March 14, 2022 Sales WVF

Itchy Scratchy - Flea & Tick Season

With the weather warming up and the drier weather coming (hopefully!) it’s soon becoming the season where fleas and ticks thrive. But where do they come from? Did you know that the majority of fleas on our pets are in fact cat fleas? Fleas like to live in sheltered, warm areas, including dense vegetation & outdoor kennels. Cats especially, can also catch fleas from other animals whilst hunting, such as mice & birds. Unfortunately, our homes make perfect living conditions for fleas too.

The Circle Of Life

Flea eggs are small, roughly the size of a grain of sand, and white in colour. The adult flea will lay her eggs once she has had a blood meal from the host. Eggs are laid in the pets hair in bunches. Flea Larvae are up to ¼ inch long and are white in colour. They feed from organic debris in the environment and flea dirt from adult fleas. The pupae have a sticky coating which enables them to attach deep within their environment (in cracks or deep in carpet fibres). It also makes them difficult to remove by hoovering or sweeping. Adult fleas have a flat body and are dark in colour (brown/black). Newly emerged fleas are very small and will get larger the older they get. Once emerged, the flea will immediately begin to search for a host. The emergence can be triggered by the carbon dioxide a host emits, or even the vibration of movement in the environment. After their first feed, adult females can start breeding within a few days. An adult flea can live anywhere from 2 weeks to several months in ideal conditions.

Targeting fleas on our pets only gets rid of a small percentage of the problem as adult fleas only make up 5% of the flea population. Treating the home at the same time is vital in eliminating them. Hoovering regularly will help to remove fleas, eggs & larvae from the environment. Targeting areas that are ideal for fleas- under furniture, around skirting boards etc. The use of household sprays and foggers can also be effective in removing them from your home. Wash your pets bedding (and yours!) on a hot wash to eliminate fleas, eggs, and pupae from those areas.

There are a few options when it comes to treating your pet. You can apply a spot-on treatment which can be prescribed in store from one of our Registered Animal Medicines Advisors. There are also tablets and shampoos on the market that can be used too. You can also use a flea comb to manually remove fleas from your pet’s coat. Flea bites can become more than an annoying nuisance. What starts out as a simple itch can lead to a wide range of skin conditions, diseases or other parasitic infections, including: flea allergy dermatitis, flea anaemia, or tapeworm.

Ticks - Prevention is better than treatment!

Tackle them head on- The UK’s most common species of tick is the Sheep Tick. This is the species that you are most likely to come across on your pet. The life-cycle of the tick usually begins in the spring. As the ground becomes warmer, ticks will start to become more active. The tick’s life-cycle has three stages, and they can live up to four years in ideal conditions.

The female will lay eggs on the grass, and then the larvae will hatch once the weather warms up in the spring. The larvae will then seek out a small host and feed for several days. When full, they will detach themselves and head back into the undergrowth. This is when they will undergo their first moult.

Unlike fleas, when ticks hatch they do not look like typical larvae, they are instead ‘nymphs’ which means in appearance they look like smaller versions of adults, growing larger with each moult (shedding).

After the first moult, they begin to seek larger hosts such as rabbits and hedgehogs, again falling off after a feed, then moulting to begin the next life stage as adults. Adult ticks are much easier to see and can be as large as a coffee bean once engorged! This stage is also where they will begin mating and so the life-cycle starts again.

Treatment

Pets can pick up ticks wherever they go. Ticks tend to wait on vegetation for a passing animal to cling on to, they can be found anywhere from the countryside, gardens & parks. Their numbers are higher in the warmer months, but your pet can pick them up at any point in the year.

Ticks can latch on to any part of the animal, but the most common areas are around the abdomen and around the ears and head area, so be sure to pay extra attention to these areas when looking for ticks.

There are a few options for treating them, you can either remove them by hand with the use of specialised tick tweezers or use a spot on treatment to kill or prevent infection. Always be careful if using tweezers as sometimes the mouth parts from the tick can be left behind, this can then cause an infection and abscesses if you are not careful.

Ticks can carry diseases such as Lyme Disease & Babeosis which can be fatal to dogs, so it’s important that they are removed quickly!

All in all, prevention is better than treatment when it comes to fleas and ticks. If you would like some more information please come in and speak to one of our Registered Animal Medicine Advisors to come up with a suitable plan for you and your pet.