Fleas

I believe this to be the most over treated problem in veterinary medicine. My personal 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 a client is particularly concerned over the possibility of their pet getting fleas, and would prefer to use a preventative, that's ok, use frontline or advantage on a monthly basis. These are the best two flea treatments available.

However, me personally, I don't particularly mind if my pet gets a flea or two, as I just treat her for a few months then and leave it at that. I've only needed to treat my dog twice in 10 years. She just doesn't seem to be in an environment where there's a problem.

By not routinely treating for fleas when I don't really have to I have achieved 2 things: firstly I have reduced a lifetime of potentially toxic drugs in my dogs system. Secondly, I've saved myself about $140 per year. I constantly argue that I would rather a client 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: 3  things to look for:

	The fleas themselves. Part the hair near the rump and search for the 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 1 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 frontline in these cases are worthwhile.

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO TREAT MY PET FOR FLEAS:If seeing fleas or if suspicious of fleas, we recommend frontline or advantage. 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!

Hence flea treatments are up to the individual, however I would ideally advise that routine treatments are not necessary, unless there is a history of ongoing flea problems.