FLEAS
Every cat and dog will come into contact with fleas at some point
in their life and can quickly become infested. Fleas breed incredibly
quickly and just one flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day in your home
and can lay 1500 eggs in its lifetime. This can rapidly result in
a very heavy infestation both on your pet and in your home.
For every five fleas on your pet there could be ninety-five in your
home but they can often be very difficult to detect and most often
it will be flea dirt that you will see on your pet. These are small
black specks on your pets’ skin which turn red when in contact
with damp cotton wool. If you are unsure if your pet has fleas please
contact the surgery and make an appointment with one of our nurses
for a free flea check.
Once your pet has fleas both it and your house will need to be treated
with suitable products to provide effective control of the flea infestation.
However, prevention is much easier than cure and the use of a recommended
spot-on treatment from the surgery is the most effective way to do
this.
TICKS
Ticks are often very difficult to detect on your pet as when they
first attach themselves they can be very small. They appear as a small
greyish lump on your pets skin and as they gorge themselves on your
pets’ blood they swell to coffee bean size. Their mouth parts
are buried under your pets skin and can be difficult to remove. Simply
pulling the tick off will result in the mouth parts being left behind
and can often cause nasty sores or infections.
If you find a tick on your pet do not ignore it as ticks in the U.K.
can carry Lyme Disease so please contact the surgery to have it removed
or to collect a suitable product to control them.