As a pet parent, it’s your job to ensure that your pets are protected. After all, they rely on you to keep them safe and healthy. Pet parasite prevention is essential to stave off fleas, ticks, and heartworms, and the diseases they can spread to your pets. Prevention is actually quite easy, and if you continually administer your pet’s preventatives in a timely manner you will never have to worry about them falling prey to parasites.
The hard – and often costly – part is treating diseases caused by parasites after the fact. At Kryder & Harr Veterinary Clinic, our vets strongly believe in keeping pets on preventatives all year long and can help you choose a parasite preventative that fits your four-legged family member’s lifestyle.
Nix the Fleas and Ticks
Fleas and ticks are common parasites that can put your pet’s health at risk and make them vulnerable to a variety of diseases, skin problems, and even other parasites. Fleas like to make your pet’s fur and skin their long-term home and can cause flea allergy dermatitis, anemia, and Bartonella, and they can even transmit tapeworms to your pets.
Our veterinarians say ticks don’t stick around on your pet for long, but in the time they are attached to your pet’s skin, they have a prime opportunity to spread tick-borne illnesses such as:
- Lyme disease
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
- Ehrlichia
- Anaplasmosis
Simply giving your pet a parasite preventative on a consistent basis will help them avoid these parasites and their diseases.
Nothing Heartwarming About Heartworms
Heartworms are spread when an infected mosquito bites your pet. This internal parasite travels through the bloodstream until it reaches the heart and blood vessels of the lungs. Here, they grow and multiply and cause severe and often fatal damage to your pet’s internal organs. Dogs are the common carriers of heartworms, but cats can contract this parasite too.
Treating heartworms is possible for dogs – but it’s very expensive and precarious. A safe and reliable treatment hasn’t been discovered yet for cats. With this knowledge in mind, it only makes sense to keep your cat or dog on parasite preventatives.
