Animals commonly get multiple kinds of parasites, including heartworm, fleas, and ticks. Thankfully there are options to treat and prevent them.
Heartworms are worms that are transmitted to both dogs & cats through the bite of an infected mosquito. It can cause significant health problems in your pet, affecting their ability to breathe and as well as cause severe heart disease and even death. It’s very important to keep your pets on a monthly preventative medication so that they are protected. Here at Imperial Highway Animal Clinic, we recommend using the topical medication Revolution Plus for cats and injectable Proheart for dogs. For more information on heartworms see this website https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/petcare/heartworm-disease
Fleas are another parasite that affects our pets every year. Fleas are a small external parasite that feeds on the blood of your pet. Some pets are allergic to their saliva and can have a mild reaction on with a small amount of redness on their skin, or a significant reaction causing hair loss and opens sores on their body. Our pets can also get the intestinal parasite tapeworm from ingesting a flea https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/petcare/external-parasites
Since fleas thrive in a warm humid environment, California has a good climate for them to live year-round. Luckily, there are preventative medications that can also be used to treat your pet if they are infested. Imperial Highway recommends using Revolution Plus in cats and Simparica or Nexgard in dogs every 30 days to prevent infestation.
Ticks are another unruly parasite that can affect both dogs and cats. Dogs are more likely to get invested with ticks because ticks generally live in wooded areas where we may walk and hike with our dogs. Like fleas, ticks feed off the blood of our pets by attaching onto the animal. Ticks are also known to carry diseases like Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which is also transmissible to humans.
Thankfully the same preventative medication that you can use to prevent fleas, you can also use to prevent ticks! Revolution Plus in cats is a 6 in one treatment that prevents against heartworm, fleas, ticks, ear mites, roundworms, and hookworms! Simparica and Nexgard kill both fleas and ticks in dogs. We offer many of these products online from our online pharmacy. You can shop our pharmacy here!