I think we addressed that a moment ago, but it's still worth repeating again. Yes, they can get fleas in even during the winter time from other pets that may have it or if you had a flea problem in your house through spring, summer, and autumn. Just so you know, autumn in this area, in this part of North Carolina, and throughout the Piedmont area, the peak season for fleas is autumn; September, October, and November are always the worst three months for fleas. So if you have fleas on your pets and don't adequately get rid of the problem, the fleas are going to stay in the house all winter long. If you got pets, your pets could get fleas even in during the winter months. But typically, we do not see fleas outdoors in January, February, and March. Begin with year-round protection. Keep your cats and dogs on year-round flea medication to ensure that they're not going to have any problems any time of the year.

You would think that just because they have thicker hair, they're going to be less of a target. There can be a little bit of a grain of truth to that. However, fleas take the path of least resistance. If you got a short-haired cat rather than a long-haired cat, it's going to be easier for them to access and get down to the skin in order to suck blood on a short-haired cat, but not exclusively so. Long-haired cats can be a target for fleas. The frustrating thing about having a long-haired cat is trying to find fleas. You're going to have much more difficulty trying to find them on a long-haired cat than on a short-haired cat. There are flea combs and things of that nature you can use. Keep in mind that fleas typically spend most of the time on the back half of the body over the tail, the back legs down on the belly or groin area. But sometimes fleas can escape the sort of grooming habit of a cat by getting up close to the neck and head area. So that's also another place to be looking for fleas. If you've got cats and you have the potential of having a problem, you definitely want to get those cats treated just to be on the safe side.

Primarily from going outside. If you have an exclusively indoor kitty, can they get fleas and ticks? Absolutely, because we can be a source. We can go outside, do some gardening, or go for a hike, so we can bring parasites into the house ourselves. A cat's a suitable target for them as well. Interesting. Fleas prefer dogs first, cats second, and people last. So, all things considered, if you happen to bring any fleas into the house, they'll probably hop off you in search of a cat or a dog. And if you don't have dogs, your cat will probably be the target for your fleas, so that's going to be a potential issue.

It depends on the time of year and what part of the country you live in. Welcome to North Carolina. We do see fleas and ticks for a significant part of the year. In fact, ticks are potentially a year-round problem in North Carolina. Even if it gets extremely cold, we can still see ticks. Over the last 40 years of practice, I have seen a lot of tick problems that begin in February, right in the dead of winter. They'll typically continue throughout the year. For fleas in this part of the country, we typically don't get fleas outside during the months of late December, January, and February. Sometime in March, maybe early April, the fleas will start to emerge outside. We do have that small window where we typically don't have flea issues or the potential of pets picking up fleas when they go outside in the months of January, February, and March. But otherwise, they are a big problem in this part of the country.

Good question, because we get this asked a lot. A lot of people have the perception that, well, my cat never goes outside. He can't get fleas. He can't get ticks. It's very unlikely that he would get a tick, but we can actually bring fleas into the house. If you have other pets like a dog, they can bring fleas into the house. We always have to have this expectation that if you have indoor-outdoor pets, they could be a source of bringing in fleas, even to an indoor kitty.