Help, Fluffy has FLEAS!!!

Help, Fluffy has FLEAS!!!

Despite numerous technological advances, fleas continue to represent a potentially lethal plague upon our pets. Current products are effective so there is little reason for this; the problem seems to be one of understanding.

There are over 1900 flea species in the world. Pet owners are concerned with only one:the cat flea. This is the flea that we find on our pets (cats, dogs, rabbits, and other species) in 99.9% of cases and in order to understand how to control the damage caused by this tiny little animal, you should learn all you can about it.

What Kind of Damage Can Fleas Cause?

It would be a grave mistake to think of the flea as simply a nuisance. A heavy flea burden is lethal, especially to smaller or younger animals. Conditions brought about via flea infestation include:

• Flea Allergic Dermatitis (fleas do not make animals itchy unless they have a flea bite allergy)
  
• Flea Anemia (your pet is loosing blood every time a flea feeds)
  
• Feline Infectious Anemia (a life-threatening blood parasite carried by fleas)
  
• Cat Scratch Fever/Bartonellosis (does not make the cat sick but the infected cat can make a person sick)
  
• Common Tapeworm infection

Fleas can kill pets.

Myths Veterinarians Hear Nearly Every Day:

• My pet cannot have fleas because he lives entirely indoors.  Actually, the fleas really like living inside your home, and it is not at all hard for them to get there.

• My pet cannot have fleas because if there were any fleas they would be biting me. However, fleas do not prefer human blood, and won’t start biting you and your family unless they have to.

This dog has flea allergy dermatitis: or an allergy to flea bites

• We do not have fleas because we have only hard wood floors.  But really, Fleas love to develop in the cracks between the boards of hard wood floors.

• My pet cannot have fleas because I would see them.  This is the hardest truth!! Your pet grooms the fleas off by biting and chewing and consuming them.  You will only see evidence there were fleas by the skin infection in a majority of cases.  If you are seeing the fleas on your pet, he has way more than he can groom off!!

Cats also get flea allergy dermatitis

Fleas are adaptive and their life cycle is always active: eggs are laid, larvae are developing, pupae are growing, etc. The environmental temperature controls how fast this occurs. If you want to eradicate the flea population in a specific home, it is best to attack when numbers are low in the winter. It is a mistake to stop flea control products in the winter as it will be much harder to gain the upper hand in the spring and summer when the populations are rising.

The MORAL OF THE STORY IS THAT FLEAS SHOULD NOT BE UNDERESTIMATED AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO HIT THE FLEA POPULATION WHEN IT IS WEAKEST. HIT THEM HARD!!

The Flea Life Cycle

There are four life stages of the flea and it is important to know how to break this life cycle in more than one place. This two-step approach provides the most rapid control and the least resistance to flea control agents in future flea generations.

The Egg

At any given time about one third of the flea population in someone’s home is in the egg stage. The adult female flea lays up to 40 eggs daily. The eggs are laid on the host where they fall off to hatch in the environment. 

The Larvae

At any given time about 57% of the fleas in someone’s home are in the larval stage. Larvae are like little caterpillars crawling around grazing on the flea dirt that is generally in their vicinity. Flea eggs and flea dirt both fall off the host. When the eggs hatch, there is a bounty of food prepared lovingly by all the host’s fleas waiting for the hatchlings. This is the stage that picks up tapeworm eggs, which are likely to be in the vicinity, as they graze.
The larval stage is capable of cocoon formation and hang around as pupa indefinitely until conditions are right.

The Pupae

By this life stage most young fleas have been killed off by an assortment of environmental factors. Only 8% make it to the pupal stage but once they have spun cocoons they are nearly invincible. The cocoon is sticky and readily picks up dust and dirt. Inside the developing cocoon, the pupa is turning into the flea that we are familiar with. They are especially protected under carpet, which is why carpet has developed such a reputation as a shelter for fleas.

The pupa can remain dormant in its cocoon for many months, maybe even up to a year as it waits for the right time to emerge.

The Unfed Adult Flea

After the pupa develops, it does not automatically emerge from its cocoon. Instead, it is able to remain in the cocoon until it detects a nearby host. The mature pupa is able to detect the vibrations of an approaching host, carbon dioxide gradients, and sound and light patterns. When the mature pupa feels the time is right, he emerges from the cocoon, hungry and eager to find a host.

A common scenario occurs when a dog is boarded during the owner’s vacation. The owner picks up the dog from the boarding kennel and returns home. The mature pupae have been waiting for a host and when the dog enters the home, a huge number of adult fleas emerge at once and attack the dog creating a sudden, heavy infestation. Often the boarding kennel is blamed for giving the dog fleas. What really happened was that the pupae waited to emerge while there was no host present and then they all emerged suddenly when the host arrived.

An unfed flea is able to live for months without a blood meal but during that time it is aggressively using all its powers to locate a host. Once it finds a host, it will never purposely leave the host.

The Fed Flea

After the adult flea finds a host and takes its first blood meal, metabolic changes occur that alter the flea forever. The flea is now called a fed flea and, if separated from its host, will die in only a few weeks without a blood meal. The female flea begins to produce eggs within 24 to 48 hours of her first blood meal and will lay eggs continually until she dies.

The average life span of the adult flea is 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the grooming abilities of the host.

ON AVERAGE, THE TIME PERIOD FROM EGG TO ADULT FLEA IS ABOUT 3 WEEKS.

adapted from VIN's Pet Health Library

THE PET HEALTH LIBRARY By Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, DipABVP  Educational Director, VeterinaryPartner.com