Dr. Mike: Hello! I’m Dr. Mike. In areas where fleas are endemic, they
cause a lot of medical problems in our pets. It’s important
in our discussion about fleas to understand their life cycle,
what problems they may cause and the most current and
effective treatment options available. Today, we are going
to meet with Dr. Wayne Rosenkrantz, who is board
certified in animal dermatology.
Dr. Wayne Rosenkrantz: Fleas can cause several different you know scenarios and
complications in our domestic pets. Of course the biggest
one as a dermatologist and what we as veterinarians often
see is allergic reactions associated with flea bite reactions.
And when flea takes a blood meal, there is an exchange of
salivary and other body part allergens that get into the
system and sensitize the animals that causes an intense
itching reaction that can manifest as infections or hot spots
and that’s the most common.
Other concerns relate to the ingestion of the flea that can
contain a development stage of a tape worm. Tape worm is
an intestinal parasite usually doesn’t cause a lot of harm to
most pets but its sort of, you know an upsetting parasite. If
owners happen to see this sort of fragmented segments in
around their pet’s bottom or on their stools this of course
draws attention and obviously veterinary attention needs to
be given to properly treat and eliminate.
Anemias, those are rare also, but in heavy infestations of
fleas. Fleas do suck blood and in small pets and kittens,
puppies, if they have heavy flea infestation, the fleas can
actually take enough blood meal to actually create an
anemic situation. So that of course can become more life
threatening scenario.
So as far as actually killing fleas and implementing flea
control, there are variety of choices available. And the
beauty about the newer products is that they have a
tremendous increase safety and efficacy of over some of
our older more toxic dips that we used to use years ago.
The topical products are easy for a lot of clients to apply.
And then there are owners that prefer to use oral treatments
and oral treatments have their own benefits and
particularly, in dermatology we see a lot of patience that
have skin disease and inflammatory changes on their skin
and we like owners to bathe their pets frequently. And
when you bathe frequently, you can remove a lot of the
topical products so oral administration has a big benefit
especially when bathing programs are more frequent and
indicated.
A product that I think that is the most unique and certainly
has really help tremendously on our practices is the oral
treatments. It has great efficacy and has been very, very
safe and highly effective especially in our flea allergic
patience. So when you’re comparing topical versus oral
you know are there some distinctive advantages you know
over one product over the other. The orals you know, there
are clients that don’t like topicals on their pet. They don’t
like the greasy or the residual lesions that may leave at the
side of the application. There are concerns about exposure
to people in the environment when you put the products on
topically. And again, the other huge benefit is when we’re
bathing and doing lots of topical therapy which is very
important in dermatology cases that the oral has a superior
benefit over the topical.
As far as prevention of fleas and recurrences of
complications, the key to success is consistency. That really
is what you need to do. Again, working with your
veterinarian and picking the right product that fits your
pet’s specific needs but using the product that it’s labeled
indications. Be it in a once a month, every three months.
That’s the key to success. Because when people become
more complacent they do flea control for short periods of
time. Then the flea loads tend to reoccur.
The other areas of attention related to flea and flea related
dermatitis problems is treating the complications of the
disease that results from a flea bite or a flea allergy. And
often this can be secondary infections that may require
antibiotics that can be determine by your veterinarian or we
need to block the actual allergic reaction because many of
these pets are intensely itchy and they’re biting and
chewing. So some type of either topical or systemic drugs
may need to be given to block that sort of itching episode.
Dr. Mike Dr. Rosenkrantz explains some of the problem associated
with fleas and why it’s important to keep our pets protected
from them. There are many great options available to us.
From easy to apply topicals to flavored chewable tablets.
Most are very effective in killing fleas and begin working
in minutes to hours.
Many of my clients prefer that chewable tablet. It’s easy
and there’s no topical residue. I recommend that you ask
your veterinarian for flea control plan specifically designed
for your pet.
I’m Dr. Mike and thanks for watching.
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