Fleas and other parasites

We recommend that all pets be protected against parasitic disease both for their health and yours. These days Veterinarians have extremely safe and effective products to protect your pet - these products are easy to use and very safe for humans as well. Contact your veterinarians for what is important in your local area.

In Perth we recommend that pets be protected against the following:

Fleas

Effective flea control can be achieved by using a monthly product that kills fleas and reduces their ability to breed in the environment. Most of these products are topical and will treat other parasites as well - ask your veterinarian what is the most suitable for your pet.

Controlling fleas helps keep your pet health, reduces the risk of anaemia and reduces the frequency and severity of skin disease. We recommend that all pets be treated for fleas every month of the year as we see flea problems in Perth all year round - and remember that fleas mainly live off your pet so you may not ever see ant or many fleas on your pet.

Intestinal worms

The worms of significance here are roundworm, hookworm, whipworm and tapeworm. Although traditionally given in tablet form many of the newer topical products will treat worms as well as fleas. There is a new cat wormer called Profendor that only treats intestinal worms - it is a topical products that is ideal for those cats that are very difficult to medicate!

Worm investigations can cause chronic ill health, weight loss and cause your pet to be more prone to other infections. Some worms also can cause severe problems for humans so preventing worm problems in your pet makes good sense for them and your family.

Heartworm

The best way to help your pet is to prevent heartworm altogether. There are a variety of products that are extremely effective - they include our preferred product for adult dogs which is a once a year injection or there are some very effective topical or tablet products that are given once monthly. Heartworm disease is not common in cats but can be fatal if they get only one worm - there is also no safe treatment if a cat gets heartworm. For this reason we recommend that you use a product that covers for heartworm as well as other parasites.

In dogs you may see signs ranging from decreased exercise ability, coughing, weight loss and at the end stage heart failure. Heartworm can also affect other organs so pets can become very sick from this parasite. Although there are drugs we can use in dogs to get rid of heartworm a more logical approach is to use medication to prevent it in the first place.

When to give

Each product needs to be given a little differently or needs to be combined to achieve complete parasite control. We recommend that all pets be entered into our Complete Health programme as we will make sure your pet gets everything it needs at the correct time each month. Click to read more about Complete Health.