Fleas can pose a serious problem to your pet’s health.
Fleas are small dark brown wingless insects. A flea has strong back legs which enable it to jump from host to host or from the environment to host.
3 Things You Need To Know About Fleas
1) There are over 2,500 different types of fleas in the world. The most common is the Ctenocephalides felis, or cat flea. These cat fleas have been known to also bite dogs and humans too.
2) Fleas multiply quickly and spread at an alarming rate. It is crucial to handle flea problems as soon as you notice it.
How to spot fleas on your pet?
a) Use a FLEA COMB instead of a regularly brush.
b) If your pet is SCRATCHING a lot, it might be a sign he/she has fleas.
c) If you can spot FLEA DIRT on your pet’s skin and fur coat. Flea dirt looks like black pepper or small dark specks of dirt.
3) A flea bite is a discomfort for your pet. It can cause several health issues such as
a) Allergies: Your pet can develop a skin allergy from a flea bite.
b) Tapeworms: There’s a possibility your pet can accidentally swallow a flea. One way is when your pet licks or chews at a flea bite area. It’s dangerous if that flea is a host to a tapeworm egg as it will grow in your pet’s intestines. For proper tapeworm treatment and medication, see your veterinarian immediately.
c) Anemia: Your pet could become anemic due to fleas feeding off his/her blood supply.
2 Ways to Prevent Fleas
1) As a Pet Parent, be Proactive and Educate yourself about fleas. It is important that you know how to detect fleas and understand a Flea Life Cycle. Don’t wait until you see an adult flea, stage four of Flea Life Cycle, wherein a flea finds a host and begins its feeding process.
Seresto Collar: 2014 Better Homes and Gardens: Best New Product Award
2) Use a Preventive Product for fleas. For the past months, Sugar has been wearing the Seresto collar. The Seresto collar has a release technology which promises to deliver an 8 month protection from fleas. To learn more about Seresto Collar and other products of Bayer, we invite you to check PetParents.com. Sign-up and save $20 on Seresto.
Fleas are active any time of year, so year-round prevention is essential.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Bayer/Seresto and the Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Seresto product but Golden Woofs only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Bayer/Seresto is not responsible for the content of this article.
Frankie and Ernie says
September 5, 2014 at 8:07 AMThe BEST thing about Seresto is that there is no Stinky GREASY places on our backs. We hate that. Our Seresto Collars are working very well.
PeeS… if you think that you have found some FLEA DIRT… you can test it very easly.
Put a small drop of water on some WHITE paper.. and put the Possible Flea Dirt (flea poop) in the wet area… It it turns RED… it IS Flea Dirt…
Golden Woofs: Sugar says
September 7, 2014 at 12:47 AMSo glad to hear that your Seresto collar is working well. Please continue to keep us posted. Golden Thanks for your flea dirt test suggestion.
Sam says
September 5, 2014 at 9:14 AMWe’ve been lucky with fleas here in AZ – we’ve only had two sightings of them on pups in all these years. We treated the pups immediately, vacuumed and washed all the bedding and never had an issue. We’ve heard of other folks who’ve had severe infestations. Knock on wood!
Monty and Harlow
Nichole says
September 5, 2014 at 10:17 AMGreat, informative post! We saw an ad for Seresto at our vet yesterday.
Emma says
September 5, 2014 at 11:05 AMWe hope to never have any fleas around here. Not sure about wearing the collar thing. I hear they work well, but wish it was a tag thing and not an entire collar.
Miley's Daily Scoop says
September 5, 2014 at 11:10 AMGreat post! Miley had fleas once and of course she had a horrible reaction to them! Yuck!!!
Dory and her Mama says
September 5, 2014 at 11:27 AMSince Arty is allergic to fleas, we make sure to keep them on preventatives all year round!!
Another great post!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
Golden Woofs: Sugar says
September 7, 2014 at 12:50 AMFlea allergy is no FUN! All year round protection is a MUST!
easyweimaraner says
September 5, 2014 at 11:41 AMthanks for a great post, Sugar. the fleas are very aggressive this year, no idea why. and they have such bad aftereffect like allergies and bad ouchies. seems not even the fleas are still the same. have a golden friday!
madi and mom says
September 5, 2014 at 11:45 AMMorning Sugar…
I get my flea protection applied the first of every month. We have to use it year around here because of the hot humid weather.
Hugs madi your bfff
Sheba's Life Story says
September 5, 2014 at 11:54 AMCoco our cat got infested badly this year after our usual flea treatment didn’t work, the vet said the fleas had built up an immmunity to it that was after selling it to us, so we changed brand and sprayed the whole house and everything seems to be back to normal now.
Sheba.
Brian Frum says
September 5, 2014 at 11:56 AMOh those fleas are evil little ones!
Ruby says
September 5, 2014 at 1:58 PMThis is a great alternative for when Ma runs out of my oral flea stuffs..plus it last 8 months!!! That’s pretty good!!
Ma printed out the rebate and is gonna order me one! Thanks Sugar!
Kisses,
Ruby ♥
Golden Woofs: Sugar says
September 7, 2014 at 12:55 AMYes, it’s super cool that it last for 8 months. Let us know if you decide to use the Seresto collar.
Molly The Wally says
September 5, 2014 at 2:44 PMOMD we did not know a lot about fleas but she says thank dog i have my treatment regularly. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
Two French Bulldogs says
September 5, 2014 at 2:54 PMThose fleas could be very dangerous. We sure are glad we don’t have those bugs
Lily & Edward
Jenna,Mark “HuskyCrazed” Drady says
September 5, 2014 at 10:23 PMFleas are certainly nasty little buggers!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Groovy Goldendoodles says
September 6, 2014 at 11:13 AMFleas are certainly gross – thanks for the additional information.
Hawk aka BrownDog says
September 7, 2014 at 7:03 AMHi Y’all!
My Human stopped using collars for fleas years ago because her Flatcoat always started throwing up within 24 hours. The vet started her using Frontline on him. It was fairly new then. I used something else for awhile but am back on Frontline plus Heartworm. The vet is going to switch me to a pill for fleas next season; I’ll still need the Heartworm pill. Here is the southeast flea and heartworm treatments are year round.
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Dawn says
September 7, 2014 at 2:25 PMWe’ve been pretty lucky these past several years. Sephi and Maya have never had fleas. Pierson had them when we first got him, but we took care of that quickly and never saw them again. My dogs occasionally get Frontline in the summer, but other than that we don’t use flea prevention. I didn’t use anything on them this summer.
Sand Spring Chesapeakes says
September 8, 2014 at 11:08 PMFleas suck and take over your house in no time. Rid the world of fleas.
Michael Estrella says
November 14, 2014 at 4:29 PMI have battled fleas for years! I have wasted so much money on products out there that really don’t work.