We Found A Tick!

When would you say is the start of flea and tick season? How about mosquitoes? One of the byproducts of temperamental central Illinois weather is that the life cycles of our creepy crawly friends are unpredictable!  Fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes (all of which pose significant threats to our canine and feline friends) are pretty resilient, and they like to show up well before we are expecting them.  

Why are preventatives important? 

Fleas can carry blood borne diseases for cats.  Ingestion of fleas is one of the primary ways cats get tapeworms.  Fleas love living in our homes, and will continue to reproduce in homes during the winter (we love our heated homes, and so do fleas!).  Ticks carry a variety of diseases including lyme disease, ehrlichia, and anaplasma. There is a vaccine for lyme disease, but the others do not have vaccines available and are just as bad (if not worse).  Mosquitoes carry heartworm disease. Preventatives for heartworm disease actually work to keep the larval heartworms (called microfilaria) from reaching maturity. This actually means the preventative is working to prevent last month’s exposure from reaching maturity and causing disease.  Furthermore, it takes 6 months for a test to be positive! A pet who is infected in March wouldn’t have a positive test until September!  

What can you do about these parasites? 

Flea and tick prevention and heartworm prevention should be administered year round.  There are a lot of options, and not all preventative plans will fit all pets! On the bright side, there are lots of options!  The tough thing is that a lot of options can result in a lot of confusion.  

What is available and what do you need to know? 

Cats

In our area, I prefer the Feline Revolution.  I like it because it is administered topically, and has the widest spectrum of coverage.  You do need to be cautious of over the counter products, as these often have a harsher active ingredient.  Some dog products are HIGHLY toxic (even deadly) to cats. 

Dogs:

I could do pages on pages of notes on the differences in preventatives for dogs!  There are so many options, with so many different benefits. I like Heartgard for heartworm and intestinal parasites prevention.  Heartgard comes with a very good reimbursement policy in the event of heartworm infection while taking the preventative. Although this isn’t common, if it does happen, the company will cover treatment (and treatment is quite expensive, especially for a big dog!).  This only applies if the preventative has been purchased from a veterinarian, given year round, and appropriate yearly testing has been performed. Another important option that you can be familiar with is a yearly (that’s right, YEARLY) injectable heartworm preventative called Proheart.  Proheart’s biggest plus is that it is given once yearly, so you don’t have to remember to give preventatives for heartworm disease. In comparison to Heartgard, it doesn’t have quite the same spectrum of prevention against intestinal parasites. The Proheart we carry is only for dogs over 1 year in age, and we don’t recommend it for pets who are sick or at increased risk for autoimmune disease.  For fleas and ticks I like Nexgard, which is an oral preventative given once monthly. I like these oral preventatives because they just seem to be more effective, especially for treating an active flea infection. The chart below is just a few of our more commonly prescribed options.  

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, you’ll understand why preventatives are so important.  A preventative a month keeps the crawlies away!