Fleas
We believe this to be the most over treated problem in veterinary medicine. Our philosophy on our “risk-reward” ratio for drugging our pets is that it is not worth routinely treating our pets with flea treatments every month unless there is a great enough suspicion that a problem actually exists. By all means if one of our clients were particularly concerned over the possibility of their pet getting fleas and would prefer to use a preventative – then that’s OK. In this case we would recommend using Advantage or Comfortis on a monthly basis as these are the best two flea treatments available.
The majority of our team personally don’t particularly mind our pets getting a flea or two as they are then simply treated for a few months and then left until the emergence of a new flea. One of our canine case study clients only required treatment twice in 10 years! She merely didn’t seem to be in an environment where there was a problem.
By not routinely treating for fleas when you don’t really have to achieves two things:
- Firstly, a reduction in what could have been a lifetime of potentially toxic drugs in your pets system and;
- Secondly, a savings of approximately $140 per year
We would rather our clients spend this sort of money on pet insurance rather than products a pet doesn’t really need, so if we need to repair a severely fractured leg, or treat an aggressive cancer for potentially thousands of dollars, the patient is now well looked after!
How Do I Know if My Pet Has Fleas?
Three things to look for:
- The fleas themselves. Part the hair near the rump and search for small black insects. They’re fairly obvious
- Flea dirt. Flea faeces look like tiny black specs that are actually curled on close examination
- Excessive scratching that is unusual for your pet. Allergic pets may only require one flea bite to start scratching excessively for potentially days to weeks. If your pet is actually allergic to fleas you may never see the flea, just excessive scratching. Trial treatments with Advantage in these cases are worthwhile.
What is the Best Way to Treat my Pet for Fleas?
If you are seeing fleas or are suspicious of fleas, we recommend Advantage or Comfortis. These “top spots” have changed the way we treat fleas from years gone by. In the past we would use flea washes or flea powders, flea bombs around the house etc.
With these effective top spots our pets have a month of effective continued treatment. Flea collars are a waste of money!
Flea treatments are up to the individual, however we generally advise that routine treatments are not necessary (unless there is a history of ongoing flea problems).
Heartworm
Heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) is a somewhat controversial disease in Melbourne. Should I prevent it or not worry about it? It is a complicated disease that needs to be prevented because it is extremely hard to cure once infected.
We always encourage our clients to let us know whether they want to prevent this disease or not. Here we explain how the disease works and the pros and cons of prevention:
What is heartworm?
Heartworm is a parasite which lives in the heart. It is transferred from dog to dog by mosquitoes. Once infected, after one month the worm actually changes to a stage that the treatments no longer kill, hence there is only about one month’s time frame in which we can kill new infections.
For proper heartworm prevention we need to use a monthly treatment, and never miss! This is the big difference between heartworm and normal intestinal worms. Normal intestinal worms will be killed by intestinal worm tablets no matter how old the worms are.
It doesn’t really matter if regular intestinal worm treatments are missed. It does matter however if routine heartworm tablets are missed. Fortunately, there is a yearly prevention that can be given in the form of an injection.
This injection lasts one year therefore all new infections are killed.
What does heartworm do to my dog?
The young worms introduced via mosquitoes circulate in the blood stream until they become adults at six months of age, they then lodge in the heart and lungs. It usually takes about two years to actually start showing signs of heart disease but at this stage it’s very difficult to cure. Left untreated heartworm is often fatal.
Do I need to prevent heartworm in Melbourne?
Many clients have told our veterinarians that they’ve had dogs all their lives and never used heartworm prevention and that their dogs have never suffered from heartworm. In Melbourne we expect this to be the case because it is a rarity here. Only a few dogs get infected each year in Melbourne whereas in Queensland and the Northern Territory, heartworm is a very prevalent disease and one would be unwise not to be on prevention in these areas.
In Melbourne, heartworm prevention is a slightly tricky one for our ‘risk-reward’ ratio of medicating our pets. The chance of getting it is low but very nasty for the few that do. As an example, one of our veterinarians treated their own dog until approximately 11 years of age and then stopped.
The rationalisation in doing so in this case was due to the breed of the dog being a Bernese Mountain dog. This particular breed are not generally long lived dogs.
As a generalisation we recommend treating young and middle aged dogs but suggest to our clients to consider stopping prevention in their very latter years. Ultimately the choice is yours as each animal and each case is different!
The take home message on heartworm is:
- In Melbourne, this is a low risk disease
- If infected and not treated, it is usually fatal
- For owners deciding they want prevention, diligence is required – whether using monthly or yearly treatments
Intestinal Worms
There are four main groups of intestinal worms that dogs and cats get. These are: Round worms, tapeworms, hookworms and whipworms. These are generally transferred from dog to dog via the faeco-oral route. Ie: when dogs sniff around trees where other dogs have been they may pick up a few worm eggs and the cycle continues in the pets intestines.
Worm burdens are a potentially serious problem in pups, but more of a mild sinister problem in adults. It’s important to worm pups regularly from 2 weeks of age. Adults ultimately we recommend worming only every 6 months.
If this regular 6 monthly worming is not kept up, it’s not too much of a problem. At least worm your pets once a year. Unlike heartworm, if the intestinal wormer is missed, a subsequent treatment will still kill the worms, no matter how old they are.
We used to recommend intestinal worming every 3 months, but on our “risk-reward” scale have decided recently this is probably over doing things and would be more comfortable with every 6 months, and as a minimum at least once a year.
We need to treat our pets with moderation when it comes to all the routine health, and I would recommend people worming their pets every 6 mths rather than every three months. We do recommend regular worming of pups. The following is a good guideline:
Pups
- Worm every 2 weeks from 2 weeks of age up until 12 weeks
- Then worm once a month up until 6 months
- Then worm every 6 months throughout life.
Pups are more prone to roundworms in particular, which can in fact transfer to humans. Human children in particular can be prone to contracting round worms from pups and can occasionally cause blindness in children. Hence worm your pups regularly, but once over 6 mths of age, every 6 mths is all we recommend.
