Winter is just around the corner and cat as well as dog owners can breath out – the threat of ticks is on hold for a short while, or at any rate is less than the previous months. But in their stead, heated rooms now offer other parasites optimum living conditions… fleas. And biting lice or mites exist the whole year round. The vets at the Fressnapf specialist retail chain provide some tips for the prevention and combating of parasite infestation.

Fleas
In a well heated home, fleas can really get the hackles up: brought in by dogs or cats in their coats, fleas lay up to 50 eggs a day. These get sprinkled down wherever your pet happens to be. That's why the hatching larvae can remain in covers, cushions, carpets, chinks in the floor, upholstered furniture or even car seats until they emerge as adult fleas and need to dine on blood again. So hoover or clean your housepet's haunts daily. Covers and cushions go in the washing machine on a regular basis. Once the fleas get inside your four walls, their countless offspring are hard to annihilate.

Top priority, therefore: make sure your pet doesn't bring home fleas in the first place. Use a neck band as a prophylaxis, Spot-on or a spray preparation. These aids kill off adult fleas and also help against fresh infestation. Certain medications are preventative by ensuring the fleas can't proliferate should they ever stray into animal fur. These are added to the food. The so-called flea vaccination for cats works in exactly the same way. All these agents hold for different periods of time so their application should be repeated regularly throughout the year.

Biting lice
These little insects need their host animal to survive so that's where they mostly hang out. However, they don't just feed on blood, but rather on skin sheddings, secretions and hair. These one to one and a half millimetre long insects move around on or in the fur of the housepet. So they can be discerned with the naked eye – or their white eggs glued to the animal’s hair. You can prevent them with a thorough daily grooming. That also applies to dog lice – a real bloodsucker. A bath or a spray with insecticide applied twice at an interval of around two weeks helps against infestation.

Mites
These tiny creatures are very difficult for laypeople to get wise to. Depending on the species and their stage of development, mites live on or in the skin, the hair follicles or in the ear canal. Not all types of mite cause severe disorders. But they can give rise to ear or skin inflammation or induce life-threatening mange. The main symptom is itchiness, sometimes scaliness, hair loss, encrusted or inflamed patches of skin. If you suspect mites, you should take your dog or cat to the vet to enable complete treatment of the infestation and the symptoms. Because some species of mite can also infest humans, one should carefully avoid affected animals.


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No chance for fleas and their friends! Fleas and other suchlike little menaces can also spread from pets to upholstery and carpets. That's why pest prevention is imperative. Photo: Fressnapf /Ulrike Schanz (Photos may only be reproduced with permission and in connection with editorial text. High-resolution photos can be requested from the Fressnapf press office.)