Flea Control

When we think of fleas, we usually think of the discomfort that they cause our pet dogs and cats. But fleas can also cause humans trouble too.  Just check out this photo of flea bites on a human’s foot.

Flea allergy dermatitis just basically means that you are allergic to the saliva of the flea. It most commonly is seen in dogs and cats, because they are much more likely to have flea infestations than humans.

However, when flea infestations are really bad (or there are no animals to jump onto), fleas will quite happily jump onto a human for a meal.

Now don’t panic – the cat flea cannot complete its life cycle on a human, so you won’t have your own flea infestation. But the bites can certainly be itchy, and they may possibly be infected.

If you notice any bites like these on your feet or anywhere else on your body, it is worth giving your dog or cat a very thorough check over for fleas.

If you find a flea or flea dirt on your pet, then you need to start treatment straight away. As long as there are fleas in the environment they will jump onto you and your pets to have a meal.

Whatever you do, don’t send the pets outside if you find fleas on them! This will only leave you and your family for fleas to feed on, making the problem worse.

Instead, treat your pet and let the fleas come to them (they prefer dogs and cats over humans). Make sure to treat every pet and keep treating every month.

If you do have itchy bites like this on your feet, it is also probably worth a visit to your doctor who may be able to give you something to stop the itching and swelling.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

photo: jebb

Technorati Tags: flea allergy dermatitis, flea bites, flea control, flea treatment

Fleas are are no fun for pets or owners. You want to get rid of them, and the faster you can do that the happier you and your pet will be. Today I am going to tell you which flea control product kills fleas the quickest.

Why is fast speed of kill important? Well, it takes around 48 hours for fleas to begin laying eggs once they have started to feed. If we can kill the fleas before they can lay any eggs, then this will break the life cycle and fix your flea problem faster.

In a study done by Dryden, Smith, Payne and McTier in 2005, selamectin (Revolution), fipronil-(S)-methoprene (Frontline) and imidacloprid(Advantage & Advocate)were compared to see which flea treatment product kills fleas the fastest. They were tested for speed of kill at days 2, 7, 14, 21 and 28, to simulate what would happen over the course of a monthly flea treatment.

Following initial application, imidacloprid was the only product to cause significant flea reduction in 6 hours.  By 24 hours of applications, all three products had killed at least 96.7% of fleas on the pet. So basically, after a day, almost all of the fleas on the pet will be killed regardless of which product you use.

One week after treatment, all three products were still going strong. Each product reduced flea populations by around 70% in 6 hours, and had killed 99.4% of fleas in 24 hours. This is good – no fleas are living long enough to lay eggs and reinfest the environment.

Three weeks after initial application, the speed of kill for all the products had decreased significantly, with none of the formulations killing fleas within 6 hours.  At 28 days after treatment – selamectin killed 99% in 48 hours, fipronil-(s)-methoprene killed 86.4% within 48 hours, and imidacloprid killed 72.6% within 48 hours. This is where things start to drop off, which is why these products need to be used monthly.

From these results, we can see is that there is no real difference between any of the products for the majority of the time. Imidacloprid gets a jump start on the other product and starts killing fleas sooner, but by 24 hours they are mostly the same. At the end of the month, selamectin has the most staying power, still killing 99% of fleas before they are able to breed.

Interestingly, another study (McCoy et al, 2008)- showed that Revolution is more effective than Frontline Plus and Advantage in reducing the amount of blood consumed by fleas.

In reality, it doesn’t matter which of these products you use. They are all excellent products and will do a much better job of killing fleas than any flea shampoos, flea collars, flea powders or natural flea treaments.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

Technorati Tags: advantage, advocate, fipronil, flea control, flea treatment, frontline plus, imidacloprid, revolution, selamectin

Baby kittens are at a high risk of becoming ill when they have a flea burden

Everyone knows that flea infestations can be bothersome and irritating for your pet, but most people don’t realise that a heavy flea burden can actually be lethal in some circumstances. If you have a young puppy, kitten, or older pet, then they could be at risk of much worse than a few itchy bites.

Fleas, like mosquitoes, are blood parasites. Individually they only drink a small amount – average of 13.6 microliters (+/- 2.7 microliters) of blood per day. That doesn’t sound like much, but 100 fleas will drink 1.36ml of blood per day. In adults, this amount is a mere drop in the ocean, but for a 500g kitten with only 35ml of blood in total, that is a lot (3.8% of their total blood volume per day).  When you are losing that amount of blood, it doesn’t take long to get very sick.

Young puppies and kittens are at the highest risk for flea anaemia. Outdoor puppies and kittens are especially at risk, because they are more likely to come in contact with fleas and develop an infestation. They are also trying to grow, and before 16 weeks of age their bodies are not very good at producing new blood to replace what has been lost.

Older patients  (mostly small dogs and cats) can also be at risk, because they are often less able to groom themselves to get rid of fleas. Also, they are more likely to have chronic disease, which can decrease the ability of the body to produce new blood.

Signs of anaemia to look for include pale gums (normal is pink, with anaemia they can be white), listlessness, and in severe cases your pet may have cold extremities and a rapid heart beat. If your pet has any of these signs then they need to be taken to a veterinarian straight away, where they may need emergency treatment such as a blood transfusion.

If you notice large amounts of flea dirt on your pet, then you need to start flea treatment as soon as possible. Frontline spray is a good option for young pets, as it is licensed for use in puppies and kittens 2 days of age and older. For animals weighing over 1kg, Capstar also makes a good choice, as it provides fast-acting knockdown of all fleas on your pet within 6 hours.

If you have any concerns about your pet, then don’t hesitate to contact your local veterinarian. They will be able to advise you on your pet’s individual case.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

Photo: clevergrrl

Technorati Tags: anaemia, flea control, flea problem, kittens, puppies

Unless you have a very minor flea infestation, it almost always takes a few months to get rid of it no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter what product you use, or how many times you wash your pet. The reason it takes so long is due to the “flea development window”. If you understand this concept then you will save yourself a lot of frustration.

The flea development window is based around basic flea biology. Adult female fleas lay around 40 eggs per day. These fall off your pet into the environment, landing in areas like your house, car, and back yard. These eggs hatch in 1 to 10 days, and become larvae. These larvae then develop into pupae in 5 to 11 days. Fleas will remain in their pupa for anywhere from 7 to 174 days.

Flea control, for the most part, is concerned with killing adult fleas. If you are using any of the flea control products that I recommend here, then they are likely to kill 99.9% of the fleas on your pet. Unfortunately, they does nothing to prevent the development of eggs, larvae and pupae already in the environment. These will continue to develop and hatch, then jump onto your pet.

The adult stage of the flea is the “window” – the point in the flea’s life cycle that we can effectively intervene and reduce flea numbers.

Have you ever had a situation where you used flea control, and the problem seemed to get worse instead of better? You might think that it is a giant conspiracy theory, and the drug companies are lacing their products with flea eggs to keep you buying their product. Unfortunately the truth is much less exciting. This is the flea development window at work.

Sometimes the flea population is on the verge of explosion, with heaps and heaps of flea eggs, larvae and pupae in the environment. At this stage, applying flea control product is too late to stop the onslaught. The product will kill all the fleas on your pet, but all of those fleas in the environment will hatch and jump onto your pet over the next 3 weeks to 6 months.

You might be thinking “How does knowing about this change what I need to do for my pet?”. It all boils down to this: we can’t effectively kill all of the stages of the flea life cycle. We can only really do anything about the adult fleas. Every time a flea survives on your pet long enough to lay eggs, you are going to be dealing with another 50 or more fleas in a few weeks to months.

This really highlights the importance of using flea control on every pet in your household, every month, every time. Any lapses in your flea control strategy and you will have to deal with another few months worth of fleas on your pet.

Every day you delay in treating your pet is another 40-50 fleas (or much more!) that you will have to deal with in the future. Save your self the headache, buy your pets some flea control today!

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkybug/

Technorati Tags: eggs, flea control, flea treatment, larvae, life cycle, pupae

Photo: PóDeTalco

One of the reasons that people find flea control so difficult is that they don’t have the right information. If you are operating under false assumptions, it is bound to end in failure. To help you understand your enemy and win the battle on fleas, here is a list of 8 common myths about flea control.

1. Dogs and cats are infested by different species

It is true that there are many different species of flea (almost 3000 in fact). There are species named after the dog and the cat (Ctenocephalides canis and Ctenocephalides felis respectively). However, these names are misleading, because almost every flea infestation in a dog or cat in Australia is due to the cat flea. In fact, there is some debate as to whether the dog flea might actually be extinct in Australia!

2. Fleas jump from one pet to another.

Once a flea has jumped onto its host and had a blood meal, they must continue feeding or they will die within a few hours. Rather than risk death by a mistimed jump onto another pet, fleas will remain on one dog or cat for their entire lives. It might seem like a flea has jumped onto your pet from someone else’s sometimes, for example after a visit to the dog park. What really happens though, is that fleas who have hatched in the environment have jumped onto your dog while it was playing (this takes less than a second!).

3. Indoor pets don’t get fleas.

Just because your pet is inside doesn’t mean it is immune to infestation. People can bring “hitch-hiker” fleas into your home. These fleas jump onto a human, mistaking it for a dog or cat. Once they realise they have made the wrong choice (our blood tastes funny), they will drop off and find a more suitable host. This is one situation where fleas will jump from one host to another. Screen doors also don’t present much of a barrier to fleas. If there are wild animals dropping flea eggs around your yard, and some land right near the door, then those fleas can easily make it through the screen mesh.

4. If your pets have fleas then your home is dirty.
Fleas are often associated with filth and vermin, and certainly can be found intimately associated with them. And sure, a lot of dirty, unkempt pets have fleas. But that doesn’t mean that your home is dirty if your pet has fleas. You can have a spotless house and still have fleas.

5.  Flea products will repel fleas, kill all of them in seconds, and you will never see fleas on your pet again if you treat them.

I like to call this the “magic bullet” myth. While I wish I could tell you that there is a product that does all of the above, the reality is that this level of efficiency is impossible. Some flea product repel fleas (eg. Advantix), but the majority of them don’t. Some products kill fleas pretty quickly (eg. Capstar), but even then it takes a few hours to kill all of the fleas on your pet. And even if you are using every single product under the sun on your pet, there is still a good chance you might see a flea from time to time. It takes less than a second for a flea to jump onto your pet as it walks by, so unless you and your pet live in a glass bubble, you will see a flea every now and then.

6. Putting your pets outside will help the problem.

This sounds like a good idea in theory – the pets have the fleas, so put them outside and the fleas will be gone. There is a slight flaw in that thinking – without pets in the house to jump onto, they will choose the next best thing – us! The better option is to apply a good flea control product, and keep the pets inside. As fleas emerge they will jump onto your pets and be killed.

7.  Treating the yard with insecticides should solve the problem.

Adult fleas are the main source of a flea problem. While they make up only 5% of the total flea population, it is the adults who lay eggs and continue the infestation. Only treating the environment might kill the eggs, larvae and pupae, but the adults will keep laying eggs and contaminating the environment. Treating you yard may be helpful, but it is only a small part of the solution.

8.  Once a flea problem is solved you can stop treating your pets.

If your pet has had a flea infestation before, chances are they will have it again. Fleas are present in your yard, neighbourhood, parks… basically anywhere an animal can get to, there will probably be fleas.All it takes is a couple of fleas to jump on and start laying eggs. Two weeks later there are several hundred fleas around and you have to start all over again.

Being informed is one of the best weapons in your flea control arsenal. Hopefully busting these false myths has helped you to understand your flea problem better and given you some ideas to help get rid of them.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

Photo: PóDeTalco

Technorati Tags: flea control, flea myths, flea treatment, misconceptions

There is a staggering number of different flea shampoos out there that claim to be effective against fleas. And that is probably true – most of these shampoos will contain an active ingredient that is toxic to adult fleas, and so will kill the fleas on your pet. However, none of these products will last longer than a couple of days maximum. So unless you plan on bathing your pet every other day, you will need to use something else to help control the fleas.

The problem is that excessive bathing will reduce the efficiency of any top-spot product that you use. All of these products are bound to the oils in your pet’s skin. Bathing your pet removes these oils, and the flea control product along with it. This is especially true for shampoos not specifically designed for pets’ skin, or those with harsh chemicals. Some flea shampoos will fall into either one of these (or both) categories.

If you have bathed your pet with any shampoo, you need to wait for the coat to be dry before application, otherwise your flea control product will not work properly. Another big no-no is to bath your pet within 48 hours of application. Doing this will wash off a large amount of product.

When it comes down to it, flea shampoos are really unneccesary. If you use a high quality flea control product like one of the ones I recommend, then you shouldn’t really need to use a flea shampoo at all.

If you really feel the need to wash your pet for fleas, or if your pet has another reason that it needs regular bathing, try to do it less than once a week. Any more frequent than this, and you are probably reducing the efficiency of your chosen flea control product.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/utahdarkhorse/3579825211/

Technorati Tags: flea remedies, flea shampoo, flea spray, flea treatments

When you are dealing with a flea problem, you need to have things pretty spot on (ha ha get it?). Even the smallest mistakes can end up costing you time, effort, money and flea bites. Here are some of the most common mistakes that people make when using flea control products:

1. Only treating your pet when you see fleas

Flea control is a lot like an iceberg. The fleas you see are only just the tip of the problem. If you only treat when you see fleas then you are going to be treating too infrequently. This will lead to treating your pet too infrequently. If you do this then some fleas will survive long enough to lay eggs and they will be able to continue their life cycle.

2. Only treating the animal who is itchy

Just like some people are more sensitive to mosquito bites, some pets are more sensitive to flea bites. Don’t be fooled into thinking that only the pet who is itchy has fleas. I guarantee you that any pets who live in the same area as the itchy one will have fleas as well.

3. Only treating during the summer time

It is true that fleas are more of a problem in summer than they are in winter. This is because the warm summer temperature means that they can reproduce quickly. And sure, fleas who are outside in the cold winter air may stuggle to survive. But almost every home is heated during the winter period. This means that the temperature inside your house is probably warm enough for fleas to live year round. Not treating during winter means fleas will slowly build up, and once spring hits their population numbers will seem to explode.

4. Stretching the interval between flea treatments

Everyone is tempted to extend their flea treatments just a little longer than the recommended monthly treatment. Flea control products aren’t cheap. Hoping to save a few dollars by spreading things out, sometimes we wait just a bit too long before giving our pet their required treatment. However, as it turns out, you will be costing yourself far more dollars and stress if you leave things too long and you get a breakout of flea infestation.

5. Forgetting a treatment

No one is perfect. Sometimes when we have everything else on our minds, our pet’s monthly dose of flea control manages to slip through the cracks. By the time you remember, it has been 7 weeks since their last flea treatment. Gaps like these allow fleas to complete their life cycle and continue to bother your pet. The easiest fix for this is to set yourself a reminder in your calendar on the first day of every month.

Untreated or infrequently treated pets can be the source of future re-infestations. Fleas that an untreated pet has will lay eggs that can infest any pet, including ones who are treated. Correct, timely application of flea control is essential if you want to win the battle on fleas.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtyerse/208109946/

Technorati Tags: errors, flea control, flea treatment

Is there a magic flea control pill out there somewhere?

Most of the flea control products that we commonly use have been around for some time, and they do a pretty good job. Elanco Animal Health has been a little late to the flea control party with their new product, comfortis, but this product looks to be a pretty big step up in flea control technology.

You might be thinking “What is the big deal? How is comfortis any different to any other flea control products?” Truth be told, there are other products out there that can do the same thing as comfortis. for example, capstar kills fleas as quickly as comfortis, and advantage lasts a similar amount of time. However, there isn’t really any one product that beats comfortis overall.

Comfortis is a tablet,  meaning that it can’t get washed off. This is also great for those of us who own dogs who get one sniff of a spot on treatment and run away to hide, which makes their monthly flea control a terrible ordeal.

Comfortis is effective. It has a fast kill rate, killing fleas in as little as 4 hours after administration. It continues to do this for an entire month. Studies done by Elanco while registering comfortis have shown that close to 100% of fleas were killed in only 2 months of use, without doing anything else. Talk about simple!

However, nothing is ever perfect. There are a few downsides to comfortis. For example, it has a fairly high rate of vomiting as a side effect of giving the pill (around 10% the first time they are given the pill). This can certainly be unpleasant for your pet and also for whoever has to clean it up! The good news is that the incidence of vomiting reduces with subsequent doses, so even if your pet vomits the first time, it may not do it when you give next month’s pill. Still, there is probably a certain percentage of dogs with delicate stomachs who will be unable to use this medication.

Using comfortis in pregnant dogs and young puppies is also out. Studies have shown some undesirable side effects in pregnant dogs and young puppies, and for this reason it is not recommended. So, if you have a pregnant or young dog with fleas, you will have to look elsewhere.

Use of comfortis in Epileptic dogs is discouraged as well. Testing of comfortis in a group of epileptic dogs ended up with 2 dogs having a seizure during the trial. While there is no direct evidence that comfortis was responsible, it is better to be safe rather than sorry, so it is not recommended.

Comfortis is safe to use with heartworm medications, vaccinations, and most other medications.

So, is Comfortis the new magic flea pill? As you might have guessed, there unfortunately is no such thing as a magic pill. However, Comfortis has some definite benefits, and is definitely worth a try if you are having flea troubles.

To a flea free pet!

Dr. Simon

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bohman/

Buy comfortis here

Technorati Tags: comfortis, comfortis flea, comfortis problems, comfortis reviews, comfortis side effects, side effects of comfortis

For anyone who is looking to get rid of fleas from your pet super fast, Capstar should be number one on the list of flea control products to buy. Today’s flea control product review is all about Capstar, a fast-acting and extremely effective flea killer.

How does it work?

Capstar is a fast-acting adulticide which starts working in as little as 30 minutes, and will kill all fleas that are on your pet within around 4 hours. It contains nitenpyram, which blocks the transmission of neural messages in the flea, causing almost instant death. It is an adulticide only, meaning that it doesn’t do anything to kill flea eggs or larvae. Capstar will remain effective for 24-48 hours.

Is it safe?

Capstar is safe fo use with other flea control products, as well as with heartworm prevention, antibiotics, vaccines and deworming medications. It is safe to use in puppies and kittens 4 weeks of age and older, as long as they weigh over 1kg. It is also safe to use in pregnant and nursing dogs and cats.

How to use it

If you are using an insect growth regulator for flea control (like Sentinel Spectrum), sometimes you can still get a flea burden on your pet when conditions promote large numbers of fleas. This doesn’t mean the product isn’t working – insect growth regulators prevent fleas from laying fertile eggs and don’t kill them indirectly. It just means that you need to use another product to kill the adults when they are present in large numbers on your pet. This is where Capstar comes in.

Capstar is generally used along with other flea control products as an integrated approach to flea control. It is commonly given to pets that are on Sentinel Spectrum during the summer period when they are likely to pick up large numbers of fleas, as Sentinel does not kill adult fleas, only flea eggs. In these circumstances it is usually given around once a week.

It is also commonly given to pets with a flea infestation the day before or on the day of starting other flea control products, to kill all of the adult fleas on the pet. This will help to prevent contamination of the environment with flea eggs.

Capstar can also be used as its own as a flea control product. Given every 48 hours, capstar is very effective at preventing flea bites on the pet. The only downside with using Capstar in this manner is that it is quite expensive to do this for a long period of time.

Overall, Capstar is a very safe and effective flea control product. It is generally not suitable to use long term on its own, due to the expense and the inconvenience of giving a tablet every 2 days to your pet. It is however quite good at killing fleas, and this makes it very handy to quickly reduce flea burdens in pets.

To a flea free pet,

Simon

Technorati Tags: capstar, flea control, flea pills, flea treatment

Flea control can be a frustrating job

Getting fleas under control can be a major headache. Sometimes it seems like no matter what you do or how many fleas you kill, there seems to an endless supply to replace them. If you are in this situation,  you really need to take a step back and make sure that you are covering all of the basics. Here are a tips:

1. Make sure you are using a high quality flea product.

Using a supermarket brand flea control product might save you a few dollars in the short term, but  in the long run you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Most of these products have had minimal testing to prove that they are effective in the field.

Trying to control fleas using flea collars or shampoo is also a bad idea, as these simply aren’t effective enough.

When you are dealing with a difficult flea problem, you need to make sure that you are  using something with a high level of proven effectiveness.  I would recommend choosing one of the following products: Frontline Plus, Advantage, Revolution, Comfortis, Capstar, Advantix or Advocate.

2. Treat every animal in your household (even if only one has fleas)

It can be tempting to treat only the animals in the household that you can find fleas on. Unfortunately, if you do this, then you are bound to fail. If there are fleas around, they will be present on every pet in the household.

This is especially true for cats. Cats are much more likely than dogs to go wandering to different places during the day. On their little trips, they are much more likely to pick up fleas. If your cats aren’t on flea control, then they will bring their fleas back home to share with the rest of the pets in the family.

To make sure that you prevent ongoing environmental infestation, you need to treat all animals in the household.

3. Block off access to high-risk areas

There are some areas around your home that are perfect breeding grounds for fleas. Moist, sandy, dark places where your pet hangs out offer everything a growing flea could ever want while growing up to be an adult flea. This means that there is a high percentage of flea eggs that survive to be adults. These then jump on your pet and perpetuate the cycle.

If your pet has access to the ground under your house, block it off. Just doing this one thing can sometimes be enough to tip the balance in your favour and get fleas under control again.

These few tips make a good starting point to get back in control of fleas at your house. If you have tried all of this, and are still struggling, tell me about your troubles in the comments and I will try to help you out.

To a flea-free pet!

Simon.

Technorati Tags: flea, flea control