Protect your pets from fleas and ticks

Summertime brings hot weather, camping trips and, for pet owners, fleas and ticks. These small bugs aren’t a small concern. Ticks are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of human diseases, and flea and tick populations are on the rise nationwide.

“When it comes to external parasites like fleas and ticks, prevention is a far better answer to the problem than having to visit a veterinarian after an infestation has occurred,” says Dr. James O. Cook, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Cook says that a female flea will begin laying eggs within the first 24 hours of infesting your pet and will produce 50 eggs a day. Once these hatch, the larvae can burrow into carpets, under furniture and then, weeks later, they can re-infest your pet.

“It’s far better to avoid all this pain and suffering for you and your pet by using preventative treatments,” Cook says. “Ask your veterinarian for information.”

Dr. Michael W. Dryden, a professor of veterinary medicine at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine and a flea and tick expert, says that both flea and tick problems are on the rise in the United States. Tick populations have been increasing, particularly in Eastern states for well over a decade, and flea populations have surged over the past couple years, particularly in Southern and Central states.

“It’s well-documented that there is an upswing in tick populations, particularly in the Eastern United States, and it has to do with the upswing in the population of Whitetail Deer,” Dryden says. By the early 1900s, hunting and farming practices in this country had nearly eradicated Whitetail Deer, but today there are close to 30 million deer across the country.

This great conservation success has a cost. Lyme disease, which is carried by ticks on Whitetail Deer, is also on the rise in parts of the United States. The best way to prevent diseases spread by ticks is to use a preventative medication. Prompt removal of ticks is very important because it reduces the chance of disease transmission from the tick to your pet. Firmly grip the tick with tweezers, as close to the skin as possible, and gently remove it without twisting. Do not burn the tick with heat or alcohol as this can actually lead to the spread of disease by causing the tick to regurgitate.

Dryden says that the surge in flea populations is a bit of a mystery today. “At about 1999, we thought we had the flea problem licked,” Dryden says. “But in the past couple years, there has been a resurgence, and we really don’t know why. There are a lot of theories, but nobody has been able to prove why flea populations are now increasing in some areas, such as in Southern and Central states.”

The good news is that in the past two and a half years there have been four recently approved parasite control medications introduced in this country. So pet owners have more tools to prevent these pesky, disease-carrying pests, but pet owners should seek the advice of a veterinarian before selecting a treatment.

“I tell people to go into their veterinarian and let your veterinarian choose the appropriate parasite medication for your pet and your region, because parasites can be very local, varying by state or even within a county or city,” Dryden says.”Veterinarians are the best source of information about the appropriate choice of parasite control.”

For more information, or to get a helpful brochure on how to deal with ticks, fleas, ear mites, mange mites and other external parasites, visit www.avma.org. For instructional videos, visit AVMA-TV or the AVMA Media Library.