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Fleas and Heartworms and Ticks, Oh My!

Dogs and cats are constantly encumbered by both internal and external parasites. Some of these parasites can suck their blood, causing blood loss and anemia, some can steal nutrients from your pet, some can transmit debilitating or life threatening diseases, and some are contagious to people, especially young children. So in this world of pesky parasites, find out more about these buggers and what you can do to protect your beloved pet as well as your family. 

FLEAS – Ctenocephalides felis or the cat flea is the creeping crawling culprit that we are all so used to seeing on our pets (both dogs and cats). This little critter jumps onto your pet and crawls around biting and sucking blood but in addition to that, it can cause some real problems for your pet and your family:

1. Flea Allergy Dermatitis: Aside from being a nuisance to your pet and family, their bites can cause some of their saliva to pass into your pet’s bloodstream causing him to develop a severe allergic reaction to flea bites called Flea Allergy Dermatitis (FAD). This allergic reaction causes pets to become extremely itchy when bitten by fleas to the point where they develop hair loss, skin infections and hotspots, and it can take as few as one or two flea bites for this severe allergic reaction to result.
2. Bacterial Infections: Fleas can also transmit bacterial diseases that are carried in their mouths after drinking the blood of another infected animal and pass it onto your pet or even to you.
3. Flea Anemia: In small and very young animals, a severe flea infestation can cause so much blood loss that they can develop a potentially fatal anemia.
4. Tapeworms: Fleas also carry the immature tapeworm inside their bodies. When a dog or cat is chewing herself because of the biting bugs and swallows a flea, the tapeworm is released into the pet’s intestine and latches on to start sucking blood and stealing nutrients from your pet. After a while the tapeworm starts to release egg packets, called proglottids, which pass into your pets stool. You can actually see these in the fresh feces or stuck to the rear of your pet after they defecate. They look like a small worm about the size of a grain of rice, initially they will wiggle around but eventually they will dry up and fall onto the ground or into the environment.

The important thing to remember about fleas is that only about 5% of the total flea population actually lives on your pet, and that is the adult stage. 95% of the fleas, the eggs, larvae and pupae, live in the environment (i.e. your carpets, couches, beds, and grass outside in the yard). Most of the topical flea control products that we use to treat and prevent flea infestations in pets are effective only against the adult stage, meaning that the immature stages in the environment must all grow up, become adults, jump on your pet to get the medication and die to get rid of the whole problem. If there are new fleas being deposited in the environment (either because not all pets in the house or yard are being treated for fleas, or because stray and wild animals are passing through your yard and leaving behind new fleas), then regardless of the effectiveness of the topical flea control, your pet will continue to be bombarded by fleas. In these cases, environmental treatment of the immature stages becomes an important part of treating and preventing flea infestations.

1. Heart Failure – Early in the disease or in pets with only a couple worms, there may be no symptoms or mild symptoms such as an increased lethargy, mild cough and exercise intolerance. However, the heartworms do not allow the normal flow of blood through the heart because they are partially blocking the way. This causes the right side of the heart to have to work much harder to pump blood through the system leading to heart enlargement and eventually heart failure.
2. Caval Syndrome – If enough adult heartworms are present that they prevent the normal function of the valves of the heart, this syndrome can develop. Caval syndrome is characterized by severe lethargy, weakness and the presence of hemoglobin in the blood and urine, creating a dark brown appearance to the blood and urine. Unless the heartworms are immediately removed with surgery, this condition is fatal.
3. Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease (HARD) – Adult heartworms, if left untreated, can live inside your pets system for anywhere from 2 to 7 years! When they do die (either from natural causes or from heartworm treatment), small pieces of the dead worms pass into the respiratory system where they can cause a significant inflammatory reaction. As a result, the pet can have coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing. This happens particularly commonly in cats and can mimic other feline diseases such as bronchitis or asthma. If the inflammation is severe enough and is left untreated, this can even be fatal.

TICKS – There are many different types and species of ticks but they all basically do the same thing. Ticks are usually found in wooded areas where they will crawl onto a tall piece of grass and wait for a passerby to grab onto. The ticks will crawl onto the skin and attach themselves by burrowing their head under the skin. They begin to secrete a chemical from their mouthparts, which acts as a kind of cement, keeping their head firmly attached to the spot they have chosen while they continue to take a bloodmeal. After the tick becomes engorged with blood, it releases its attachment and falls off into the environment. There are several diseases transmitted by ticks that can be a problem for our pets:

1. Lyme Disease or Borreliosis is caused by a small bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. This bacteria is transmitted by the tick while it is feeding on your pet (or on you). This bacteria causes a host of problems including fever, muscle aches, kidney disease, and inflammation of the joints. The good news is that the tick must be attached for 24 to 48 hours before this bacteria is passed into your pet so if you remove the tick quickly, you can prevent the transmission of this nasty bug. While there is a vaccination to help prevent Lyme Disease, it is not 100% effective, tick preventative treatments and early removal of ticks on your pet are the best prevention.
2. Rickettsial Infections – These are small bacteria-like organisms that are passed through the bite of an infected tick into your pet. There are a variety of different rickettsiae causing diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichiosis, Q-Fever, Infectious Cyclic Thrombocytopenia and Anaplasmosis. Many of these can be treated with antibiotics, but prevention with the use of a tick preventative is the key.
3. Tick Paralysis – Some types of ticks secrete a toxin which, if present in large quantities because of multiple ticks feeding at once, can cause the pet to become paralyzed. If the pet is not treated, and the paralysis is allowed to continue to the respiratory muscles, death can result because of respiratory failure. Thankfully, the treatment of tick paralysis is simple and just involves removing the offending ticks. The pets usually recover within a very short time of removing the bad bugs.

PREVENTION IS THE KEY

Keeping your pet on regular monthly parasite control products can easily prevent all three of these bad bugs. Review the chart below of the common flea, tick, heartworm, and internal parasite control products available as well as what each product protects against to choose the protection which is appropriate for your individual pet.