Some parasites can be very harmful to your pet and prove costly and inconvenient for you. That’s why we’re here to help protect your pet, family and home from creepy crawlies inside and out!
YOUR PET'S HEALTH AND PARASITE MANAGEMENT – DID YOU KNOW?
- A female flea can lay up to 50 eggs a day, which can be up to 5,000 in her lifetime.
- Fleas can cause anaemia in your pet. Because fleas live on the animal and eat blood to survive.
- Fleas love humidity, when something warm, like your pet, moves by a flea pupae, they unzip their cocoon and jump on the animal. All this happens in 3 seconds and the flea can jump as high as 1.2 metres.
- Paralysis ticks are external parasites that suck the blood from their host animal. It's the tick's salivary glands that produce the toxin, which affects the host's nervous system.
WHAT ARE TICKS?
Ticks are parasites from the arachnid (eight-legged) family that once attached to your pet, begin to feed by burying their mouthparts under your pet's skin and sucking blood back into their bodies.
Unfed ticks are tiny and can be various shades of black, brown, red or tan. After attachment and feeding, they swell to the size of a pea and start producing a potent toxin that affects the pet's central nervous system and causes progressive paralysis and possibly death. Not all ticks cause paralysis (only the paralysis tick)
All ticks can have many adverse health effects on dogs and cats.
The ticks of greatest concern in Australia are paralysis ticks. You can help your pet avoid tick poisoning and a potentially costly visit to the vet (or death) with daily inspections and regular treatments.
SIGNS YOUR CAT OR DOG HAS TICK PARALYSIS
Ticks are usually found around the pet's head and neck areas. Signs that your pet may be suffering from tick paralysis include:
- Lack of or diminishing movement in the back legs, sometimes moving to the front legs
- Trembling and lack of coordination
- Gagging or coughing
- Variation in tone of bark or meow
- Groaning noise with breathing
- Trouble swallowing
- Vomiting or gagging
If your pet shows symptoms of tick paralysis it’s important to get them to a vet immediately.
WHAT ARE FLEAS?
- Fleas are dark brown, 1mm to 2mm long and the most common external parasites for both cats and dogs.
- In the right conditions, fleas can live for a few months on pets (also known as the “host”) they require a host to survive.
- Females lay around 50 eggs every day (and up to 5,000 in their lifetime), which fall to the ground and hatch into tiny larvae that burrow into carpets, hide in upholstery, between floor boards and skirting and often the pet's bed. The larvae then develop into pupae and remain dormant for many months.
- Flea bites are itchy for all pets and can lead to flea allergy dermatitis.
- The typical flea season runs September to April in Australia. However, due to high humidity and temperatures in some areas of Australia fleas can be all year round. Outbreaks can even occur in warmed winter homes.
SIGNS YOUR CAT OR DOG HAS FLEAS
Check your pet regularly for fleas. While infestations are easily treated, it’s best to get on top of fleas early to reduce the costs and inconvenience of de-fleaing your home! Signs include:
- Intense and persistent scratching or biting of their coat
- Over-grooming resulting in hair loss
- Agitation, distress and restlessness
- Skin legions or scabs
- Tiny black specks (flea dirt/faeces) on your pet's fur or the area where they typically sleep
- Red spots on the fabric where your pet typically sleeps
- Visibility of fleas crawling on your pet's skin or coat.
DANGERS OF FLEAS
Flea bites not only make your pet uncomfortable and itchy, they bring other problems:
- Pets can be hypersensitive to flea saliva and suffer an allergic reaction.
- As fleas feed on blood, young or sick pets can become weak and may even die as a result of blood loss.
- Flea larvae can contain tapeworm eggs. If your pet eats an infected flea, it can become host to this parasite.
- If untreated, fleas can infest your whole household and start biting humans too!
There are a number of Flea and Tick preventative treatments on the market, so speak to our team to see what best suits your pets’ needs.
