While the joys of owning a dog are seemingly endless, chances are that your best friend will eventually bring home a few extra friends in the form of fleas. They're a common issue for pet owners, that if left unchecked, can wreak havoc on your household. It's in everyone's best interest to find them fast and get rid of them even faster. Today we're going to be covering five steps you should take after your dog gets fleas.
Immediately after finding fleas on your dog, you need to give them a complete doggie wash as soon as possible. Some professional services will do this for you, but often it will be faster for you to buy special flea and tick shampoo from your local supermarket and take care of the infestation yourself. Multiple washes may be necessary to completely get rid of the fleas, but the goal is just to thoroughly wash your dog with special shampoo until all the little biters are completely gone.
Once you've cleared your dog of all his new "friends," it's prudent to ensure that no fleas are still hiding in your house, your clothes, or on your person. Take careful steps to isolate anything your dog may have interacted with before you caught the flea infestation. This includes your hair, the clothes you were wearing, and any furniture. Good luck to you if you have carpet as well, because it's time to break out the flea spray and go to town on the house.
In some cases, fleas are only the beginning of the problem. Fleas can carry infections that are transferred to your dog when the flea bites them. Because of this, taking a visit to vet immediately after the infection and again a few weeks later will ensure your dog stays happy and healthy, and that there are no lingering illnesses brought on by the fleas.
Once everything is cleared up and your dog is safe and sound, you may want to find out exactly how your dog got her flea infection in the first place. It could have been from interacting with another dog, or they might have been running in brush. Finding the cause and keeping your dog away from it in the future will minimize the risk of more infections in the future.
Prevention is always better than intervention, and the fewer flea baths we have to do, the happier we'll all be in the long run. Some preventative measures you can take to make sure your dog and home stay flea free include:
