With the warm weather just around the corner now is the time to be vigilant in using monthly heartworm, flea and tick prevention for your pets. I recommend that owners use these once monthly medications year round but with spring here those mosquitoes, fleas and ticks are just waiting to emerge and attack our dogs and cats.
Everyone knows how annoying those relentless mosquitoes are when you are trying to enjoy your yard or back porch. But these pests are more than just irritating – they can endanger your pet’s health by transmitting heartworm disease. Heartworm disease is a parasitic infection transmitted when an infected mosquito bites your dog or cat.
Monthly heartworm prevention is essential year round for both dogs and cats, even indoor kitties. There is NO treatment for heartworm in cats, and sudden death is a common result of heartworm infections. While it’s true that infected dogs can be treated, the treatment itself is very dangerous—and can even be fatal. Left untreated, heartworm disease will kill a dog.Protecting your dogs and cats against fleas and ticks is important as well. Tick borne infections
such as Lyme disease, Erlichia and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are transmitted when an infected tick bites your dog. As you can see in the picture to the right, the deer tick that is responsible for transmitting Lyme disease is tiny and may be difficult to find on your dog. The best way to ward these infections off is with topical flea and tick preventatives like Frontline, Advantix, Revolution, or Advantage Multi. In a temperate climate like ours, these should be applied once a month, every month.Although a Lyme disease vaccination is available, we do not recommend using it because there is no concrete evidence that it prevents the disease. Plus, some specialists believe that vaccinating an infected dog can make the disease worse.
Fleas can be extremely itching and irritating to both you and your pets. Some animals are allergic to fleas and one bite can lead to a significant skin infection. Once a flea infestation invades your home it can be very difficult to clear it out. The best bet is to prevent that from happening by applying the same topical medications that protect against ticks.
Luckily, prevention is easy: just a pill and a topical medication once a month. If only everything were that simple.
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