Protect Your Pet From Fleas and Ticks: Treating an infestation

In our last blog post we talked about how to prevent fleas and ticks on your pet. If you do find that your pet is carrying a tick or fleas, it’s important to get treatment going right away. Remember these three steps:

1. Treat your pet
2. Treat your environment
3. Treat your yard

Got Fleas?

A pill like Advantus is the first step in treating a flea infestation on your pet. This will kill adult fleas on your pet within 1 hour and stop fleas from biting, landing and laying more eggs. To soothe irritated skin, us a gentle hypoallergenic shampoo like Earthbath or Tropiclean.   After 1 dose of the pill, you can begin using a preventative topical to continue to kill any fleas that are present, and prevent additional fleas from landing, biting, and laying more eggs on your pet. 

Not only should you treat your pet, you will also need to treat your living space. Vacuum, wash all bedding and blankets, and apply a home powder or spray.  Our favorite is Wondercide Flea & Tick Pet + Home Spray.

Next, treat your yard with an outdoor spray to kill any fleas and ticks in our yard and prevent them from coming into your home or landing on your pet.  Wash any outside bedding with hot water and spray with a bedding spray once you place it back outside. 

Keep in mind you may need to treat these spaces multiple times over several weeks to completely eradicate a flea infestation. You may also see adult fleas every now and then during treatment.

Got Ticks?

Getting rid of ticks is a bit different. If you find a tick on your dog, you need to remove it immediately but carefully. This step-by-step process from the Central California SPCA is a good guide.

Once the tick is removed there shouldn’t be any additional problems with that specific bite, but be sure to treat your yard all year long and keep brush clear. This will give ticks less room to climb and attach to your pet.

We know this is a lot of information, so feel free to give us a call or pop into your nearest Incredible Pets location and we’ll be happy to get you started!