With the warm weather coming as spring rolls around again, it’s important to know about flea, tick, and heartworm prevention to keep your furry friends as healthy as can be. Fleas and ticks can be found in just about any environment, even suburban areas. They live on wild animals like raccoons, birds, mice, rats, skunks, and foxes. Basically, any animal with fur that’s running around your neighborhood could be carrying fleas or ticks. This gives them plenty of opportunity to find their way onto your pets and cause problems. Fleas can jump incredible distances and are small enough to be nearly impossible to detect unless you’re trained in finding them. If you notice your pet itching more than usual, fleas or ticks could be the culprit.
Why is flea, tick, and heartworm prevention important?
In the case of fleas and ticks, you may think that they present more of a simple annoyance to your pets. They’ll scratch for a while, and it will go away. But this isn’t the case. If fleas and ticks are left alone to multiply on your pet, they won’t stop until something is done about it. To prevent flea and tick infestations, make sure to regularly purchase and give your pet their flea and tick medicine.
Heartworms are the scarier of these three parasites. Heartworms invade your pet’s circulatory system to feed on their bloodstream and organs. Preventative medicine for heartworms is especially important. While active heartworm infections can be treated through shots, heartworms can cause permanent damage to your pet’s organs. Heartworm prevention is not something to take lightly.
Does flea, tick, and heartworm prevention work?
Yes, it does! Luckily, we can keep these nasty parasites from hurting our pets with flea, tick, and heartworm preventative medicine. Through vaccinations and monthly medicine, you can keep fleas, ticks, and heartworms from infesting your pet. Flea and tick medicine works by preventing flea and tick eggs from hatching, stopping an infestation in its tracks. Heartworm medicine works in a similar way. It kills any heartworm larvae for 30 days. This means, if you give your pet their monthly dose, heartworms will not grow inside your pet. Not only does stopping these infestations keep your pet more comfortable, but it will also help prevent diseases that these parasites can spread to your pet, like:
- Hot spots on skin from itching
- Tapeworms
- Flea allergies
- Lyme disease
- Skin infections
- And more
Faithful Friends Veterinary Care | Flea, tick, and heartworm prevention
At Faithful Friends, everything we do is to keep our beloved pets as healthy, happy, and comfortable as possible so that they can enjoy a long life as your companion. We offer a wide variety of flea, tick, and heartworm prevention medicine for purchase both at our clinic to take with you and on our online store for delivery to your home. We can also perform checks for any of these parasites, as well as procedures to eliminate any flea, tick, or heartworm infestations in your pet. If you would like to know more about flea, tick, and heartworm prevention techniques beyond medication, please ask and we’ll tell you all about what you can do!
To schedule an appointment for your pet, give us a call or send in an online contact form!