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Fleas and Ticks

What Works Best for Minnesota Pests?

Minnesota Fleas and Ticks are a Big Problem without Proper Protection! Our Yorkie-poo Biwabik says, "Just say No to Ticks and Fleas!"

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Prevention = Protection

Fleas, ticks and mosquitos have the potential to spread diseases to your pets and other members of your family.

The best way to protect your household is providing your pet with veterinary quality treatment.

Monthly pest prevention, through out the year will prevent infestation and protect your family from the diseases parasites transmit.

Reported Infestion on the Rise

Despite availability of the finest tick and flea prevention technology available at Advanced Care Pet Hospital, tick and flea infestations in pets are increasing.

Monthly prevention is the easiest and least expensive approach to controlling lyme and heartworm disease in pets.

Advanced Care Pet Hospital can help you understand how parasite transmitted disease can be prevented. Education is important. As a pet owner you need to understand how to protect your family.

Warm Weather and Parasites

Say what you will about global warming, evidence suggests ticks and fleas are enjoying a longer growing season here in central Minnesota.

Weather trends favor a longer growing season for all parasites, including fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. The weather isn't the only cause. Pet owners have cut back on on buying and using parasite prevention products.

Expect Parasites Early This Year

Warm Winter Means Protect Pets Sooner

Ticks, Fleas and mosquitoes all benefit from a longer, warmer growing season. While mosquitoes suffer during a hard frost, ticks and fleas can survive a few hard frosts and can survive under an insulating blanket of snow for a while.

Getting pet owners to understand the logic in consistently applying a monthly preventive—is part of the plan in helping clients make the right choices in flea and tick control. Few people realize there is a huge uptick (pun intended) or increase in parasite population in the late fall.

This map released by the Yale School of Public Health on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 shows a map which indicates areas of the United States where people have the highest risk of contracting Lyme disease based on data from 2004-2007. Researchers dragged sheets of fabric through the woods to snag ticks for the survey. The map shows a clear risk across much of the Northeast. Researchers at also identified a high-risk region across most of Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and a sliver of northern Illinois. Areas highlighted as "emerging risk" regions include central Minnesota, southwestern Michigan and eastern North Dakota. (AP Graphic/Yale School of Public Health, Maria Diuk-Wasser)

Northern MN is bad and central MN is catching up. Advanced Care Pet Hospital treated 35 dogs with Lyme disease in 2010 and 31 in 2011.

Why are lyme cases among dogs so high? Three reasons were frequently cited by pet owners. First, they received little to no education about tick borne diseases prior to coming to Advanced Care Pet Hospital. Second, they only applied tick prevention in traditional hot summer months and finally many folks cited they didn't have ticks in their yard.

Lyme Disease risk for dogs is higher than for humans as they are running down low among the grasses and undercover where the ticks are, ticks can be hard to spot under fur and pets can't easily identify and pick off the ticks themselves.

Fleas

Fleas are a nuisance to their hosts, causing an itching sensation which in turn may result in the pet attempting to remove the pest by biting, pecking, scratching, etc. in the vicinity of the parasite.

In addition to being an annoyance, both people and animals suffer allergic reactions to flea saliva resulting in rashes. Flea bites generally result in the formation of a slightly raised, swollen itching spot with a single puncture point at the center (similar to a mosquito bite).

Bites can remain itchy and inflamed for up to several weeks. Fleas can also lead to hair loss as a result of frequent scratching and biting by the animal, and can cause anemia in extreme cases.

Besides problems posed by the creature itself, fleas can also act as a vector for disease. A vector is any carrier that transmits disease from one host to another. Fleas and ticks are examples of vectors.

Though flea-killing chemicals may vary from the active agents used to kill ticks, most products advertising that they eliminate fleas will stymie a tick infestation. This makes life simpler for the client to understand but owners need to understand the miniature world of larva, pupa and adults inside their homes.

Fleas can lay 40 to 50 eggs a day, and they drop in the carpet and spread anywhere the pet goes. One might treat fleas once and they go away for a while, but the effect does not last forever. Treatment must be continued to get rid of the entire infestation.

Longer Life Cycles

Environmental experts say winters are less severe, warm seasons last longer, meaning states like Minnesota have a greater problem with fleas and ticks. Given climate conditions it is advisable to suggest year-round flea and tick to keep parasitic infestations in check.

Owners who have pets with a flea or tick problem want to blame someone for the infestation. They have been using a product to handle the problem, but they sometimes find fleas are still around and they conclude the product isn’t working. Clients tend to have a perception that ‘poof!’—fleas miraculously go away, not realizing new fleas are emerging from the environment.

Since veterinarians typically encounter the client and patient once an animal has fleas, being prepared to educate clients about why they see a flea or tick after treatment with a veterinary-recommended agent is a starting point, some practitioners say. Clients may not understand the life cycle of the parasites and expect a monthly topical to be the cure-all.

Manufacturers continue to study products for effectiveness, and findings show that they are as effective today as they were when they were placed on the market more than a decade ago. “There is no product that will instantly kill every flea.”

Many consumers lack awareness as to fleas’ and ticks’ ability to live off the pet.

“They also underestimate the zoonotic disease potential of letting these infestations go untreated.”

Core Pet Care

The economic downturn has many people redirecting their spending. It is difficult to persuade clients to invest in products they may not see an immediate need for.

The public don’t always think of flea and tick control as important for their family's health. Prevention is a core part of general pet care.

In addition to simply preventing parasites themselves, dogs on consistent flea preventives have far less incidence of flea related allergies than those who are intermittently treated.

Owners of allergy-prone animals should be aware of the potential elimination of secondary bacterial infections and allergic reactions in animals with flea allergies when they comply with the recommended monthly applications.

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