Some pet owners might have more guests than they’d bargained for this Christmas as thousands of flea eggs hatch in our homes, warns leading veterinary charity, PDSA.

The charity for pets in need of vets is warning owners that they, and their four-legged friends, could be set for a winter of stressful scratching thanks to their unwanted visitors.

PDSA statistics* show that there is a 20 per cent drop in the sale of flea treatments during the winter months. Vets believe this is because many owners simply do not realise that fleas are just as rampant in the winter as the summer months.

“It might be cold outside,” says PDSA Senior Veterinary Surgeon, Sean Wensley, “but our warm houses provide the perfect breeding ground for fleas. People turn up the central heating to keep their homes warm, but this means that fleas are able to thrive”

“Pet owners should take effective steps to rid their pets, and their homes, of these parasites by carrying out a regular flea treatment programme,” added Sean.

Fleas can lay thousands of eggs all around our homes – wherever your pet goes the fleas go too! PDSA estimates that some pet owning households could contain around 20,000 flea eggs at any one time, many of which will develop into adult fleas within a matter of weeks – feeding off both owner and pet.

Sean said: “A population of just one hundred fleas can increase to over ten thousand fleas within the space of just six months because of the rapid rate at which they reproduce.

Flea eggs fall off your pet wherever it goes, in particular where they sleep. So if your pet snoozes with you at night, your bed could be infested with hundreds of flea eggs.

With around 14 million cats and dogs in the UK today, most at some point in their lives will be affected by fleas.

“It is vital that owners regularly use appropriate flea treatments in the correct manner” adds Sean. “Using a dog flea treatment on a cat can result in fatal poisoning, as can exceeding the recommended dosage, so always consult your vet for advice on the best flea treatment to use. PDSA vets regularly see pets that have been treated incorrectly with flea treatments, some of whom, sadly, do not survive.”

“Remember too that treating your pet is only part of the solution as you will have to treat your home and any other pets within your household too. Everything the dog or cat comes into contact with should be treated with a product recommended by your vet, otherwise it is inevitable that the fleas will come back.”

Fleas can cause very serious health problems. They are one of the most common causes of distressing skin problems in dogs and cats and in severe cases smaller animals, particularly kittens, can die from anaemia due to blood loss from the feeding fleas.

To encourage owners to treat their pets over the winter period, PDSA, in conjunction with Pfizer Animal Health, is offering its eligible clients a special ‘buy one get one flea’ promotion. For the next six months**, with every three flea treatments they purchase at their local PDSA PetAid hospital, clients will get a fourth treatment absolutely free***! For more information clients should contact their local PDSA PetAid hospitals or call freephone 0800 917 2509.

Did you know?

·         Fleas thrive in a warm environment

·         Fleas can jump 20cm high, over a metre long and will jump around 10,000 times when looking for a dog or cat host.

·         Fleas can feed for up to three hours from one site, and can drink up to 140% of their own body weight in blood.

·         Eggs, larvae and pupae can also be carried around the house on the soles of our shoes.

* In 2007, 78,795 flea products were sold in PDSA PetAid hospitals during summer months, compared to 64,213 in the winter.

Can Dogs Get Fleas In Winter? is a post from: Dog Allergies

“When we evaluated our existing intradermal skin test, we wanted to ensure that we were testing for the broadest and most relevant allergens for Southern California. Working closely with our allergen provider, we reviewed all of the pollens available, and determined what new or additional allergens we should specifically test for in this area while also considering the cross-reactions of these pollens to develop the most efficient test for our clients’ pets. Southern California is a unique region with pollens typical of a desert climate as well as a coastal climate. Our new test takes both of those climates into account. We also considered the wild life in this region and have added allergens to our test from animals such as rat, rabbit, mouse, and horse to name a few,” says Dr. Brett Wildermuth DACVD, Animal Dermatology Clinic Inc., San Diego.

Intradermal allergy testing (“skin testing”) is one of two types of allergy tests offered by Animal Dermatology Clinic for assessment and more specifically the selection of allergens used as a treatment for environmental allergies. This test can be performed in dogs, cats and horses. Our doctors work with the referring veterinarian and the pet owner to determine which test is optimal for each individual pet. From these tests, veterinary dermatologists are able to create an individualized set of allergens to be administered to your pet based on the results of his or her test. This process, known commonly as hyposensitization or more appropriately allergen specific immunotherapy, and is a therapy commonly used in both animals and humans to aid in the management of allergic disease.

Founded in 1980 by Dr. Craig Griffin, Animal Dermatology Clinic has the distinction of being the first privately owned clinic approved by the American College of Veterinary Dermatology to provide a residency program, and is the largest group of veterinary dermatologists across the globe. Since 1980, Animal Dermatology Clinic has expanded to include seven full time clinics in California, Georgia, Kentucky and Indianapolis, fourteen satellite locations throughout California, Georgia, Kentucky and Indianapolis, and more expansion is planned. For more information, please visit the website at http://www.animaldermatology.com.

Skin Conditions in Dogs Breakthrough? is a post from: Dog Allergies

Pet allergies can cause watery eyes, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, scratchy, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, and even hives. To keep you responding to your dog instead of reacting to him, try some of these suggestions.

1. Restrict the areas in your home to which your dog has access.

2. Wash your bedding weekly.

3. Make sure you have your allergy shots and take any medication your doctor advises.

4. Purchase a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to remove allergens from your home.

5. Eliminate carpets, draperies, and stuffed furniture from the bedroom to keep your pillows, mattress, and bedding allergen free. Treat carpet and upholstered furniture in other rooms with an anti-allergen dust spray.

6. Use allergen-proof vacuum cleaner bags.

More dog allergies advice here.

6 Tips For Relief of Dog Allergies is a post from: Dog Allergies

This video tackles the issue of dog allergies from a veterinary stand point.

More information on dog allergies – for free.

Dog Allergy Tips Video is a post from: Dog Allergies

In the article they discuss the hypoallergenic dog breed myth as well as the link between skin rather than hair as a cause of dog allergies.

This information is useful for people who are having problems with high shedding dogs as well as people who are thinking of getting a dog but are unsure what breeds to go for if an allergy is present.

Dog Allergies and Shedding is a post from: Dog Allergies

Does the presence of your dog cause you to sneeze unmercifully? Do your eyes fill with tears of misery instead of tears of joy when your canine companion wants to be close? Many of us who love animals find that we can’t even pet them without having severe allergic reactions. Miserable allergies prevent us from sharing our lives with the four-legged friends we adore.

Tips for Dealing With Allergies to Dogs

Pet allergies can cause watery eyes, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, scratchy, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, and even hives. To keep you responding to your dog instead of reacting to him, try some of these suggestions.

1. Restrict the areas in your home to which your dog has access.

2. Wash your bedding weekly.

3. Make sure you have your allergy shots and take any medication your doctor advises.

4. Purchase a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to remove allergens from your home.

5. Eliminate carpets, draperies, and stuffed furniture from the bedroom to keep your pillows, mattress, and bedding allergen free. Treat carpet and upholstered furniture in other rooms with an anti-allergen dust spray.

6. Use allergen-proof vacuum cleaner bags.

Symptoms of Being Allergic to Dogs inc Tips is a post from: Dog Allergies

With few exceptions, commercially made dry food is primarily cereal based with the major portion of the protein coming from grains and a dash of animal protein in the ingredients. An amazing number of dogs have been able to exist and adapt to these diets, which have made the dog into a partial herbivore instead of a carnivore.

Do Commercial Dog Food Diets Provoke Allergies?

Canned diets, which usually contain more animal protein with a dash of cereal, are also popular, especially among toy breeds. Some people successfully combine these two.

Many dogs cannot thrive on commercially prepared rations. However, they exhibit disease states, often mistaken for allergies, which are deficiency diseases caused by cereal-based foods.

Dogs in a natural state would eat meat. Their teeth are formed to tear flesh from the bone, and they would share a carcass with a pack of other dogs.

The carcass would be that of a grass-eating animal – an herbivore. Along with the internal organs dogs would eat the predigested grasses and plants of the carcass. Those grasses and plants would consist of no more than 20 to 25 percent of the dogs’ total diet.

They would raid nests from ground-breeding birds and eat the eggs, and they would catch the occasional insect. These dogs might forage on certain weeds and grasses.

In formulating a more natural diet we have stayed within these boundaries – with the exception of the insects. A natural diet follows as closely as possible what the dog would eat if still in the wild state.

It takes into account the limitations of the dog’s short digestive tract, strong stomach acid and the enzymes the canine system produces to break down food. It consists of two meats: One is a cereal meal plus supplements, which makes up 25 percent of the total diet, and the other is a raw meat meal plus supplements, which is 75 percent of the total diet.

The advantages of a natural diet are many. Health and longevity are increased, there is resistance to disease and the diet can be tailored to individual needs. This is crucial for some breeds of dogs, especially imported dogs or relatives of imported dogs, who have difficulty in digesting corn, which is in the majority of prepared commercial diets. The diet allows individual ingredients to be substituted.

Is A More Natural Diet Better For Your Allergic Dog? is a post from: Dog Allergies

She has some sort of Itchy skin problem, and for the last few months has been on an anti allergy food (nature’s menu and a hypo-allergenic biscuits) with a daily piriton…. It does seem to have settled a bit, but recently she has started to scratch more, and today I found a patch of very red, hot skin with small pus filled “blisters/spots”

I have never seen this kind of skin behaviour on any animal ever…. this is situated on the skin high up on the inside of her back legs…

If anyone knows what this could be, or knows of anything that could help, please let me know… She also sleeps a lot, I dont know if this is because she’s turned two, and is maturing/mellowing out….. but when on a long day out, she does tend to want back to the car as if to say, “let’s go home im pooped”

Thanks!

If you have any advice on this particular skin complaint in dogs, please comment below:

My Dog Has a Skin Complaint is a post from: Dog Allergies

An allergy means a sensitivity to something or other; usually a food of some kind. Heat bumps in children are an example. Perhaps your puppy has an allergy to eggs, or fish, or even milk with the cream on it.

Perhaps you have bathed it in some kind of medicated shampoo to which its skin is sensitive.

Only by a process of elimination will you be able to find out what is causing this irritation. In the meantime, just to make sure the vet is right in his diagnosis.

Puppy Allergy Advice

It is strongly advisable that you bathe the dog in a good anti-pesticide soap that the druggist can recommend for mange; when you have washed the puppy, dry it with the soap left in.

This will make sure the spots you mention are not follicular mange, which has the same symptoms and which the soap will cure.

Puppy Allergies Question is a post from: Dog Allergies

Under the loving care of man dogs now have virtually no coat (the Chinese crested dog and the Mexican hairless), weird corded coats that the dogs develop naturally at about the age of two (the puli and the komondor), thick double coats like all of the northern spitz types – the sled dogs – and hard, fine, single coats like the pointer and the greyhound.

They can have hard wiry coats like most of the terriers, or soft, woolly coats like the soft-coated wheaten terrier. One breed, the dachshund, can come in three coat types: short, long and wire. The fox terriers, the chihuahua, affenpinscher and collie, also come in two, and so it goes.

Dog Skin and Care in Breeds

Poodles have no natural maximum coat length. Their hair will grow as long as they live. They are potential hippies. The only thing that spares them that fate is our ego-inspired attentiveness. Read any book of standards. Coat types vary enormously.

When thinking about variations that have been brought about in dogs keep in mind that we generally encounter relatively few breeds in the United States. The American Kennel Club currently recognizes 135 breeds for show purposes. There are at least three hundred more breeds that the AKC has yet to acknowledge.

It is not that the dogs are being kept out of the hallowed halls by some arcane exclusionary plot, but rather that there has been too little interest in them to establish studbooks and successful breeding programs here. Potentially all could be given AKC recognition in the future. All three hundred or so “exotic” breeds are recognized by kennel clubs in other countries, some as close by as Mexico and Canada.

Changes in Dog Skin and Coat

Skin often undergoes changes in the process of domestication. Lots of flaps and folds are juvenile characteristics in wolves that many dogs retain throughout life. Again, our sense of aesthetics and our need for eternal babies in our pets can be seen at work. Since pet keeping undoubtedly had a great deal to do with our ever taking wolves into our lives and turning them into dogs in the first place, that is all fine and natural.

Advice on Dog Skin Care & Skin Diseases is a post from: Dog Allergies