I have just taken on a three-year-old Cocker Spaniel whose previous owners couldn't look after her any longer. However, over the past few days she has been scratching constantly and I am worried she may have fleas. How do I know if she has been infested and can anyone recommend a product to get rid of them? Her previous owners had two cats. Could she have picked them up from them and how do I prevent them from returning?
Claire Tolliver
You will need to use a spot-on treatment from your vet to clear the initial infestation from your dog, but once she is clear you should prevent the fleas from returning. We give each of our dogs a 2mg garlic capsule every day and haven't seen a flea for 14 years. Garlic also keeps ticks at bay and is good for the heart.
Bill Knight, Dogs Today Advisor
Hopefully, you will have treated your dog by the time you read this and all will be well. The only advice I would like to add is to ensure that the flea product you have used will also break the life-cycle of the flea in the environment. Otherwise, you will find that your dog may well become re-infested from your own home, even after the short time she has spent in it. A flea only spends 5% of its life on a dog! If there is not a claim on the product you have used for being effective in the environment (by which I mean the house, car, caravan, garage, shed, tree-house, and so on, if there is a real problem!), then you will need to treat the environment separately, and do ensure that what you use will kill all stages of the flea’s life cycle and not just the adults. If you are not sure, then do ask at your veterinary practice for advice.
It is also worth remembering that your dog is not the only way for fleas to be introduced into a house, and I am not just thinking of cats! I have to confess that I have often inadvertently brought fleas home with me after seeing a dog or cat with fleas at the practice. We can carry the eggs under our shoes as well. Estate agents are the commonly cited example: on walking into a house which has been empty for a long time, apparently the fleas can be heard hatching out! Some form of routine flea control is therefore often needed, although the risks are greatly reduced if you do not have a cat.
Owners with house cats, ie the cats never leave the house, will often not treat for fleas in the mistaken belief that there is no way their cat can pick up fleas. It takes some explaining when a routine run through the fur with a flea comb yields live fleas, or flea dirts. Unless the household is a truly closed community, with none of the inhabitants (two- and four-legged) having any contact at all with the outside world, then flea control will still be needed, albeit less stringently than if the cats were roaming at will outside. After all, the human occupants will still be going about their daily business, visiting friends, going to work, and so on.
If your dog is still scratching after thorough flea treatment, it would be worth running a flea comb through her coat. Flea dirts look like black commas, and dissolve in water leaving a tell-tale red trace. If there are none, then she may simply be going through a heavy moult, or the temperature of your house may be warmer than in her previous home.
If she is still scratching for no reason you can fathom, then a visit to your veterinary surgeon is warranted. It will be useful for your dog to have a health check anyway, having just taken her in, to ensure that she is fit and well.
Alison Logan, vet
You need to get 'Spot On' from the vet and put it on the back of the neck. do this once a month and you will not have fleas or ear mites (somtimes sufferd by cockers becouse of the long ear hair)
ReplyDeleteTo check for fleas you can either use my mum's method, have a lovely cuddle and stroke the dog while inspecting the fur closely, watching out for the little leapers. Or you can dampen a white piece of paper and comb the fur towards the paper, which is my preferred method. You should get lots of little bits of dirt etc sticking to the paper. If you get red/orange bits, that's flea dirts and she has fleas. I use the spot on treatments from the vets, which have various different names, but the most well known seem to be Frontline and Advocate.
ReplyDeleteIf your Cocker has fleas, only 5% of this flea population (the adults) will be living on your pet i.e. unfortunately the remaining 95% (the immature stages)are in your carpets, soft furnishings etc! Depending on how long your dog has had fleas, it may therefore be necessary to treat your house too (to kill immature fleas) if you want to get the situation under control quickly. Otherwise, newly emerged adult fleas from your pet's environment will continue to reinvest it. If you regularly apply a 'spot-on' flea treatment (as recommended by the manufacturer), fleas which jump onto your dog will always be killed. However, if you do not treat your house too, it can appear as if treatment is NOT working initially, because of the constant supply of 'new' fleas from the environment. Your vet's practice can supply you with effective products for both your dog and your house.
ReplyDeleteWe have just put together a site that sends you spot on flea treatment to your door each month and worming treatment every quarter, it might be something you are interested in. We would also appreciate any feedback you have about the site. Thanks
ReplyDelete