How to get rid of fleas on dogs

Beware of Dog Fleas: How it can affect your dog ?

When it comes to treating fleas on your dogs, you would look to choose the best flea collar for your dogs. But we wanted to know more about what is fleas and how it can affect your beloved dog.


Fleas belong to the insect order Siphonaptera. They are basic pests and may attack many mammals, including man. They can be a year round problem because they infest not only pets but also the home of the owner. Because of this, treatment of the pet alone may only impermanently solve a flea problem.

Although many species of fleas feed primarily on one type of animal, the usual cat, and dog flea will readily take blood from a variety of animals, including man. Flea infestations of pets and their homes will very most likely involve the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis and occasionally the dog flea, C. canis.

Fleas are small (2 to 4 mm in length), brownish to black insects which are characteristically flattened from side to side. Adults are wingless and capable of jumping relatively long distances. Adults feed particularly on blood with their piercing-sucking mouthparts. When not actively feeding, adult fleas often hide in locations visited often by the host animal such as your dog bedding, sofas, or carpeted areas.

The common cat and dog fleas breed throughout the year. After giving and coupling, the female drops her eggs, typically on the host. Several eggs are laid daily and up to several hundred over a lifetime. Eggs usually fall off the host into bedding material or similar areas and hatch within two weeks.

Flea eggs accumulate in areas where the host spends most of its time. In addition, adult fleas excrete small shots of digested blood which also drop off into the environment. A flea comb will often gather this fecal matter at the base of the tines providing a good sign of flea attack. The combination of white flea eggs and black dried blood specks may appear as a dropping of salt and pepper where a ravaged animal has slept.

Fleas undergo complete metamorphosis, that is, they pass through four developmental stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Half-grown fleas do not resemble adults at all.

Flea larvae are tiny, light colored, and, worm-like, without legs. They feed mostly on a variety of debris and organic material including the popping of the adults which contains incorporated blood. Flea larvae occur indoors and out-of-doors, wherever the eggs have fallen off the host. In houses, flea larvae live or work in carpeting, furniture, animal bedding and other protected areas with high mugginess. Flea larvae also live out in the open in areas where animals pass time such as under porches in and around dog houses, etc

Because flea larvae depend on the adult's fecal pellets of dried blood as a food cause, they can not live in lawns or other adventure areas unless the pet visits those areas enough to provide this food.

Depending on the species of flea and environmental maladies the larvae will pupate in one week to several months. The pupa is contained within a loose silken cocoon which is often covered by bits of debris. Under average conditions, the life cycle of the flea commonly requires between 30 and 75 days but may take a lot longer. Adult fleas inside the cocoon, called pre-emerged fleas, will stay in that predicament for weeks to months if no peripheral cues from a host is available.

However, when disturbed by the presence of a host such as vibrations or carbon dioxide from exhaled breath, the fleas emerge in addition and attack the host. This is why it is possible to return to a house or home that has been empty for months and find it full of fleas.

When the normal host is available, fleas may feed several times a day but they are capable of surviving extended periods of starvation. In household situations, the normal host is a cat or dog. However, if the normal host is removed, starved fleas will readily seek other sources of blood and more often than not, man is the alternate host. In severe infestations, fleas will take up humans even though the normal host is present.

Several species of fleas have been known to transmit such health problems as bubonic plague and murine typhus. All of these have actually never been a major trouble. The major problems with fleas are a nuisance pest of pets. The oversensitiveness and tickling from flea bites result in scratching and probable secondary infection. Fleas may also transfer the double-pored dog tapeworm to dogs and cats.

Eventually, constant attacks from fleas can cause severe allergic responses in some people and pets. Once sensitized, a single flea bite may produce symptoms including hair loss, generally around the base of the tail, dermatitis, and rigorous itching. In worse cases, puppies and young kittens can also die from serious fleas problems.

With right flea administration education, flea problems will not be a big issue and can be a battle and win over easily.

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