How are flea and insect bites on my dog treated?

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.

Flea bites often go undetected by pet parents because pet parents don't always see those fleas. We know there are some common areas that they'll become affected, so if a dog has a flea bite allergy, they'll often get itchy over their rump, the back of their lower spines, tails, their thighs, and they'll get itchy ears. We look for those areas of itch. Oftentimes we'll spread the hair and really look at the skin, and we may see a flea running by. With a dark-haired pet, it's a little harder. We might use flea combs to find those fleas. We'll ask what type of flea and tick prevention your pet is on, and that will tell us if you're using a good product if you're applying it correctly, and how often are you applying it? If you're not applying anything or giving anything orally, then flea allergy is going to be on our list for what's causing your pet to be itchy.

First, get rid of the fleas. It's pretty simple. It's so easy nowadays, but please don't run over to Walmart, Costco, Sam's club, or pet stores to buy your flea products. What most pet stores are using is either Frontline, which you probably heard of before, which is now a 30-year-old product, or a generic version of Frontline. We have products that do a beautiful job of taking care of fleas. They're much safer and light years more effective. The two that we generally reach for dogs are Bravecto, which is a three-month or one-month product, and Simparica, which is a one-month product. We also have two heartworm medications that also incorporate flea protection. One of those is the Simparica trio. It's for heartworm, fleas, and ticks. Then we have Trifexus, which is for heartworms and fleas. We have another one called Advantage Multi, which is a topical product for heartworms and fleas. As far as what we can do to try to help treat your pets goes, once they have them, first get rid of them. That's crucial. It will be an ongoing issue if you don't get rid of the problem. What you can do in a pinch is give them a bath, and please don't use Dawn. Although if you don't have anything else and want to try it, that's fine. Just don't make a habit of using Dawn. It's for your dishes. It's not for your pets. You do not need to go out and even get a flea shampoo. Simply bathe your dog. Any shampoo will be able to wash off some of the fleas. That's definitely going to make a big difference. But first, at least take the fleas out of the environment, and give them some relief with a bath. Sometimes, if they're really itchy, you can go to the local pharmacy and get a cortisone spray for itching that can work in a pinch. Otherwise, a lot of these dogs come in and are absolutely miserable. They've ripped all or a lot of the hair out, their skin is raw and oozing, and we definitely need to see them. We will typically reach for a cortisone injection, or we can use Cytopoint or Apoquel. I like to use cortisone because it works effectively. It works for about three to five weeks, allowing that skin to start healing. Those are the best ways to try to treat or manage those dogs with flea problems.

The treatment varies. If your dog has severe allergies to them, we may have to use something like Prednisone. Otherwise, we'll definitely recommend some shampoos to soothe the skin and ensure they're on a good flea and tick medication.