The best way is to actually prevent them, and that's what I love about these preventions right here. These products have the most recent or newest drug class in them to manage fleas and ticks. It's the isoxazoline class, which is a mouthful. And when I say newest, the drug class has been on the market for at least the past five to eight years. They're not brand new. There's a lot of research to go with them, but they are effective. And they do an excellent job of killing fleas and ticks that might get on your pet.

Now, the thing is, is they do have to get on your pet and bite them to uptake the medication, but they are wicked fast at killing them. Usually, there's the death of the parasite within two to 12 hours, which is awesome. If we can prevent the bite from happening, that's the first place to start because all it takes is one bite to trigger a reaction in some pets. We generally call that flea allergy dermatitis, and what it is is they're allergic to the flea’s saliva, so that's what we want to try to prevent.

As you can see by what I've got here on my table, there's quite a bit that's out there. It's not uncommon that your veterinarian might recommend combining these to get your pet the most relief and try to get things managed the best we can.

And so, here I have a bunch of ear flushes that we use here. I also love to use bathing therapy. I think it's beneficial and sometimes prevents us from using oral antibiotics. I've also got things like Omega-3 Fatty Acids and some medicated sprays.

And then, a lot of times, we'll recommend either Cytopoint or Apoquel to help with your pet’s itching because that tends to be one of the most common symptoms. Apoquel and Cytopoint are great tools that we have to help manage your pets itch.

Sometimes we'll recommend a hypoallergenic diet if we get to that point and feel like that will be beneficial to your pet. And then, any pet with allergies benefits from being on flea and tick prevention, but of course, I'm going to recommend full prevention, so heartworm, intestinal parasite, and flea and tick, which we have here. Simparica Trio does everything; BRAVECTO here does fleas and ticks. And we carry both of these in the clinic.

There's a ton on the market that you can find, and the question is, are they effective? And that brushing action is beneficial, but again, it's one of those things that it has to be used consistently to be as efficacious. And there are some that you can put the toothpaste in, and we always recommend toothpaste made for pets. We don't want to give them any human toothpaste. But yeah, if treats or chews are used consistently, they can have an effect. Now, some pets may eventually need a dental cleaning, but it's something worth a try to do at home.

They can, in a sense. It's not what you think about you or I getting a cavity, and we don't do fillings here. That's what many people get for their cavities at the dentist, but we have different ways to manage them.

I get asked that question all the time, and the answer is that unless you're going to commit to brushing your dog's teeth twice a day every day, it's not beneficial to do an occasional brushing here or there. The veterinary dentists do recommend twice-daily brushing, which, if you're like me, that's hard to fit into my busy schedule. So, what I like to do instead is give things like dental treats, dental chews, or even something like water additives because then I feel like I'm rewarding my dog with a treat, and it's helping take care of their teeth.

There are different things to consider with indoor versus outdoor cats—things they're exposed to outdoors that they might not get exposed to indoors and vice versa. In general, if you have a cat that goes in and out, I would encourage the cat to be in at night. That's probably better for their wellness and safety. Didn’t everyone’s mothers say that nothing good happens after 11 PM? Cats need to be in, too, as there are no good things out there happening at night for them either. They're more at risk for getting injured, getting attacked, disappearing, or having other things happen.

Whether you have an indoor-only cat, an indoor, outdoor cat, or an outdoor-only cat, they can be exposed to parasites. We recommend the Revolution plus, as it protects against fleas and ticks and heartworms, ear mites, intestinal parasites. There are many things that cats can be exposed to both inside and outside.

There are also certain lifestyle vaccines that we recommend for cats. If a cat never is exposed to another cat that goes outdoors, is the only cat in the household and indoors only, they probably don’t need a leukemia vaccine. Yet a cat that goes outside or one that's exposed to a cat that goes in and out would need something to consider to help with their wellness. There are differences and similarities in how you handle indoor vs. outdoor cats.