How to get rid of dog fleas
Narrated from: Dog HealthFleas can be a serious problem.
Dog fleas feed on the blood of dogs and cats, but they can sometimes bite humans as well. This is extremely dangerous as some diseases you don’t want to know about can be passed on that way.
Well, don’t panic yet. Fleas are quite a common problem. The important thing is to deal with them thoroughly – fleas are able to survive without food for months, and if a single female survives and gets another blood meal, she could lay about 4,000 eggs in your dog’s fur.
If your dog has fleas, it would scratch and bite excessively, especially in the head, neck and around the tail. Its skin might become red and inflamed, and due to all the scratching the dog might start to lose hair.
There are a lot of products that can be used to get rid of fleas.
Basically, fleas can be killed by different kinds of sprays, powders and shampoos. Some of the most popular things on the market include Frontline, Advantage, K9 Advantix, Capstar, Program, Revolution, Biospot and Sentinel. An anti-flea shampoo is the easiest solution if you discover the problem in time and only the dog is infested. You just have to wash it regularly and the problem should go away.
Unfortunately, chances are high that you didn’t discover the problem in time. It would be a good idea to treat your whole living area, including the yard if you have one. Fleas are very good at hiding. For carpets you could use some borate-based powder, for instance. In the yard it would be a good idea to keep the grass short and to get rid of all leaf piles and shrubs. A natural flea repellent like cedar chips, for instance, could be applied.
You should also consider using a more natural solution, and apply stronger chemicals only if it doesn’t work. You always have to consider what the toxins that kill the fleas would do to you. Flea collars for instance are generally a bad idea – they only cleanse the neck, but the toxins on them will rub off on anything.
So, the best thing to do is not to let your dog catch fleas. To prevent that, you have to groom your dog regularly. Choosing a good diet is also important – fleas don’t like to prey on healthy animals. Garlic, for instance, is considered a natural flea-repellent.
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