dog fleas

How to keep fleas and ticks away from your puppy

Dog fleas and ticks can pass on diseases and make life hell for your puppy.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do to protect your puppy from these creatures and rid your home and environment of them.

Why do I need to control dog fleas?
Dogs and fleas - they just seem to go together, don't they?
They don't have to!
Fleas might be tiny - so tiny they're very hard to see - but their nasty habits can be a huge problem for both you and your puppy.
If a puppy gets a very bad infestation of fleas, it could lead to anaemia which could make your puppy very sick or even kill him.
Dog fleas spread tapeworms and can cause serious skin irritations.
Some dogs are even allergic to flea bites.
So it's an important part of new puppy care to control dog fleas.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do nowadays to rid your dog of fleas.

How does my dog get fleas?
The flea life cycle has four stages.
Flea eggs are laid on the dog but they don't stick to the hair. Instead they fall off and hatch into larvae in 1 to 10 days. The flea eggs can hatch anywhere: the dog's bed, between floorboards, in the carpet, on the ground.
The larvae feed on any organic material in their environment and also on the droppings of adult fleas. They are very sensitive to dryness, however, and they need an area that is shaded and fairly moist to survive. The more hot and humid the environment, the more likely the larvae are to thrive; the drier and cooler the environment, the less likely they are to survive.
If you live in a dry, sunny area, you may be lucky enough to avoid major dog flea infestations.

You'll still need to be vigilant though as dog fleas can be very persistent once they find even just a small part of your environment to their liking.
Outdoors, the flea larvae survive best where it is shaded and moist and where flea-infested pets spend most of their time. This means there will be lots of adult flea droppings around for the larvae to feed on.
Indoors, the larvae will prefer carpet or cracks in floors.
The larvae move onto the next stage of development in about 5 to 11 days. This is the pupa, which lives in a sticky cocoon. They generally stay in this state for about 5 to 10 days before becoming adult fleas. While the flea is in the cocoon, it is resistant to insecticides.
The adult flea, once it has emerged from the cocoon, needs to quickly find a host because it must have a meal of blood within a few days to survive. The flea now seeks light - unlike when it was in the larval stage - and it travels up to the top of the carpet or grass stalks to seek a host. A passing dog or cat will do very nicely!
After its first blood meal, the female flea begins egg production and she can produce thousands of eggs over the next 100 days.
The entire life cycle of the dog flea - from egg to adult - can be completed in only 7 to 21 days if the temperature and humidity are right.

  How can I tell if my dog has fleas?
It's easy to find fleas on your dog's skin if there is a heavy infestation - just part the hair or look on the dog's belly and you'll find them.
Dogs don't always scratch when they have fleas. This is because it's not the flea bite that annoys the dog but the flea's saliva.

Many dogs are sensitive to flea saliva, however, and will scratch constantly.
If you suspect a lighter infestation, try checking the base of the tail where it joins the back.
Otherwise, you may find the flea's droppings ('flea dirt'). Flea dirt is tiny and looks rather like pepper grains on the dog's skin.

How do I get rid of fleas?
Fortunately, there are a large number of products you can use to treat flea infestations on your dog.
Unfortunately, many of them are only effective for a few hours, most only work against adult fleas (not the eggs or larvae waiting to come out of the environment) and many contain strong chemicals that may be bad for your dog's health in the long run.
So what can you do?
Flea shampoos and powders can be useful if your dog has picked up fleas somewhere else and you are able to quickly bathe him before the fleas have a chance to drop their eggs into the environment. As the female flea is producing eggs more or less constantly however, you will be lucky to eliminate all the adult fleas on the dog before any eggs drop off to hatch in some dark, moist part of your house or garden.
You might find your dog covered in dog fleas within hours of his bath!
The best treatments are sprays, tablets or 'spot on' preparations that contain growth regulators. These kill the eggs and larvae as well as the adult flea. 'Spot on' treatments are simply dabbed onto the dog's coat. Many of these preparations only need to be applied weekly or monthly.
Many of the better quality products will help to keep your dog free of ticks as well. Ticks are nasty blood-sucking parasites that can spread a number of diseases. In Australia, one type of tick found on the east coast can cause paralysis.
Puppies can be treated for fleas as early as 6-8 weeks of age if there are fleas in the area.
Speak to your vet about the best way to treat fleas in your area.
Get rid of fleas in your environment
To be really sure of controlling fleas on your dog, you need to get rid of the fleas in your environment.
Remember that you'll probably never see the fleas that are living in your dog's environment but, if your dog has fleas, they will be there - outside in the grass where the dog likes to lie, in and around his bed, and anywhere else he spends his time.
The first step is to keep the area where the dog spends his time and sleeps as clean as possible. If inside, vacuum the area thoroughly and immediately empty the vacuum cleaner into an outside bin.
Wash any bedding frequently and hang to dry in sunlight.
You can use sprays that kill eggs and larvae or you may even need to have the house professionally fumigated.
But please be careful when using these products: most of them contain powerful chemicals that can cause ill health to both you and your dog if you don't use them properly.
A solution can be to wait, if possible, until you go on holiday. Then spray or fumigate just before you go - by the time you get back the spray has done its work and the effects should have disappeared.

Dog fleas can make your dog's life hell and can pass on diseases or other parasites, such as tapeworms.

Controlling fleas is an important for good dog health care so don't delay - get started on getting rid of those nasty dog fleas