There are several different ways your cat can get worms, depending on the type of worm. Roundworms and hookworms are ubiquitous in the environment. You can find them pretty much anywhere. They're very hardy, so their eggs can last a very long time in the environment. You can get exposed simply by walking around or having exposure to dirt that may come in on your shoes as a potential area. Hunting can put your cat at risk because if they eat a mouse or some other creature infected with these parasites, they could also become infected. And then, with kittens, we can see the transmission of roundworms and hookworms through the placenta and the milk. Regular deworming of kittens is essential. And then we have tapeworms, which are a slightly different group. Cats get tapeworms or the most common tapeworm that we see, through ingestion of a flea. For example, if your cat has fleas and then is grooming and eats a flea accidentally, they could become infected with tapeworms that way.

Intestinal parasites are anything that is living in the intestines of your cats or other animals that are not supposed to be there. Our intestines have a lot of what we call commensal bacteria, meaning bacteria that live with us, don't do us harm and help us digest our food. A parasite would be in the intestines or in the intestinal tract that is causing harm to its host and, in this case, our kitty cat.

So we talked about that a little bit earlier. Working on conditioning long before you need to give your dog a bath can be helpful, although that may not be possible in some scenarios. Say you get a dog from an unpleasant situation, and they're quite fragrant already, and you want to get them clean—do the best you can to make it a not traumatic experience. Make sure there's good traction in the tub or the shower that you're using. Use either a gentle spray if you're in the shower so that you can get close to the dog, or use a cup to gently pour water on. Be conscious of the water temperature and try and sweeten the deal with some sort of food. I typically use peanut butter on the wall of my tub when I'm bathing my dogs. And that's usually enough of a distraction that they give me the puppy dog eyes, but they're still willing to eat and stand still for the process.

That depends on what's causing your dog's itching. Probably about 98% of the time, your dog's itching is due to allergies or some sort of parasite causing a problem—mange, fleas, ticks, et cetera. So if you have a dog that's itching more than the occasional flap of the ear, or licking the foot, give us a call or check in with us because there's probably an underlying medical issue that we want to address.

For the most part, no. That may be something that a show dog, like an Afghan Hound, may need something extra to keep the tangles out, but your average dog doesn’t need anything extra like that.