Parasites can cause your pet significant health issues, and parasite prevention is an important part of every pet’s health care plan. Our Smithtown Animal Hospital team offers information about the parasites that most commonly target pets and tips to protect your four-legged friend.

Prioritize pet flea prevention

Fleas are the most common pests that parasitize dogs and cats, and can cause serious issues, such as:

  • Flea allergy dermatitis (FAD) — Many pets are allergic to flea saliva, and the bite from a single flea can lead to excessive scratching, chewing, licking, and rubbing, as well as hair loss and skin lesions on their lower back, inner thighs, and abdomen. Fleas must be completely eradicated from the pet’s coat and environment to prevent the reaction. If left untreated, serious secondary skin infections can occur.
  • Anemia — Fleas feed for at least eight hours a day, and can ingest up to 15 times their body weight in blood. A pet with numerous fleas is at risk for anemia. Puppies, kittens, and small pets are also at increased risk. 
  • Infectious diseases — Fleas can transmit infectious diseases, including the plague, flea-borne typhus, and bartonellosis.
  • Tapeworms — Fleas can also transmit tapeworms to your pet.

Prioritize pet tick prevention

Ticks are not only prevalent in New York, but also are problematic year-round, because they can be active at any temperature higher than 32 degrees. Ticks can cause serious health issues for your pet, including:

  • Lyme disease — Lyme disease is a bacterial disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted by the black-legged tick. Infection signs include lethargy, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, joint pain, and shifting limb lameness.
  • Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) — RMSF is a bacterial disease caused by Rickettsia rickettsii and transmitted by the American dog tick. Infection signs include fever, enlarged lymph nodes, coughing, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and facial swelling.
  • Anaplasmosis — Anaplasmosis is a bacterial disease caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum and transmitted by the black-legged tick. Infection signs include fever, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea and, in some cases, neurologic signs (e.g., seizures).
  • Tick paralysis — Some female ticks release a neurotoxin when they feed that causes a progressive paralysis that initially affects the pet’s hind limbs, gradually includes their front limbs, and can inhibit their ability to breathe.

Most tick-borne illnesses respond to a particular class of antibiotics that typically must be continued for at least four weeks, although signs sometimes return when antibiotics are discontinued.

Prioritize pet heartworm prevention

Heartworms are transmitted by mosquitoes, which can cause infection with a single bite. While outdoor pets are at increased heartworm risk, indoor pets are also susceptible, because mosquitoes can easily enter your home through vents, open doors and windows, and torn screens. Heartworms affect pets differently:

  • Dogs — Dogs are natural heartworm hosts, meaning the heartworms can mature to adulthood, mate, and reproduce while parasitizing your dog. The parasites make themselves comfortable in the vasculature that supplies the lungs, leading to vessel wall thickening. This creates a high-tension area that inhibits the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the body, and eventually leads to congestive heart failure. In addition, a heavy infection can block blood flow through the heart, a life-threatening condition called caval syndrome. Treatment for heartworms in dogs is risky and painful, and takes many months to kill the parasites at every life stage. 
  • Cats — Cats are atypical heartworm hosts for heartworms. Their immune system responds strongly to the heartworms, which prevents many from maturing to adulthood, but the immature parasites can still cause heartworm associated respiratory disease (HARD), which leads to significant lung inflammation and damage. No medications are approved for treating heartworm disease in cats, and prevention is your feline friend’s only protection.

Prioritize pet intestinal parasite prevention

Intestinal parasites, including hookworms, roundworms, whipworms, and tapeworms, can leach nutrients from your pet and cause gastrointestinal (GI) problems. Signs may include a distended abdomen, poor growth, diarrhea, anemia, and bloody stools. Young pets and those with a compromised immune system are at highest risk.

Tips to protect your pet from parasites

Parasites are ubiquitous in the environment, but you can take these steps to protect your four-legged friend:

  • Year-round parasite prevention — Ensure your pet has year-round parasite prevention against fleas, ticks, heartworms, and intestinal parasites. Numerous products are available, including spot-on and chewable options. In addition, you can protect your dog against heartworms with long-acting injections. 
  • Regular wellness visits — Annual or biannual wellness examinations are important to ensure your pet is as healthy as possible. During these visits, our team will check your pet for heartworms, tick-borne diseases, and intestinal parasites, and devise an appropriate treatment strategy, if necessary.
  • Tick checks — Ticks typically must stay attached for at least 24 hours to spread disease, so checking your pet regularly can prevent disease transmission. Run your fingers through their fur, looking for abnormal lumps or bumps. Ticks can attach anywhere on your pet, but they commonly like to hide in the ears, around the eyes, in the groin and armpits, between the toes, and under the tail or collar. 
  • Use appropriate products — Over-the-counter products are not as effective as prescription prevention medications. Ask our team about the best parasite preventive for your pet.

Contact our Smithtown Animal Hospital team to schedule your pet’s annual wellness examination, so we can ensure they are parasite-free and determine an appropriate parasite prevention product.