What Are The Symptoms Of Dog Fleas?

After a cold, trembling and snow infested winter when the sun shines through the leaves of the trees and the warm weather indulges you to go camping to the beach… fleas attack your canine friend!

Dogs do not appreciate the hot and humid climate as humans do and fleas lay eggs, populate more in this kind of humid weather. They look for their blood meal too. Beaches, humid places, and wetlands which have warm temperatures are the perfect place for them to jump on your dogs. They jump on you too!

What are Dog-fleas? How are they Unusual?

A dog-flea is an ectoparasite. Ectoparasites are organisms that reside on the skins and outgrowths of the skins of other organisms (commonly known as the hosts) for a long time. Their source of food is the body of the host from which they extract blood for their metabolism.

Many of these ectoparasites are host specific and likely the dog-fleas will choose dogs as hosts and cat-fleas will choose cats as hosts. Some ectoparasites (like ticks) on the other hand are not hosted specifically.

Dog-fleas and cat-fleas look similar but you can only differentiate them only under a powerful microscope. Cat-fleas are widespread species compared to dog-fleas. Sometimes cat-fleas don’t act ‘host-specific’ and attack other mammals including dogs. Dog-fleas are not that common as the cat-fleas in the US and so most of the fleas which infest on to a dog’s skin are cat-fleas.

From Where do Dogs Get Fleas in the First Place?

It is nothing to do with your dog being clean, you being clean or you having a clean house. Dogs can get fleas even after you give your pet hygienic baths regularly or you and your dog living in a tidy house. If your dog has fleas, it does not mean that you are not taking proper care of your pet. Various reasons are there for flea infestations on your dog. These are the major:

• From other animals: Dogs are social animals and they really love the walks you take them to parks, gardens, and other open-aired places. Dogs mostly get fleas from other flea infected animals they come across. Be extremely careful of a flea carrying animals like squirrels, birds, opossums, raccoons, and ferrets when you take your pet outdoors. Flea-eggs may drop to your dog from them.
• From your home outdoors: Matured fleas thrive for their blood meal and may hang around in your garden, portico, garage, yard and other places near your home. When dogs roam around at these places they identify their hosts and jump on them. Fleas can’t fly but they jump high and travel a long distance.
• From inside your home: Fleas also jump inside your home from outdoors and hide in drapes, couches and other shady places. Dogs can get infected from these places also. Flea eggs are non-sticky and they fall apart on carpets and other ground areas inside your house. Ground areas are also potential places of flea invasion.
• From yourself only: Fleas can jump on you and hide in your clothes, luggage if you have been roaming around in flea-infested places like parks, jungles gardens. They get a confident entry to your house along with you.

How do you Know that your Dog has Fleas?

Fleas are perilous for your dogs, especially if the pets are old or just puppies. Flea bites irritate their skins and the itchiness can lead to serious allergic reactions. Moreover, fleas are able to extract blood from the hosts almost 15 times more than their own body weight. Just think about the little ones!

Listed below are some preliminary hints by which you get to know that your dog has fleas:

Flea eggs and flea droppings:

A matured female dog flea lay about 20 to 50 eggs per day. They produce blood wastes or droppings after their meal, which are reddish black and look like small granules. Both flea eggs and droppings are non-sticky and they easily fallout from the dog’s skin. While the flea eggs are white in color and the droppings are black in color. If you find them on your carpets, mats, and places where your pet sits to relax, make sure your dog has fleas.

When your dog suffers from anemia:

Regularly check the gums of your dogs. Check whether they seem pale or whitish which is very unlikely. If they are pale or whitish, rest assure your pet is suffering from anemia. Anemia is a condition when there is a deficiency of hemoglobin or red cells in the blood.

They are protein molecules that carry oxygen. Anemia occurs when there is a drastic loss of blood in the body. Fleas extract a lot of blood from dogs during infestations thus making them anemic. Your dog will feel weak, nautical and have breathing problems.

The video here can explain more accurately:

Dermatitis leading to hair loss:

When fleas bite dogs, saliva is secreted from their mouth which causes skin irritations which eventually lead to itchy and dry skin, forming rash and finally swollen reddened blisters. This kind of skin condition is called dermatitis.

Older dogs and young puppies are prone to dermatitis because of flea bites which lead to hair loss along with sore skin. These kinds of allergic reactions are common in the hind parts of quadruped animals which include the legs and tails.

Fidgety attitude:

Dogs become fidgety as fleas bite them more and more. These bites cause prickly irritations because of the toxic saliva of the fleas. Dogs tend to bite on various parts of their own body. Scratching, rubbing their skin against anything which comes across becomes a regular phenomenon. The poor creatures are infected by fleas for sure.

Tapeworms in their bodily wastes:

Tapeworms belong to the cestode family of intestinal worms. Dogs don’t get tapeworms inside them by simply eating fertilized tapeworm eggs. But how come you get to see tapeworms in their bowels? When tapeworms lay eggs they are ingested by flea larvae. As the larval flea matures the tapeworm egg also matures.

While scratching and biting their own body parts, dogs ingest tapeworm infected fleas too. When the flea gets digested in the dog’s stomach the tapeworm eggs hatch and hangs to the intestinal border. If you see tapeworms in your dog’s body wastes or bowels, be assured your dog is infested by fleas.

How to Examine your Dog Whether it has a Flea Infection or Not?

Following are the few easy steps to know whether your dog is infected by fleas or not:

• Hold your dog and let it lie on its back.
• Apply your fingers gently on the armpits and groin areas. These areas are perfect for fleas to stick to as they are darker areas compared to other exposed areas of your pet’s skin. Remember, your pet is a quadruped animal.
• Look carefully at the belly; look for scratches made by your pet’s limbs.
• Get hold of a flea comb and gently comb the deep hairy parts of its skin. Flea combs have special teeth that are capable to trap fleas and flea eggs from your pet.

Watch this video to have more ideas:

Finally

Fleas may steal your sleep. They are irritating insects who bother you, your pet dog and finally your family. They can even give you nightmares. Eradicating fleas is not an easy job, especially from the furry skins of your canine friends. Our advice is to look for specialized guidance. Call a pest control company, ask for an expert exterminator and get a complete cure.

Skip the research and talk to the exterminator to kill Fleas

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