Fleas

Oh no! There are over 2,000 species of fleas worldwide and more than 300 species found in the United States!! The good news is only a few affect cats and dogs in The United States Ctenocephalides felis (the cat flea), Ctenocephalides canis (the dog flea), Pulex simulans (a flea of small mammals), and Echidnophaga gallinacea (the poultry sticktight flea). The most common flea is, surprise, the cat flea!

Treatment / Prevention: While many treatments are marketed by companies and vets as preventatives, functionally all flea medicines are treatments, not preventatives.

Over the Counter Flea Meds: In our experience, over the counter flea treatments for dogs do not work. After speaking with numerous vets in the area, their observation has been that the old fipronil(Frontline, Pet Armor, and etofenprox (Hartz) based products of old are no longer effective in the Southeast, and we anecdotally agree. We have found flea collars are among the least effective options when treating fleas.

Flea Baths: Flea baths are a wonderful way to kills adult fleas and to remove flea eggs from you English Golden puppy or from any animal. While many soaps and shampoos exist on the market, Dawn dish soap is just as effective at killing adult fleas when compared to flea treatments with harsher chemicals. A little bit of baby shampoo is handy to wash over the head over your dog or puppy.

Manual Removal: It is imperative to vacuum and to wash linens if you are dealing with a large amount of fleas and find that fleas return after a flea treatment.

Prescription Flea Meds: Bravecto (fluralaner), Simparica (sarolaner), and Nexguard (afoxolaner) are highly effective oral treatments which target the flea life cycle and have the added benefit of not being able to be washed off in a bath or the rain. In our experience they are well worth the added effort of obtaining a prescription and the price. They also provide excellent tick protection.