Top Ten Tips For Flea Control

Summer is here and that means fleas!

What type of flea treatment do you use for your pets? Here are a few tips to keep fleas at bay during the summer months:

1. Flea treatments for your pets – There are various treatment options such as flea collars, flea dips, shampoos, spot-on treatments, or oral medications. Treatments are different for dogs and cats. Your Veterinarian can recommend which treatment is best for your pet.
2. Rid your home of fleas – Not only are fleas jumping off your pets onto your furniture, but their eggs and larvae can be left all over your home. Thoroughly vacuuming floors and furniture and washing all bedding that your pet comes in contact with in hot water will help control or eliminate the infestation.
3. Groom your pet daily – Use a fine-toothed metal flea comb on your pet to remove fleas and place the fleas you remove in soapy water. This should be done daily to keep the fleas under control.
4. Use insecticides – You can do the treatments yourself or hire professionals exterminators. Non-toxic insecticides are also available. It is important to cover all food that could come into contact with the insecticide and keep you family and pets out of the house until it is safe to return.
5. Place eucalyptus leaves around the house – The smell of eucalyptus is not appealing to fleas so the leaves help to keep them away. Place the leaves inside and outside the house in various locations. You can place them in glass jars to add decoration around the house.
6. Create a set place for pets to sleep – It might be hard to change your pet’s habit, but having them sleep in a specific area can make regular cleaning your pet’s bedding easier. This way you only have to regularly clean one area of bedding instead of trying to find what your pet has been sleeping on.
7. Avoid dangerous areas – When possible keeping cats indoors and taking your dogs for walks in open areas avoiding thick, long grass can reduce the fleas your pet may be exposed to. Maintaining your own yard can also cut down on the fleas that you and your pets come in contact with outside.
8. Use natural oils – Many natural oils can keep fleas off of a pet’s fur. Lemongrass or a cut up lemon added to water can be lightly sprayed on their fur to keep the fleas away. Some natural oils that are safe for dogs can be toxic for cats, so always make sure you are using oils that are safe for your pet.
9. Spray nematodes – For pet lovers who have gardens or spend time outside, using nematodes (worms) outside can reduce the number of flea larvae. Spray nematodes in shady spots outside and moist areas of the garden 2 to 3 times a year. This can reduce the number of fleas brought inside the house.
10. Prevent year round – California has flea activity year round. The warmer months have a higher activity of fleas compared to the cooler months. Knowing when the activity in your area is the highest can help you to be prepared to prevent fleas. Using methods to control flea infestations year round is the best way to eliminate fleas on your pets and in your home.

Click here to find out the flea activity in your area.

How Safe Is Your Pet From Fleas?

Summer is around the corner and that means flea season.

Clear the Air wants to protect your pets from harmful pests such as fleas.

Is your pet safe from fleas? Follow these helpful steps below to make sure your pets aren’t overtaken by flea infestation this summer:

• Clean your home thoroughly. For any level of flea infestation, you will need to do a thorough house cleaning. Vacuum every corner of your home, wash all your dog’s bedding and toys, and vacuum your car too. Even if you don’t take your dog in the car, fleas can travel on yourself and stay in your car when you leave the home.
• Use a spot on medication such as Advantage or Frontline. Although only applied to one spot on your pet, spot on medicine is extremely effective at covering your pet’s entire body. The medicine is not affected by bathing, swimming or rain and will kill and repel fleas for several weeks before application. Make sure to purchase one that is appropriate for your dog’s age and size.
• If your flea infestation is serious, oral medications when combined with spot on medications will work to disrupt the life cycle of fleas. Try hiding the medicine in your dog’s food or smashing it into a powder and mixing it in your cat’s wet food.
• Bathe your dog with special medicated shampoo that kills fleas on contact. This process usually needs to be repeated every two weeks as the effective ingredients in these shampoos don’t last as long as spot-on or oral medications.
• Keep your yard trimmed back to help reduce the population of fleas. You can try using various yard sprays or granular treatments available at your veterinarian or garden center.

Tick Removal For Your Pets

Removing ticks from your pets – what you need to know!

Ewe, it is flea and tick season!  Keep fleas and ticks away with our helpful tips.

Need help on removing those pesky ticks your dog and cat pick up from outside?  Check out ASPCA’s article:

So, you’ve found a tick on your pet—how do you deal with it? While it’s important to get these little suckers off quickly, ASPCA veterinarians advise that you stay calm and don’t rush it. Moving too fast when removing a tick could potentially create more problems, both for your pet and for you.

While the following instructions employ tweezers, be aware that there are some very good products on the market designed specifically for safe tick removal. If you live in a tick-heavy area or are taking your pets to a place where they are likely to get ticks, it’s a good idea to buy one of these tools and have it on hand. They generally work better than tweezers at getting out the whole tick, and are relatively inexpensive.

Step-by-Step Tick Removal Instructions

Step 1—Prepare its Final Resting Place – Throwing a tick in the trash or flushing it down the toilet will not kill it, and it’s actually best to hold on to it for awhile for veterinary testing in case your pet falls ill from the bite. Be ready with somewhere to put the tick after you’ve removed it—the best option is a screw-top jar containing some rubbing alcohol.

Step 2—Don’t Bare-Hand It – Put on latex or rubber gloves so you’ll never have direct contact with the tick or your pet’s bite area. Ticks can carry infective agents that may enter your bloodstream through breaks in your skin or through mucous membranes (if you touch your eyes, nostrils or mouth).

Step 3—Grab a Partner – You don’t want your pet squirming away before you’re finished, so if possible, have a helper on hand to distract, soothe or hold her still.

Step 4—The Removal – Treat the bite area with rubbing alcohol and, using a pair of tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the animal’s skin as possible. Pull straight upwards with steady, even pressure. Place the tick in your jar.

• Do not twist or jerk the tick! This may leave the mouth-parts embedded in your pet, or cause the tick to regurgitate infective fluids.
• Do not squeeze or crush the body of the tick, because its fluids (saliva and gut contents) may contain infective organisms.

Step 5—All that Remains – Sometimes, in spite of doing everything right, a tick’s mouth-parts will get left behind in your pet’s skin. If the area doesn’t appear red or inflamed, the best thing to do is to disinfect it and not to try to take the mouth-parts out. A warm compress to the area might help the body expel them, but do not go at it with tweezers.

Step 6—Clean Up – Thoroughly disinfect the bite site and wash your hands with soap and water (even though you were wearing gloves). Sterilize your tweezers with alcohol or by carefully running them over a flame.

Step 7—Keep Watch – Over the next few weeks, closely monitor the bite area for any signs of localized infection. If the area is already red and inflamed, or becomes so later, please bring your pet—and your jarred tick—to your veterinarian for evaluation.

From: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-care-tips/how-to-remove-a-tick-from-your-pet.aspx