Monday, April 30, 2012

Warm Winter Means more Pests for Pets

Warm Winter

Our unusually warm winter meant no snow days and also we are expecting a huge increase in fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.  Without a hard frost to kill off some of the population we are probably in for a bad summer, parasite-wise.

Fleas and Ticks

Fleas and ticks can be seen by the naked eye and are an obvious parasite.  They can be controlled with either a topical preventative or a combination of an oral medication for fleas and a tick collar.  We have a variety of products that are safe and effective.  A word of caution:  Never use a product labeled for dogs on a cat.  This can be very dangerous.  Also, beware of products that are advertised as "just as good as" something else, but half the price.  They have to cut corners somewhere and even if they are using the same active ingredient, the delivery mechanism is probably where they do it.  This means that the ingredients in the product that keep the flea killing medication where it is supposed to stay put are not the same.  It may kill fleas for a week or two, but then be less effective than you had hoped.  See our posts on Flea Control and Generics.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are annoying to humans but they also carry heartworm disease and can be deadly to dogs.  A mosquito bites a dog infected with heartworms, picks up the parasite and then spreads it to every other dog it bites.  The cycle then continues with every mosquito bite.  Heartworm disease has no symptoms in its early stages and is frighteningly expensive to treat.  Fortunately we have a preventative.  A pill, given once a month.  Prevention pills are like birth control pills, not 100% effective, so we do test your dog once a year.  The effectiveness is greatly increased if you are vigilant about giving every single pill, on time.  If you purchase your heartworm prevention from a veterinarian, or through our website and your dog tests positive the manufacturer will pay for the treatment if you haven't missed any doses.  They can't offer this same guarantee if you purchase from other online pharmacies because this is diverted product and they don't know where it came from.

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