When you think of toxic foods, you're not thinking about dog foods. We're thinking about inappropriate food that you and I would feed our dogs. There are about three or four different foods we need to be concerned about, primarily chocolate. I think most people by now know that chocolate can be toxic. The darker the chocolate, the more at risk your dog can be. Certainly also the smaller the dog. That can be more of an issue just because of the relative amount consumed in the dog's size, but also consider how much is consumed. Bottom line, please do not give your dog chocolate or make sure that you avoid access for your dog, especially during the holiday season, when you will have brownies or Halloween candy that can always be easily accessible for a lot of dogs. Please be mindful of that.

The other big issue, which most people are aware of, and if you're not, good for you for tuning into this, are grapes and raisins. Grapes and raisins have been proven to be potentially fatal to a lot of dogs. Not every dog will be affected, but you don't want to find out the hard way. So please do not give your dog grapes or raisins. Again, there is a potential risk of death for many dogs. Those are the key things we'd want to avoid. One of the things I am going to make a point about, which is not actually food, is raw hides. I have no problem with people giving raw hides, but I am very intentional about where those raw hides are coming from. We know that raw hides that are coming from Asia, in many cases, do have a lot of toxins in them when they're cooked in this vat. There can be different types of lead or mercury or things of that nature that can be a source of toxicity to a dog. So if you're going to use raw hides, that's fine. Please make sure that you're using something from North America. That's crucial. Hopefully, that'll give you some insights if you weren't aware.

I generally find with kittens and old cats, meaning those that are not as thrifty as they once were, they don't clean themselves as much, or those cats that go outside are at much greater risk of getting fleas and/or ticks. But I often see kittens and really older cats being much more of a risk because they don't have the tendency to clean themselves and remove these external parasites called fleas and ticks. Age can be a factor, and the more time they spend outside is a risk as well.

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.