Fleas and Ticks!

In Central Queensland fleas and ticks are a very common problem. There are a lot of
farms and cattle around so it is really hard to control them. Even myself as a groomer have
battled with fleas and ticks since being here. Most fleas and ticks won't cause that many
problems except for causing your pet quite a lot of discomfort and can cause a secondary
skin infection called flea allergy dermatitis. Fleas also carry tapeworm so when your pet eats one they get the tapeworm egg which causes some internal discomfort. If your dog has an infestation he may become anaemic and lethargic in which case a blood transfusion will be needed. I have my dogs on a flea tablet called comfortis, I find that it is the only thing that works these days, however it does not prevent against paralysis ticks or other parasites. You can pick up a 6 month supply from the vet for around $108 depending on your dogs size. I also sell individual tablets for $20 each. It is important that you treat every pet in the house hold at the same time, wash everything that your pets come into contact with - linen, dog beds, etc in boiling hot water. I add a product called "malaban" when washing my pets bedding etc just to make sure everything is dead. Vacuum your carpets really well and set off some do it yourself flea bombs that you can get at the supermarket. I recommend 1 In every room. Leave the house for minimum of 3 hours, leave your pets with me and I will flea bath them and look after them until you're able to go back to your house. Your pet should go home flea free. It is also important that you don't vacuum your floors for at least a week after doing the bombs because that decreases the effectiveness of the treatments. Repeat this process every time an animal with fleas visits your house.

This is what I use to wash all my dog bedding and salon linen in. I will also wash dogs in it that have extreme flea and/or tick infestations.

*PLEASE NOTE* All dogs that have fleas and/or ticks will be given a flea bath. 

Now, onto ticks. There are 3 main types of ticks- The dog tick, the bush tick and the paralysis tick. The paralysis tick is the one you have to watch out for as it can cause an animal to be extremely sick and even die. It does this by doing exactly what it's name states- paralyses the animal. Usually starting in the back legs and ending up in their lungs where they eventually suffocate to death. 

Here is a chart to demonstrate the different life cycles of all the different ticks. 

I recently nearly lost my cat from a paralysis tick and I cannot express how heart breaking it is to see an animal suffer like that. I used to have the mind set that "it won't happen to me"

 I noticed my cat who is black, overweight and very fluffy was really starting to struggle. Being that it had been over 40 degrees for the past week and she is very fluffy and also suffers from asthma I just thought she was just struggling with the heat so I booked her in at my vet to get shaved on the following Monday. It was Friday when I first noticed she was sick. At that stage she was still eating and walking around a little, she was just wheezing a bit. On Saturday, she took a turn for the worst, her meow had turned into a raspy noise, she still ate, but she didn't move from the bathroom all day. I was thinking it was getting a little odd but I still thought it was just the heat. On Saturday night she stopped eating and I noticed her gagging. If my cat didn't eat then that is a pretty good sign that she was very sick! On Sunday morning she was struggling to breathe, I was giving her a pat and that's when I noticed a paralysis tick on the base of her tail. I pulled it off and raced her to the vet. Anyway 8 days in vet hospital and $1000 later she made it through. I am now very diligent when it comes to tick treating my pets. Dogs are a lot easier then cats though. There is only one product on the market (frontline plus) that will provide cats with some form of protection against ticks, but there are several products out there for dogs. I use "Virbac preventick collars" on my dogs. They last about 2 months and cost around $12 at any pet shop. My dogs have since never had a tick on them. They are not waterproof though so will need to be removed before any swimming or bathing. 

You may wonder why your dog or cat had a paralysis tick and not become sick because of it. My vet told me that the paralysis tick has to of had two separate blood meals before becoming poisonous. So for example. A tick had it's first blood meal from a possum, once full it jumped off and is now waiting in the ground for it's next victim. Along comes fido on his morning walk and the tick jumps on fido. The tick is now having it's second blood meal on fido. Fido goes home and plays with Fifi the cat, and the tick jumps onto Fifi, the tick is NOW poisonous and Fifi is in a lot of trouble. It can take hours or days for the effects of the tick to become apparent. I have also noticed that some animals develop an immunity to the tick poison after a while. I groom a malamute that is always covered in ticks, but she always seems to be fine. 

These are just some of the ticks I pulled off the malamute. The first time she came it was a lot worse. 

I hope I have given you all some good information here, it is a hard battle to fight with these parasites but with a lot of determination it can be won.