Saturday, 19 September 2009 02:06

Dog Health Problems - External Parasites and Their Treatments

WHAT IS A PARASITE?

External parasites are pretty basic among dogs. A parasite is an organism that lives off the resources your dog has to offer: namely, fresh blood (which most parasites drink) and a warm place to stay (in and on the skin and fur).

There are a wide range of parasites that affect dogs:
- Fleas
- Ticks
- Mites
- Lice

All of these parasites have adverse reactions in your dog: generally, itching and inflamed skin, a dull coat, and bald spots. In advanced cases, your dog could get anemia (blood loss) and become typically debilitated (particularly whenever he or she's really young, very older, or suffering from a different condition).
Also this, a lot of parasites convey secondary and internal parasites to your dog – for example, fleas typically carry the basic tapeworm (which causes constipation and flatulence), and ticks can cause a variety of much more serious problems similar Lyme’s disease and paralysis.

I am attending be looking at fleas: what they are, how to tell whenever your dog’s affected, and how to get rid of them.

A CLOSER LOOK AT FLEAS

Fleas are without question the number 1 basic external parasite affecting dogs. They are little, jumping insects that are light brown in color, although humans normally can’t see them – they move much too rapidly for that!

Fleas live off your dog’s blood. The life cycle of a flea moves very quickly from stage one (egg) to stage 4 (adult flea), which means they are capable of multiplying with staggering rapidity.

An adult flea lays 100s of eggs per day. Each egg will then become an adult flea, which lay hundreds more eggs of its own. One flea becomes a major problem very quickly!

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR DOG HAS FLEAS

The symptoms of a flea infestation are unmistakable.

A dog with a flea infestation will scratch almost constantly, frequently at areas that fleas seem to favor: the ears, the base of the tail, the belly, and the stifle (the webbing of soft skin between the thigh and the abdomen).

It’s really the saliva of the flea that causes the irritation, not the bite itself, and some dogs cause a genuine allergy to this saliva (as opposed to a standard irritation). Dogs with allergies suffer much more significant negative responses to a flea infestation, and generally develop “hot spots”.

These hot spots are areas of sore, inflamed, flaking, bleeding, and infected skin, caused by the flea saliva and your dog’s own reaction to it. Bald patches will sometimes develop too, from repeated scratching and ongoing inflammation.

Whenever you think your dog has fleas, you can confirm your suspicions by taking a closer look at his skin: you probably will not be able to see the fleas themselves, but you had better be able to see what looks like ground pepper (a thin sprinkling of fine black grains) on his skin. This is flea dirt (poop).

If you groom him with a flea comb (which is like a fine-tooth comb), try wiping it with a paper towel: if red blotches show up on the towel, you experience that your dog has fleas (on a white background like a paper towel, flea poop shows up red: since fleas subsist on blood, their poop is colored accordingly).

TREATMENT FOR FLEAS

Because fleas only spend a small amount of time actually on your dog, and the rest of their time leaping through your house laying eggs and feeding on human blood, it is not enough to but treat the dog: you as well have to target his bedding, the entire house, all somebody bedding, and the yard (yes, fleas lay eggs all through the yard, too. Even if it’s cold outside, you’re not necessarily off the hook: cold weather doesn’t kill flea eggs, it but puts them into a state of hibernation. The eggs will hatch as soon as it gets warm enough outside.)

You will need a broad-spectrum treatment which kills not only the adult fleas (which are the ones that bite), just as well whatever developing fleas, and the eggs.

PREVENTION IS THE BEST

Prevention is definitely the best cure – you should keep your dog’s flea treatments up to date with the use of a calendar, and use a treatment that’s prescribed by the vet. Off-the-shelf handlings aren’t suggested, since different dogs demand another strengths depending on their size, age, and activity levels. A particular benefit of prescribed flea treatment is that most are also designed to prevent other parasites (like mites, ticks, and heartworm) from affecting your dog.

FOR AN EXISTING INFESTATION

If your dog already has fleas, you have two options:

1. You can ‘bomb’ the house and yard with a flea-pesticide. These come as foggers (which coat each room, and the yard, in a fine mist of pesticide) and sprays (which are applied manually to each surface throughout the house and yard), and although they are really effective in killing fleas and eggs, there is one and only major drawback: they are extremely toxic to humans, dogs, and the environment. Depending on your priorities, this is probably the fastest answer to a flea problem (and will effectively wipe out the eggs, too) but if you have anyone in the home with allergies or a health condition – including pets! – you could want to think again.

2. A a lot of health-friendly alternate is to target the dog with a topical anti-flea solution prescribed by the vet (like Advantage or Revolution), and to rigorously clean the house on a regular basis until the flea problem has gone. These means vacuuming each room thoroughly each day – put a flea collar in with the vacuum bag to kill any fleas that get sucked up – and wash all human and dog bedding in hot water as often as you can (once daily or every 2 days is suggested). You will be able to tell when the problem’s gone because your dog won’t be scratching, and his coat will be clear of flea dirt when you inspect it.

WHAT NOT TO DO ABOUT FLEAS

- Do not use multiple products on your dog – it will make him be sick, since you will be overloading his system with toxins.
- Do not forget to treat all the animals in the home at the same time: cat and dog fleas are interchangeable, and if one animal has fleas, they all will have them, even if some are not displaying the symptoms.
- Flea collars are no more suggested as a safe alternative for flea prevention, since the collars are extremely toxic – vets have realized that placing a toxic material directly against your pet’s skin for long periods of time (flea collars have to be worn twenty-four/7 to be effective) is detrimental to your dog’s health.