Fleas can cause real issues for your animals but, thankfully, they’re easy to prevent and routine flea treatment will help keep fleas at bay. Your vet can suggest the very best items for your family pet.
Whether your pet’s never had fleas and you wish to keep it that way or your pet is experiencing a flea problem, visit your vet to get suggestions on the very best method to get on the right medication to protect my pet or deal with the problem.
What are fleas and how are they spread?
Fleas are tiny pests that live on your animals and in the home. They are a common problem for cats and dogs and periodically impact rabbits too. Fleas can make your family pet itchy and uncomfortable– they regularly cause skin problems due to allergic reactions in delicate family pets.
In the worst cases they can make your pet seriously ill. Fleas feed upon your family pet’s blood so a very young, old or weak pet can end up being dangerously anaemic if they end up being greatly plagued with fleas
Fleas are an issue throughout the year however specifically throughout the warmer months. It is much simpler to avoid an invasion than treat one, so utilize a preventive treatment regularly.
Most fleas do not live on the animal but really live in the environment, jumping off your animal to lay eggs in your house. They’re also difficult to find, so you might not know your family pet has fleas up until they start getting itchy skin (or you begin getting bitten!).
Some stages of the flea lifecycle can lay dormant in the environment for up to a year. Because of this, a typical history for an animal getting fleas is individuals moving into empty homes. The main heating and vibrations ‘get up’ the flea eggs or pupae in the carpets. Constantly treat new houses with a long-acting flea spray prior to you move in and likewise treat your home routinely. Your vet or veterinarian nurse can encourage which products are the finest to utilize and how routinely you need to use them
How to avoid fleas.
Treat all the animals in your house regularly (generally each month but some items differ so examine the insert or ask your vet) with an ideal flea treatment.
Frequently clean your family pet’s bed linen on a hot wash to eliminate any flea eggs that may be prowling there.
Use a long-acting family spray frequently.
Top Tip: Pets with fleas can also establish tapeworm, which is carried by fleas. Pets groom and swallow fleas with tapeworm eggs inside as part of the tapeworm lifecycle and these then develop into worms in your animal’s gut. If your family pet has actually had fleas, use a worming treatment that covers for tapeworms in addition to flea treatments.
Never ever utilize a flea treatment for dogs on your cat– this can be fatal. Make sure you utilize a flea treatment particularly for felines and examine all household flea sprays for permethrin prior to you use them around your feline.
Signs your animal has fleas – and how to treat them.
If your animal has fleas, they might show no indications if they’re not allergic to them. You may see fleas themselves but they can be quite well-hidden, so you are most likely to see ‘flea dirt’– small, dark flecks which is the fleas poo– on their fur and skin. Brushing their coat with a flea comb, particularly around the their lower back, onto a damp piece of cotton wool, can show up this flea dirt, which you can differentiate from dirt as it will redden as the blood in the flea poo liquifies into the water in the cotton wool.
If they have an allergy to fleas or have a lot of fleas biting them, they’re likely to:
Be itching, chewing or licking more than typical.
Have red and irritated skin.
It can be tough to get rid of a flea problem and fleas can cause your pet real discomfort. It’s always best to prevent fleas by routinely giving your pet an appropriate flea treatment.
If among your pets does get fleas:
Take them to your vet for guidance.
Deal with all animals in your family to make certain fleas don’t pass from one pet to another.
Hoover your home to eliminate any fleas in your furnishings and carpets.
Treat your house with a family flea spray to kill fleas and flea eggs. If you have cats, make certain this spray doesn’t consist of permethrin as this chemical is harmful to felines.
How to treat your house for fleas
You can do this with a household flea spray. Look for a long acting spray and re-apply as needed, as some life phases of fleas can survive in the environment for up to a year. Never apply a home flea spray to your pet.
To use our spray, initially you require to make sure your family and pets run out the room you need to deal with. Then you can treat the room great and quickly:
Shake the can well before usage and test on an unnoticeable area.
Spray the whole flooring area, holding the can 30cm away from the surface you are spraying. You ought to also go up the walls approximately one metre.
Leave the area closed for about two hours (it’s really essential no animals or children enter the space throughout this time!) Air it out completely for at least 30 minutes.
Once it’s dry, offer it a good hoover and you’re all done!