A FLEA LUNCH
Dr Jules Wilson MRCVS of the Maunu Rd branch of the Northland Veterinary Group HAS THIS SAY...
In the 20 or so years that I have been practicing as a vet I have often found myself to be the subject of a FLEA LUNCH.
I suppose we meet so many patients who are carrying the little blighters it is only a matter of time before one or two decide to jump ship to see if the blood is redder on the other side.
Fleas have been travelling with man and beast for millions of years and despite our best efforts to kill them all they will continue to hitch rides with us and our animal friends way into the future.
Fleas can be found on cats and dogs but also on hedgehogs, rats, mice and men (& women of course). The flea is happy to eat "foreign" take-aways so it may be a cat or dog flea that's sucking my blood today.
Some pets and some people seem to be more "flea-sweet" than others, these are the "flea-magnets" or "flea-bags" that we come across from time to time. Other people or pets seem rarely to harbour the little insect parasites.
They are smart, they are fast and they certainly know the meaning of a FLEA LUNCH. As well as sucking blood from their hosts many fleas carry "blood-borne" diseases ( you may remember that it was the FLEAS from the rats that carried bubonic Plague in the Middle Ages) and also one of the many tapeworms that parasitise mammals.
They can, of course also jump very high and far so it's no surprise when you feel one sprinting up your leg.
You can drown them, you can burn them you can poison them but by far the most satisfying way of killing a flea is by "cracking" it.
You chase the speeding blighter as it races up your hairy leg, catch him or her between finger and thumb, then use the fingernails of two apposing fingers to "crack" the little blood-sucker to death.
As you may detect I have been meeting a few more of these 6 legged sprinters in the last few weeks than I would prefer to.
"Cracking" fleas is a good method to kill fleas in small numbers, but it's not a good method when dealing with hundreds and thousands of them. It is generally said that for every flea you find on yourself or on your pet there are at least 20 more of them in the sofa and carpet or shed floor. In most cases the best way of killing fleas is to poison them.
In then old days we used real nerve gas stuff ( organo-phosphates and organo-chlorines ...remember DDT?). We certainly damaged many fleas and also many of our pets and ourselves with these eco-unfriendly products. In modern times we use flea control products that act only on the insect nervous system so they are much safer and more effective in their work.
These modern day products include Frontline, Revolution & Advantage. They are easy and safe to use and in some cases also contain growth regulators that prevent the flea eggs from hatching and the flea larvae from becoming adults, so we have a two pronged attack.
It's the end of the warm season, in a few weeks, as the weather cools, the numbers of marauding fleas will decline but just now there seems to be a glut of them looking desperately for a FLEA LUNCH.
That may be due to a short warm period allowing more hatching eggs than usual or due to you pet owners not using their flea control products as often as they should... don't forget though that Northland is the "natural home of the flea".
Our warm moist climate allows them to reproduce all the year round, one disadvantage of being in the "winterless North"
Although it is unlikely that we will win the war against fleas I hope we can win a few key battles and I hope that before you bring your lovely fluffy pet into the vet clinic that you will have used a good flea killer so that I don’t have to be a FLEA LUNCH too often in the Winter.
Mid Winter is approaching so perhaps we will get a mid-winter feast to celebrate?
Issue Jun 2007
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