All About FLEAS
Nasty critters!
Fleas are nasty critters, they sneak in under your pet’s hair unseen, and before you know it everybody’s miserable. Let’s examine all the aspects of what’s happening.
Your pet has picked up a few fleas. This can happen in the few moments you pet spends in the grass or gravel just to potty. The itching, digging and biting starts, but that’s just the beginning! Some (most) are allergic to the saliva of the flea, so each bite it torture. Sores develope, hair falls out, infections develope from constant chewing, pets have even died from anemia or allergic reactions from flea bites!
Now we’ll look at other problems those few fleas cause. Each female flea, with each bite, lays about 20 eggs. These eggs fall off the pet’s hair into your carpet and upholstery. The black dots on your pet are NOT eggs, they’re flea POOP! In 6-12 days these eggs hatch into voracious larvae. They feed on skin cells and crumbs for a few days and then they spin almost impervious coccoons where they spend 2-3 weeks growing into starving, vicious, young adults. Start multiplying x number of fleas times 20 eggs per day times how ever many more are being produced, growing up, and starting to lay eggs and it gets awful scary!
The key to stopping this problem is to not let it start. There are many things on the market, and we’ll talk about a few. I’ll tell you my experiences with each.
Flea baths–flea shampoo kills any fleas on the pet right now. It has no lasting effect. Once rinsed your pet is fair game to pick up more.
Flea dips–some residual protection. Most promise 30 days, I find 2 days protection. Also once the dip is dry it takes a flea 1-2 days to absorb enough residue to die.
Flea collars–protect about 2 inches of pet’s neck. It’s a proven fact your pet needs 7 collars, one around each leg, around tail, and body for full protection. Also many promise they kill eggs. Do they jump off pet and stomp eggs in your carpet??
Bombs–messy! Also they dont tell you that you should do it again every week for a month or two to clean up newly hatched adults.
Advantage–wonderful stuff! Once a month on the back of the neck and the flea don’t even have to bite to be killed. Available from your vet. A bit expensive, but it works!
Frontline–like advantage only it kills ticks too!
Frontline Plus–Longer lasting, kills ticks.
Also, with advantage, if you keep your pet dosed regularily, they’ll clean the house for you, killing any newly hatched adults for 1 month each dose, unless, of course, you are so badly infested it would be better to *de-flea* the house too to make you and your pet more comfortable!
There is no set flea season, it goes by the weather. If it gets warmer than 40 degrees, new fleas hatch.
Frost kills adults. Unless it stays below freezing, a new batch hatches.
Big brown fleas are not the parents of the little black fleas. They’re different species. Brown fleas are dog fleas. They only like dogs. Black fleas are cat fleas, also called sand fleas. They like EVERYTHING warm blooded!
Fleas will bite humans, but they will not stay to make their home in your hair. Our 98.6 degree body temperature is uncomfortable to them. Animal’s temperatures are from 101-103 degrees. Much more habitable!
Courtesy of Fancy Pets
Author: Debbie Saxon
