may develop anemia (blood loss) and is usually weak (especially if it is very young, very old, or has another condition).
In addition to this, many parasites transmit secondary and internal parasites to your dog, for example, fleas usually have the common tapeworm (which causes constipation and flatulence) and ticks can cause a variety of much more serious problems such as Lyme disease and paralysis.
In today's newsletter, let's look at fleas: what they are, how to tell if your dog is affected and how to get rid of them.
A closer look at fleas
Fleas are without doubt the most common external parasite that affects dogs. They are small, jumping insects that are light brown, although humans in general cannot see them, they move too fast for that!
Fleas live off your dog's blood. The life cycle of a flea moves very quickly from stage one (egg) to stage four (adult flea), which means that they are able to multiply with astonishing speed.
An adult flea lays hundreds of eggs per day. Each egg will become an adult flea, which has hundreds more of its own eggs. A flea becomes a big problem very quickly!
How to tell if your dog has fouls
The symptoms of a flea infestation are unmistakable. A dog with a flea infestation will scratch almost constantly, often in areas that the fleas seem to favor: the ears, the base of the tail, the belly and the knee (the membrane of the soft skin between the thigh and the abdomen).
In reality, it is the saliva of the flea that causes irritation, not the bite itself, and some dogs have a genuine allergy to this saliva (unlike standard irritation). Dogs with allergies suffer much more significant negative reactions to a flea infestation, and usually develop "hot spots."
These hot spots are areas of pain, inflammation, desquamation, bleeding, and infected skin caused by flea saliva and your dog's own reaction. Bald patches are sometimes also developed, due to repeated scratches and continuous inflammation.
If you think your dog has fleas, you can confirm your suspicions by observing your skin more closely: you probably can't see the fleas, but you should be able to see what looks like ground pepper (a sprinkling of fine black grains) on your skin. This is flea (poop) dirt.
If you brush it with a flea comb (which is like a fine tooth comb), try to clean it with a paper towel: If red spots appear in the towel, you know that your dog has fleas (on a white background like paper towel, flea poop appears red: Since the fleas subsist in the blood, their poop is colored accordingly.)
Treatment for Fleas
Because fleas only spend a small amount of time actually in your dog, and the rest of your time jumping around your house laying eggs and feeding on human blood, it is not enough to treat the dog: You also have to point to your bedding , the whole house, all the human bedding, and the yard (yes, the fleas lay eggs all over the yard, too. Even if it's cold outside, you're not necessarily out of danger: cold weather doesn't kill flea eggs, it just puts you in a state of hibernation. The eggs will hatch as soon as they get warm enough outside. [Post: How to stop a dog whining when you leave]
You will need a broad spectrum treatment that kills not only adult fleas (which are biting), but also developing fleas and eggs.
Prevention is the best (and the easiest!)
Prevention is definitely the best cure: You must keep your dog's flea treatments up to date with the use of a calendar and use a veterinarian-prescribed treatment. Commercial treatments are not recommended, since different dogs require different strengths according to their size, age and activity levels. A particular benefit of prescribed flea treatment is that most are also designed to prevent other parasites (such as mites, ticks and heart parasites) from affecting your dog.
For an existing
If your dog already has fleas, you have two options:
What not to do about fleas
What is a parasite?
The external parasites are quite common among the dogs. A parasite is an organism that lives on the resources that your dog has to offer: namely, fresh blood (which most parasites drink) and a warm place to stay (inside and on the skin and fur).
What are the common parasites that can affect my dog?
There is a wide range of parasites that affect dogs:
- Fleas
- Ticks
- Mites
- Lice
All these parasites cause adverse reactions in your dog: Typically, itching and inflamed skin, an opaque and bald coat. In advanced cases, your dog may develop anemia (blood loss) and is usually weak (especially if it is very young, very old, or has another condition).
In addition to this, many parasites transmit secondary and internal parasites to your dog, for example, fleas usually have the common tapeworm (which causes constipation and flatulence) and ticks can cause a variety of much more serious problems such as Lyme disease and paralysis.
In today's newsletter, let's look at fleas: what they are, how to tell if your dog is affected and how to get rid of them.
A closer look at fleas
Fleas are without doubt the most common external parasite that affects dogs. They are small, jumping insects that are light brown, although humans in general cannot see them, they move too fast for that!
Fleas live off your dog's blood. The life cycle of a flea moves very quickly from stage one (egg) to stage four (adult flea), which means that they are able to multiply with astonishing speed.
An adult flea lays hundreds of eggs per day. Each egg will become an adult flea, which has hundreds more of its own eggs. A flea becomes a big problem very quickly!
How to tell if your dog has fouls
The symptoms of a flea infestation are unmistakable. A dog with a flea infestation will scratch almost constantly, often in areas that the fleas seem to favor: the ears, the base of the tail, the belly and the knee (the membrane of the soft skin between the thigh and the abdomen).
In reality, it is the saliva of the flea that causes irritation, not the bite itself, and some dogs have a genuine allergy to this saliva (unlike standard irritation). Dogs with allergies suffer much more significant negative reactions to a flea infestation, and usually develop "hot spots."
These hot spots are areas of pain, inflammation, desquamation, bleeding, and infected skin caused by flea saliva and your dog's own reaction. Bald patches are sometimes also developed, due to repeated scratches and continuous inflammation.
If you think your dog has fleas, you can confirm your suspicions by observing your skin more closely: you probably can't see the fleas, but you should be able to see what looks like ground pepper (a sprinkling of fine black grains) on your skin. This is flea (poop) dirt.
If you brush it with a flea comb (which is like a fine tooth comb), try to clean it with a paper towel: If red spots appear in the towel, you know that your dog has fleas (on a white background like paper towel, flea poop appears red: Since the fleas subsist in the blood, their poop is colored accordingly.)
Treatment for Fleas
Because fleas only spend a small amount of time actually in your dog, and the rest of your time jumping around your house laying eggs and feeding on human blood, it is not enough to treat the dog: You also have to point to your bedding , the whole house, all the human bedding, and the yard (yes, the fleas lay eggs all over the yard, too. Even if it's cold outside, you're not necessarily out of danger: cold weather doesn't kill flea eggs, it just puts you in a state of hibernation. The eggs will hatch as soon as they get warm enough outside. [Post: How to stop a dog whining when you leave]
You will need a broad spectrum treatment that kills not only adult fleas (which are biting), but also developing fleas and eggs.
Prevention is the best (and the easiest!)
Prevention is definitely the best cure: You must keep your dog's flea treatments up to date with the use of a calendar and use a veterinarian-prescribed treatment. Commercial treatments are not recommended, since different dogs require different strengths according to their size, age and activity levels. A particular benefit of prescribed flea treatment is that most are also designed to prevent other parasites (such as mites, ticks and heart parasites) from affecting your dog.
For an existing
If your dog already has fleas, you have two options:
- You can ' bomb ' the house and garden with a pesticide for fleas. These come as Nebulizers (which cover each room, and the yard, in a fine mist of pesticide) and aerosols (which are applied manually to each surface throughout the house and patio), and although they are very effective at killing fleas and eggs, there is a major disadvantage : They are highly toxic to humans, dogs and the environment. Depending on your priorities, this is probably the quickest solution to a flea problem (and it will also eliminate the eggs), but if you have someone in the house with allergies or health problems, including pets! -You may want to think again.
- A more health-friendly alternative is to target the dog with a topical anti-flea solution prescribed by the veterinarian (such as Advantage or Revolution), and to clean the house rigorously until the flea problem disappears. This means sucking every room thoroughly every day, put a flea collar with the vacuum bag to kill any flea that is sucked and wash the human and dog bedding with hot water as often as possible (once a day or every two days is R Ecomendado). You will know when the problem has gone because your dog will not scratch, and your fur will be clean of dirt by fleas when you inspect it.
What not to do about fleas
- Do not use multiple products in your dog-it will make you sick, because you will be overloading your system with toxins.
- Do not forget to treat all the animals of the house at the same time: the fleas of the cats and the dogs are interchangeable, and if an animal has fleas, all will have them, even if some do not show the symptoms.
- The flea collars are no longer recommended as a safe option for flea prevention, as the collars are highly toxic: veterinarians have noticed that they place a toxic material directly on the skin of their pet for long Time periods (flea collars should be used 24/7 to be effective) is detrimental to your dog's health. [Post: Agility Training Handling Dogs]
