The most widely accepted external parasite treatments currently available for pets are Frontline, Advantage, Revolution and Bio-Spot.
These on-the-spot type treatments for dog and cat flea problems all provide one month of complete protection.
Bad news to the flea, Advantage flea works due its active ingredient imidacloprid, which works on the nervous system of the flea causing paralysis and subsequent death.
Within 12 hours of application, 98-100 percent of fleas are dead.
Frontline and Advantage brand flea killers work nearly instantaneously and keep working for a long time.
If you have this treatment available, your animal shouldn't suffer from flea discomfort.
You just need to pick a good flea medicine for your pet's current situation.
Mites, or ticks as they are often called, are external parasites living off the blood of mammals, reptiles and birds.
The American dog tick is arguably the best known of the five in North America.
Now for the scary stuff: Ticks are only second to mosquitoes in transmitting diseases to humans.
Everyone knows that Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness, but ticks also spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever, equine encephalitis, and ehrlichiosis.
They also spread diseases amongst livestock, as well as our beloved pets.
Wood ticks are another kind of mite, living in the Rocky Mountains.
Dog tick treatments include tick collars and dogs' flea/tick shampoos.
Warm weather means an increase in the tick population and the need to monitor your dog for these parasites. When a tick is found it should be completely removed.
Please use extreme caution when removing a tick because if part of the tick is left in the animal the chance of infection increases.
Heartworms are life threatening internal parasites that are transmitted by mosquitoes.
Before becoming adults, the parasites must go through several stages. They enter the blood stream as larvae.
Once mature, the heartworms move to the heart to survive off of the blood supply.
This can cause symptoms including coughing, difficulty breathing, and ultimately heart failure.
If the disease is caught early enough, there are treatments available that may prevent the death of a pet from this parasitic disease.
One treatment available for dogs that also takes care of hookworms and ascarid infections is Interceptor.
Another common infection is kennel cough.
This is a very contagious strain of bronchitis that often spreads in places like kennels, where dogs are near many other dogs.
Prevention is possible through vaccinating for canine adenovirus, distemper, parainfluenza, and bordetella and the infection itself treated with antibiotics.
