Last week, my wife found a flea crawling on our little toddler. He seemed indifferent about it, but Jenny was most put out. I guess she is feeling a little guilty about forgetting to give the dogs Bravecto! No matter, yours truly has given the dogs their three monthly doses, and no more fleas are troubling our little boy. Indeed, I also found four ticks have fallen off our dogs since they received the Bravecto.
It is indeed tick season. To those whose partners may have also forgotten to give their dog its regular tick prevention, do a little tick check with your dog or cat.
The mix of rain and sun has created perfect conditions for ticks to come out of their moult and get onto some furred mammals for a long-awaited feed of blood.
As most readers will be aware, ticks spread a multitude of diseases here in the Algarve. In the last few weeks, we have diagnosed several tick fever infections. Two of these cases even progressed to the dog developing an immune-mediated disease, and it started destroying its own red blood cells. The ensuing anaemia nearly killed them. It would have if the LVC team hadn’t stepped in with aggressive treatment, including blood transfusions.
I don’t need to mention fleas, I presume. Everyone knows these little suckers well enough to want them killed. The mainstay of our external parasite control are products that will kill ticks and 100% of fleas. If you’re sufficiently bored, you can research flea epidemiology online. I don’t blame you if you cannot be bothered with this. It’s a pretty dry topic. However, I will briefly inform you that the female flea can lay up to 100 eggs per day. If you don’t have a 100 % kill product, your flea population will explode when these eggs develop into maturity.
Speak to your vets about appropriate parasite control. This includes fleas, ticks, heartworm and Leishmania (in dogs). Also, don’t forget to worm them every three months.
I will help my wife to remember the flea/tick treatments next time! Together, we´re better. We´re better together.
See you next month!
