Fleas

Fleas are parasites that your animal can pick up from other cats or dogs or from environments where other cats and dogs have been. Once your animal has them, fleas can breed quickly, and their eggs may survive in the environment for 6 months or more. A few fleas can turn into many fleas very quickly. If a cat or dog has a lot of fleas, it may become anemic through blood loss. The animal will usually chew, lick, or scratch, causing damage to their skin and hair. An allergy to flea saliva may develop over time, creating an itch far worse than that caused by a flea bite, leading to hair loss and skin inflammation along the back and around the tail base.

Most modern flea preventatives also cover ticks, so at GVH we recommend you use one that covers both fleas and ticks, many preventatives protect against worms also.

Do I treat all animals in the household?

Yes! All cats and dogs in a household should be treated against fleas and continued all year round. You may not see fleas on your pet because they groom themselves well and can keep the flea numbers low, however each flea can produce up to 40-50 eggs per day. Even a single flea on your pet will contaminate the property and fleas will continue developing.

Where do the fleas come from?

Although dogs and cats do pick up “hitch hiker fleas” when they go for walks, most of the fleas come from your own property where the animal lies or digs etc. At least 95% of fleas are the juvenile forms and are not actually on the animal. The eggs are very slippery and fall out of the coat readily; they then hatch to larvae, and then pupate and then hatch to adults who jump back onto the animal.

Which flea products do we recommend?

For Cats we recommend using a combination product that protects against fleas, ticks, and worms such as NexGard for cats (a monthly spot-on), Bravecto Plus for cats (a 2 monthly spot-on) or Revolution Plus for cats (a monthly spot-on). Please ask our friendly Team to help recommend a product that is best for your pet.

For Dogs we recommend a combination product that covers fleas, ticks, and worms. Simparica Trio (a monthly chew) Bravecto (a 3 monthly chew OR 2 monthly during tick season- note a separate wormer and heartworm treatment needs to be given with this) NexGard Spectra (a monthly chew)  Bravecto spot on is slightly less effective against ticks, so we only recommend this if your dog is difficult to tablet.

Capstar

A tablet that kills adult fleas on your pet in about 20 minutes. It can be especially useful in situations of high flea burden when you follow up with one of the above products. 

Speak to one of our friendly staff about the best flea, tick and worming prevention or treatment for your pet.