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News 2010-02-17 FLEAS all you need to know................. FLEAS, FLEAS and more fleas…………..
The life cycle of the flea….. On average, fleas live between 2 and 3 months. Every flea has the ability to produce 2 000 eggs in her life time. The cycle starts with the flea then her eggs, larvae and pupae. The eggs hatch, become larvae, the larvae feed from debris in the environment, and then they pupate. The pupae is very resistant to freezing, desiccation your usual insecticides and insect development inhibitors. Your new young adult flea emerges. The Adult flea jumps onto your pet, and the entire life cycle is repeated. The cycle of the flea can be from as little as 17 days or as long as 2 years depending on the environmental factors. Flea allergy is often the cause of your pet scratching and biting itself. Has your pet got fleas? Check at the base of your dog’s tail, if you find little black spots on your pet, you have fleas. If this is allowed to continue – your pet may develop broken skin, and loss of hair, this will also allow your pet to possibly develop a secondary bacterial infection. Some humans also develop an allergic reaction to flea bites . HOW do you sort the problem? Keep your pet/s protected at all times against fleas and ticks. The flea takes the problems it can cause one step further – it is the immediate host of the flea tapeworm, which can infect both you and your pet. Has your dog got tapeworm? Check on a regular basis for any sign of rice like granules around the anus of your pet. If this is present, well then you need to deworm, and not only once. Here again you have the life cycle of the tapeworm. Tapeworm will not and cannot be wiped out with one deworming. You have the worm itself, plus the eggs etc. Repeated deworming is necessary to rid your pet of tapeworm. Do you have other pets? If so, ALL need to be dewormed and treated for fleas. How do you overcome this? Keep your pet/s protected at all times against fleas and ticks. We now come to the important part – choice of flea and pet protection and deworming. Products and there are a number for fleas and tick protection. FRONTLINE – used by Mijoy and has been used for many many years. Allowing us peace of mind that our pets are fully protected at all times. There are other brands available from your trusted vet. Advantix, Prac-tic, and Programme. More than likely there are others. Please remember you cannot use treatments for dogs on cats. You will end up poisoning your cat and in most cases killing it. There are similar products for cats on the market, again available from your vet. Deworming, again you need one that treats for tapeworm, NOT all dewormers kill tapeworm. Ask your vet, Nemex for eg, is used on young pups and does not treat tapeworm, however, it you have pets with fleas, good chance, that young pup has tapeworm. Speak to your vet. REMEMBER continually change the make of your dewormer. This is a very important tip. Dogs can become immune to the use of the same make of dewormer. You are deworming religiously and your pup/dog still has tapeworm, or most worms for that matter. ALL pups and dogs are dewormed and regularly, even if they have no worms. It forms part of a programme to ensure optimal health in your pet. Deworming and continual treatments to combat flea and tick infestation is a must. The tremendous rains we have had recently have encouraged the flea population to increase drastically. Our winters in a lot of the regions are nowhere near as cold as in previous years – also resulting in fleas and ticks being obvious in our winter months. My advice – treat all year round. Anyone wanting any further info on your own individual situation, you may contact us with pleasure, but your vet should be the one to advise you – of your plan of action. He should know your own personal situation.
A mail from one of my future puppy buyers ……. Received last week…..
Hi Joyce I need some advice and I really hope you can help me.
Suddenly, this year we have a huge infestation of fleas in our yard. My Persian
cat Midnight Tiger and baby Mickey are full of fleas, frontline, advantage etc
only works about 2 weeks before they are full of fleas again. I bath them with
shampoo killing fleas, then comb out fleas and eggs, after 2 days apply the
frontline, then comb them again with flea comb. but after 2 weeks they are full
of fleas again. I don't think it is safe to repeat the frontline treatment after
just two weeks. We have sprayed the yard also, but I think the fleas are coming
from neighbors. Can you please help me, as I am at wits end with these fleas.
My Mickey really has a hard time, scratching all the time. Please help me. I
don't want to use a dip - I cannot imagine that it will be safe for such a tiny
yorkie, or any yorkie for that matter. They are just too fragile. I will do
anything to help Mickey. Please Joyce, I really really hope that you can help
me. I answered Shanri directly and suggested she check her dosages, I have never had a problem with Frontline personally, but I did overhear someone at the vet complaining, it was not doing the job. The lady concerned was not using it properly. Frontline is used at Mijoy from day one with our newborn pups. NOT because we have fleas, but because we want to ensure, our dogs never have fleas. We reside on a Small Holding, and have no shortage of ticks, we cannot afford to get Billiary (Tick Bite Fever – in humans) in our small Yorkies. It could be fatal. Rather safe than sorry. This article as are all our articles and information is copyright to Mijoy Yorkies & Biewer Yorkies. No form of copying is allowed
be it in part or total. If you should be looking for info for your own use,
kindly use the INTERNET as your means.
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