How To Get Rid Of Fleas | Vet Tips

hey everyone I'm Dr Kirsten a veterinarian here at many pets and if you are listening to this I'm sorry because that probably mean that your pet has fleas in this video we're going to talk about how to get rid of them and most importantly how to prevent them and keep them from coming back most importantly I want to say a one and done approach is not going to work in these scenarios treating and actively infestation is going to take time and consistency and addressing both the pets in the house and the house itself stage one let's kill the active fleas that are currently on your pet there are many ways that we can do this and lots of products across the market some may come in a tablet form and some may come in a spot on form the tablet form may start killing as soon as 30 minutes after Administration whereas some of our spot on therapies that are also made for prevention can actively kill fleas starting at a few hours after application whichever treatment you choose it's important that we use this for a minimum of three months it takes consistency to break up that flea life cycle and to kill off eggs and other life stages in the house that might be present when we talk about these products we also can use the term preventative and we will talk more about that later there are specific treatments out on the market that are made for cats and specific treatments that are made for dogs so it is extremely important that you choose the treatment for the correct species and follow the directions for application and dosing on the package killing those adult fleas is just the first part of the battle here is some of my top tips for winning the war on fleas All Pets in the house need to be treated not just the one that seems to be affected in fact all of those pets should be treated monthly year-round including indoor cats because they are still at risk another important tip is do not split doses between pets those are made to specifically treat a certain Pet's body weight so make sure you pick the right one for your pet's weight and give the entire dose my next tip is also our next stage which is treating your home this is just as important as treating the animal that has the fleas now we have to remember when it comes to the flea life cycle that there are multiple stages a female adult flea can lay up to 40 eggs in one day and so over the course of a few weeks that can turn into a lot of fleas we go from an egg to a larva to a pupa and then an adult now that pupa stage is very resistant to things like temperature and weather so they like to set up shop in your carpet and hatch later to produce more fleas in your home the best things that you can do to treat your home will include vacuuming all hard surfaces and carpeted areas washing bedding and blankets that you or your animals use and also considering something like a house safe insecticide spray there are lots of products out there on the market one of the ones that I like to recommend because I've had clients have good success with it is indirect made by verbac you can spray it on anything upholstered and it will help prevent and kill multiple stages of the flea life cycle once you've beaten your infestation we are on to the next stage which is prevention when we talk about flea prevention not only are they gross itchy and a nuisance it's also important because fleas can transmit and cause certain diseases in our pets some pets may be overly sensitive to flea bites they are actually allergic to the flea saliva and these pets experience what we call flea allergy dermatitis or fad these pets can become so itchy that they will lick chew and scratch themselves to the point of redness hair loss and even infection and they can be really uncomfortable fleas can also transmit the tapeworm called dipolidium so when a pet ingests the flea that contains the tapeworm egg they can then become infected with the tapeworm your vet will also often recommend treatment for tapeworms when they know that you have an active flea infestation finally let's talk money treating pets for an active flea infestation or even pets that have something like flea allergy dermatitis can become extremely costly for owners which is why we are often saying prevention is going to be easier than treatment for all of these reasons we've talked about this is why we as veterinarians recommend regular parasite prevention especially in areas with mild weather this means monthly year round to hopefully avoid things like disease and itchy unhappy pets I hope you found this video helpful for more information check out the article on our website on fleas