Fleas

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I decided to create this topic because I am a registered vet technician and have been in the Veterinary field for over 12 years.  I love animals and will always stay in touch with this side of my life even when Vai Athletica becomes world wide!! Here on the central coast our climate is a safe haven for fleas!  We do not get hot enough or cold enough to eliminate fleas! We definitely have weather where they are more prevalent but the point is, we have fleas here all year round!

Quick Tip: Lifecycle of a Flea: Let’s talk about the population statistics of our foe. The adult fleas hopping around on your companion and in your house are only about 1% of the entire flea population in your home environment. This means that for every flea you see, there are probably at least 99 more in one or another stage of development lurking around the house or yard. Eight to ten percent of the population is in the pupae (cocoon) stage, 35-37% is in the larval stage and 50-54% of the population consists of flea eggs.
Flea Life Cycle: The adult female flea can lay from 10 to 50 eggs a day in ideal weather. Fleas tend to prefer warm, somewhat humid weather – 75-95 degrees with 60-85% humidity. Considering an adult flea can live up to 60-100 days, a single flea could lay upwards of 2000 eggs in her lifetime. And even if only half of those go on to reproduce…well; you get the picture – lots and lots of fleas!  The eggs are laid on the “host” – your companion animal, and most will fall off onto the floor or bedding, or in the yard. The majority of those eggs and the resulting larvae and pupae remain within fifty feet of their host’s favorite resting spot, so keep that in mind when we get to the part about treating the environment. Flea larvae emerge from the eggs within 1 to 10 days, although if conditions are not ideal, the egg can remain in the environment much longer, waiting for the right opportunity to hatch. The larval stage lasts 5 to 11 days and is a time of vulnerability in the flea’s life cycle. Once they spin their cocoons and “pupate,” which takes 5 to 9 days, they are then in a pre-adult state within the cocoon that can last from only a few days to more than 6 months.  Now you can understand why “bug bombs” just don’t work. They only kill the fleas in the adult and larval stage at best. So all those thousands of eggs and little cocoons are still lurking and waiting for the proper conditions in order to emerge and start the whole population explosion all over again. One more detail about our foe the flea: they can spread disease and tapeworms. The way the flea feeds is by sticking its pointy little nose into the host and injecting a bit of “saliva” to thin the blood before sucking it. This is why so many pets are allergic to flea bites and end up with severe rashes and hot spots. © 2019 Only Natural Pet LLC – All Rights Reserved View Desktop. Our Honest Products, Your Healthy Pet Our Honest Promise We only source healthy, high-quality ingredients.
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This was a great bit of info!! And the rash it just mentioned is medically termed FAD, flea allergy dermatitis. This true allergy cats and dogs have to the actual saliva of the flea!  Once they start excessively licking they create secondary skin infections and or hot spots! Yes, fleas transmit tapeworms and diseases!  Some of the diseases are zoonotic ( transmittable to humans)

Quick Tip:  Do fleas on my pet present a health risk to my family? Yes. Fleas can carry and transmit several potential illnesses of importance to humans, including typhus and plague, and can transmit “cat scratch disease” (infection with Bartonella) among cats who can then spread the disease to humans. Additionally, fleas serve as an intermediate host for tapeworms, which can infect your pet and occasionally humans. Copyright © 2019 CAPC. All rights reserved.

So basically let’s all take our pets health seriously and our own and apply flea treatment accordingly to the treatment used.  Please ask your established veterinarian on best treatment out there that fits your budget because there are definitely products out there that are not safe/recommended by your Vet!  All Vet clinics should have otc and prescription products!

Thanks for reading!