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Fleas
Parasites
Fleas are common parasites in cats and dogs. They can act as vectors for a number of infections, including some that affect humans.
A flea jumps onto an unprotected pet.
Keeping your pet healthy and happy is every pet owner’s goal. Here at The Healthy Pet Club, our schemes cover everything your pet needs to keep up to date with their preventative health care. In this issue, we focus on parasites and why it’s so important to keep your pet protected through treating them with monthly flea and worm treatment – included in your Healthy Pet Club membership.
Once hatched, a flea will look again for a host and a meal! An adult flea can live for up to 160 days on one or more hosts.
It starts feeding immediately on the pets blood by biting them.
Ticks
They hatch from an egg into a small six-legged nymph.
Life cycle of a flea
Female fleas start laying eggs within 24-48 hours – up to 50 per day!
Pupae hatch into adult fleas but this can take up to six months!
Ticks are blood sucking parasites that can infest our pets. They can also live on humans too. Each life cycle stage feeds once on a new host after actively seeking for their hosts by climbing up stalks of tall plants such as blades of grass.
This then looks out for a large mammal (i.e. your dog or cat!) onto which to feed and mate. This can take about 3 weeks.
Life cycle of a tick
Eggs fall off into the environment and hatch into larvae within 1-10 days.
They then turn into pupae – a hard shelled structure, which is very hard to kill.
Larvae feed on flea dirt and crawl to find dark crevices and corners.
The next stage nymph may find a larger mammal, then eventually the nymph moults into an 8 legged tick.
This nymph will find a suitable host such as a mouse to feed on.
Fleas are a major cause of irritation and skin disease in pets and they are also a vector for the flea tapeworm. This is an important reason for making sure your pet has protection against fleas, since human ingestion of an infected flea can transmit this worm to the human gut where it can thrive.
Tick borne diseases
Ticks attach themselves by burrowing their heads into the skin. If this happens, the skin often reacts leaving a nasty inflamed sore which can get infected. In addition, and more worrying, is that they can transmit some very nasty diseases including Lyme disease and Babesiosis.
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