Fleas In Dogs | Vet Explains

Alright, guys, Dr. Lara here. So what we're going to be talking about today are fleas. What are they? How are they transmitted? How do you treat them? What diseases do you go ahead and get from them? And what are the most common myths? So if you guys stay tuned, we'll get into that and we'll get into it really quickly. All right, so number one, what the heck is a flea? A flea is this tiny little insect. Cue Abraham right now. Picture of the flea. Wait for it, wait for it. There it is. Okay. All right. And so a flea is this little insect. It is the most common parasite that we are going to see on our lovely pets or our family members. And so it is the organism that has the best jumping ability in the world. What is the best jumping ability? They can jump 200 times their body length. That is essentially the equivalent of the average human jumping a quarter of a mile high. Just to give you an idea of how crazy that actually is. I mean, that's bonkers. Nonetheless, that is how they are able to move around and actually jump ship from, from one host, sometimes jump onto another host. That. So that is what a flea actually is. Now, there's 2000 species of fleas. There's one that we're typically going to see. The scientific name is, I'm going to do it as best as possible, is the Tenocephalides elis. Okay. Most commonly known as the cat flea. Right. It is not just seen on cats, it's on scene on pretty much everything. Now the next topic that we will be discussing is going to be how you will typically get fleas. Now, how do you typically get fleas typically in the neighborhood? And it's not going to be how do you, it's your, your pets. You're going to see either cats, foxes, raccoons. Yeah, that's pretty much the most common things. Maybe stray dogs, depending on your neighborhood, probably not. Stray cat is going to be more likely. And each of those animals is going to be acting like a salt shaker. I got to do a little movement because if not I fall asleep during video. So got to make sure I stay active. And they are shedding eggs wherever they go. They're not shedding actual fleas. The fleas are not jumping off. They're actually shedding eggs because the majority of the flea population are the eggs. And so that is typically what's gonna happen is those eggs are gonna fall. Some animal is going to come out. The flea inside the egg is going to sense it. It's going to come out of there in the larva form. And then it's going to be waiting for the next time that the host passes by. Once they pass by, they'll grab on for dear life. And now they will go ahead and they will start looking for poop on your dog. Poop from the adult flea that most likely laid that egg. Just a little fun fact. How many fleas. How many eggs do you think a flea legs lays per day? No idea. 40 to 60 eggs per day. Think about that one flea, multiply that times two, that's 80 to 120. Just two flea eggs. Okay, so the poop that is coming from those adult fleas is going to look like dirt. Usually you're going to want to look, Ruby, we're going to show them. Don't worry, your butt looks great. Typically, the poop is going to be right here. And what you're going to do is it's going to look like dirt. Okay? So the way that we're usually able to tell if it's flea dirt or if it's just dirt is we will get some of it. We will get a white paper towel or piece of paper. We will put some of that flea poop on there. We'll wet it, we'll rub it. If it turns red, that's digested blood. There you go. We're acting like Sherlock Holmes. My kids are in a science museum camp for the summer and they're into detectives and Sherlock Holmes. So super cool stuff. All right, now the next thing. What kind of diseases do fleas transmit? Most commonly, you're going to see tapeworms. So those are those things that sometimes people will decide to eat. If you want to lose the weight and you want to get tapeworms, eat a flea. Kind of gross, huh? I don't know if what's worse, eating the actual worm itself or eating the flea, it's up to you, but that's not really recommended. Just joke aside. Don't do that. Okay? Now, tapeworms can go ahead and they will typically look like little bits of rice on the butt. That's for another video. If you guys want that, please let us know. If you really want us to go ahead and make a video about tapeworms, put it in the comments and we'll go ahead and do a video on that next thing is something called bartonella. That is something that is transmitted through flea bites. And so. Excuse me, I got an itch. No, it's not a flea. Just kidding. Maybe it was, I don't know. But it really Was an itch. That was. That was for real, not fake. Bartonella. It is something that is a systemic disease. It is something that can get pretty gnarly. So that is something that is not commonly seen but can be a potential issue. And in worst case scenario, the fleas can actually suck the life out of you from the amount of blood. If there are enough fleas. Okay, now, next thing that we're going to be talking about are the most common myths. So we're gonna go with the top three. All right, so number one myth is, what do you think? I have an indoor pet, therefore my pets are not going to get fleas. Ruby, what do you think? No means no. You got it, Ruby. All right, so in regards to your indoor getting, your indoor pet getting fleas. Yes, they can get fleas by you bringing it in by another animal coming there. Is it common? No, it's not very common. So I'm not going to say, oh, no, your pet can definitely have fleas. No, that's not the case. But it is something that is a possibility. So keep that in mind. So that myth is debunked. Myth number two, I have tile wood stamp cement, however fancy you want to get marble. I can't get fleas. No. Remember, the majority or what you see those actual little creepy crawlies that you see, see on the dogs or cats, that's only 5% of the flea population. It's those 40 to 60 eggs per day that each flea, female flea is laying. That. That's going to be in your environment. Now, if you have these things instead of like, like carpet, which one would think, hey, it'll be harder to get rid of fleas or not get fleas if you don't have carpet. It's easier to clean up to steel, steam to vacuum and that kind of stuff. But the fleas actually, or the flea eggs will go into little crevices either between the planks of wood in the grout lines. So that is myth number two. Myth number three is I don't have any bites on my ankles or anywhere on my body. And therefore, if I don't have it, then my dog doesn't have it. The cat flea will typically only bite humans. A last resort. So let's see what this. What kind of no this is here? No, no, no, no, no. I counted, I think four or five nos, so that's definitely a no. Just because you're not getting bit does not mean that your pet does not have fleas. Honestly, the most common thing if your pet is chewing Ruby we're going to show one more time. Don't worry, don't get body conscious for from here back then that is going to be an indicator. First thing for me as a doctor, I'm gonna think fleas. Okay? That's the first thing. So those are the most common myths that we have or the top three last are the ways to get rid of the fleas. So it's gonna be topical treatments which we used to back used to use very commonly back in the day. And nowadays we use oral treatments that you give typically once a month or maybe a little bit even less infrequently. If you guys really want us to get into the different options for flea and tick medication, please make it in the comments. Let us know, let us know what the most common flea medications you use and also if you've had good experiences or bad experiences and what's worked. If you guys found this video helpful, also let us know and please interact with us on social media. It really helps the channel a lot. Thanks for watching and have a blessed day. I'm sorry, just kidding.