Long-Term Advantages of Regular Flea and Tick Prevention

When you have a dog or even a cat for a pet, you need to be careful about the possibility of their getting fleas or ticks. Just a single flea bite could cause your dog to suffer a severe allergic reaction. Even if the flea and ticks don’t cause such effects, they’re still highly uncomfortable for the host animal. You don’t want your pet scratching himself in front of guests or leaving the sofa infested!

Vets and pet clinics now offer services for flea and tick prevention. If you’re a dog owner, you should seriously look into this in order to save yourself a lot of hassle in the long run. If just the mention of ticks and fleas isn’t enough to convince you about the prevention service, here are some long-term advantages you should take into account:

Fleas from pets can spread not just to the furniture, but also the bedding and even the curtains in your home. This could ruin your fabrics and generally make it uncomfortable to live in your own house. What’s more, a flea infestation could result in the value of your house going down unless you get a professional extermination done. Needless to say, such a service will be much more inconvenient and expensive than a regular flea and tick prevention for your pup. If your pup does have fleas, there are several flea medications that can help your dog get back to being healthy and happy.

Your dog might be allergic to fleas, or rather, the flea’s saliva. When the flea bites your dog, then, it could trigger itching, scratching, rashes, and even difficulty in breathing. The scratching would result in skin infections, hot spots, and other worrisome troubles.

Not only does this cause your pet a lot of pain, but it also creates a daily issue for you as well. Breathing problems would have you rushing to the vet every other day and fearing for your dog’s life. The scratching is unsightly, while the red patches are disturbing to see. Having a regular treatment to prevent fleas and ticks can hence do away with several problems at once.

When your pet has fleas and/or, ticks, they’re also more likely to contract tapeworms. This is because tapeworm eggs are usually attached to fleas. When the flea bites an animal, they infect the bite with the tiny eggs, thus causing tapeworms to gather in the stomach. This is a painful situation that would require medical care to cure properly. It would also require a lot of effort on your part, as you’d have to give your dog pills and medication that he might not want to take.

It’s hence best to prevent the fleas from coming altogether. When there are no fleas, there would also be fewer chances of your pet contracting tapeworms. However, keep in mind that there are several other ways of your dog getting infected by tapeworms.

When you prevent fleas and ticks, you also prevent the diseases they carry. A preventative measure for dogs would usually kill off the fleas and ticks before they have a chance to do any harm. You can thus prevent your dog from contracting Lyme disease, Canine Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Babesiosis, Tick paralysis, and Tularemia.

Again, all of these diseases could be extremely dangerous to a dog and cost a small fortune to treat. You can save a lot of cash, time, and effort by simply getting the prevention method done when required.

Last but not least, you certainly don’t want your dog’s fleas latching onto your own person! If the ticks and fleas do jump on your body, they can cause a wide range of skin irritations and infections. What’s even worse if that they can transmit parasites as well as bacterial diseases when they bite a human. And adult would be in a bad enough state with these, but a child would probably be at even more risk.

You should hence get your dog to a flea and tick prevention clinic as soon as possible. This is best for the sake of the dog, yourself, and your family. Keep an eye out for signs like excessive scratching, and visit the vet before things get out of hand.