It's time to talk ugly - about fleas.  It's starting to warm up, pets are spending time outside, and the fleas are gearing up to party.

In southern Nevada, we rarely see fleas.  That doesn't mean they aren't there.  But with humidity around 5% most of the time, these little buggers simply dry up and die in the environment. But many of you are not so lucky, and to you, I have empathy.  When I was growing up, we tried flea collars, but for the most part, the nasty bugs lived in our carpets and yard, which was watered a lot. Seemed impossible to get rid of them.  I remember watching them jump onto my bare legs, then I'd run into the bathroom to wash them off in the tub.

Nasty, yes.  What's worse, they carry some pretty disgusting stuff.  My two favorite are tapeworms and bubonic plague. 

Tapeworms: white flatworms that live in the intestine, hooked on by mouth suckers that steal nutrients from the digesta. The worm regularly sheds little segments of its ever growing "tail" that contain eggs - eggs of tapeworms. If you've seen the little maggot like monsters creeping around on your pet's behind, you know what I'm talking about. Those are sections that have broken away, hoping they will fall off your pet and get to live in a nice moist carpet or grass where they will meet up with an errant flea. 

The flea, often flea larvae, we will say, will eat what it can find until it morphs into the nasty jumping insect we all hate and it becomes a vampire. The egg manages to find its way into the flea, where it develops into a mini time bomb.  What has this got to do with anything?  It is the flea that your pet ingests when she is biting the spot where the flea is siphoning blood.  You've seen dogs and cat do this, I know.  A flea gets stuck between the teeth, swallowed, and yippee, the tapeworm is now inside the host (your pet).

Sounds incredible, but that's the way it is. To kill tapeworms you must kill fleas, primarily by disrupting their life cycle. You can give your pet a de-wormer of Droncit, but if you don't get rid of the fleas, you can bet your last dollar (in Las Vegas, please) that tapeworms will return.

Responsible for killing perhaps a quarter of Europe's population many centuries ago, Bubonic Plague, the Black Death, was blamed on rats, which were running rampant because cats were thought to belong to witches and rat terriers we not yet invented. Fleas that lived on the rats happily carried their plague wherever the rats went, and if the rat was too overpopulated, the fleas jumped off and found people to bite instead. 

The bacterium Yersinia (aka Pasteurella) pestis would cause disgusting boils which usually overtook the host and killed it, and thereby releasing itself from the body and getting onto the next person.  Bodies should have been burned, along with their clothes, but given they still believed cats were witches' familiars, they didn't think fleas were involved, just the rats (hence the love of cats returned). 

So back to ridding ourselves of fleas.  The cheapest and easiest item you can use is diatomacious earth (DE) the powdery grey stuff which is eensy weency crystals that cut and dehydrate the flea in its environment (namely, your carpet).  You can get this stuff everywhere, and its cheap cheap cheap. Plant nurseries, swimming pool supply shops, your local big box department store retailer - use it liberally by sprinkling in your carpet near doors and sleeping areas.  At the same time, wash your pet with an insecticidal shampoo.  Use caution with this by putting some ointment in the eyes and cotton in the ears so this won't get in your pets' mucous membranes.  Start at the head of the pet, at the nose, and make the fleas run away towards the tail, not into the nose.  Leave a ring of suds around the pet's neck and rinse the head and dry.  Now you can do the rest of the body.

If you want to make sure, use a topical (on the skin) oil that you can get from your veterinarian like Advantage, Frontline, or Program (Program is Droncit, the tape worm killer, by the way). These can be used if your pet ventures outside to keep new fleas from coming back via your pet taxi.  After 3 weeks, vacuum your carpet and apply the DE a second time.  You can leave it there, or vacuum it after 3 weeks.  This should take care of fleas that hatched since the first treatment.

While you're at it, check for ticks - small round nasties that also carry a multitude of disease from Lyme to Spotted Fever. 


My spell checker had a lot of fun with this post.

Emergency Evacuation for Pets

Hurricane season is coming.  No, not quite yet, but now is the time to prepare. Take tips from the people who live in earthquake country. You know how to prepare for yourself:  flashlights, candles, food, water, blankets.  What if you must evacuate?  Full tank of gas, emergency cash; you take your valuables, one category of which should be your pets.


A wagon will not be sufficient to transport your animals to safety.

Do not leave your pets behind.  It is cruel and you will most likely never see them again. Your pets very likely cannot accompany you to the people shelter.  Let's talk dogs and cats. 
Collar, microchip, tattoo, these are a start.  You should have a plastic zip bag with information in it to attach to the collar, identification of where you are, how to reach you, and a phone number of someone out of state who can take messages for you.  Your veterinarian's info is also important, and any info on medication your pet is taking.

For each pet, you should have a kennel/crate, collar (dog) and harness (cat).  Most of these will store in two pieces nested; nest from largest to smallest for easy access. Put the rest inside the nested halves of carriers. Be sure the cat carriers are large enough to accommodate a small kitty pan and a small pair of dishes. Think 72 hours for your pets' confinement and plan accordingly.  Dogs will of course have to get out to potty, on a leash, but otherwise that may be their home and they will need room for two small dishes also.

LABEL each carrier.  Do this BEFORE a disaster strikes.  On a sheet of paper, list all pertinent information including address, phone numbers, veterinary information.  Put this in a large zip bag and tie it or tape it securely to the top of the carrier. For dogs (and cats) place a copy of their vaccine record in the bag, if nothing else, a rabies certificate.  Don't forget to store blankets and a toy or two, plus plastic dishes and a kitty box, with the crates so all is ready to go.

Importantly, include a photo of yourself with your pet in the bag attached to the animal and/or carrier. This could help you reclaim your pet if lost.  Keep a second photo on your body as well.  And, make and keep a list of pet friendly hotels and boarding facilities within a 100 mile radius in case you need to rent a room for you and your pets.  

Also, in a plastic 18 gallon or smaller tub with lid (much larger and it will be too heavy to carry), pack the following and rotate out every 6 months.

• 5 day (or more?) supply of canned and dry food
• 5 gallons of water (this will weigh 40 pounds!) for each large dog,
• 1 gallon ( 8 pounds) for each cat or small dog
• Pets' medicines, and instructions (refrigerated medicine? take an icepack in Styrofoam)
• Information on pets' diet including what not to feed
• Copies of pet information and proof of ownership in those handy zip plastic bags
• First aid kit with matches*
• Lighting with fresh batteries or solar lanterns
• Trash bags, stakes/tie outs, litter scoop
• Newspaper, kitty litter

*That first aid kit will not be like the human kind.  Here's some important items to have in addition to rolls of tape: vet wrap, non-stick gauze pads, eye wash, washcloths, flea and tick repellent, cotton swabs, scissors, charcoal tablets, latex gloves.

Remember to evacuate as early as possible to secure resources, and take advantage of escape routes that may be jammed later. Remember, a secure collar or harness on every pet with identification.  If you are ready to move your animals beforehand, you will stand the best chance of saving the WHOLE family. 

Gosh, where did I go the last couple weeks?  It's been a busy time here.  Booking clients who are going out of town, but also taking care of my own pets.  Thought I'd pass on some notes to you about them.

Taffy is our puppy mill rescue, a nightmare of genetic dysfunction, a product of irresponsible breeding and profit. She has a wonderful personality, very sweet, affectionate, a tiger at the doorbell, but has lots of medical issues that we have had to deal with (and the accompanying bills, upwards of $2000 so far). She has bi-lateral luxated patellas, which caused her to walk like a bunny rabbit.  Although our excellent surgeon, Dennis Olsen, DVM, here in Las Vegas, repaired the deformity, years of bunny hopping left her muscles too weak to hold her up once the mechanics of her condition were solved.  Over the last 2 years she has improved, however, to at least being up on the toes, although no longer taffy knees, more like Chaplain feet.

She also has an underbite, and a malocclusion of her incisors.  Therefore, her teeth  don't meet or match, and tartar builds up twice as quickly than on a normal bite.  We can live with that.  She has epiphora, runny red at the eyes.  We found a supplement that helps with that.

Her latest issue was a bladder stone.  Not just a little stone, mind you, but a huge one.  It has been the cause of her incontinence, the blood in her urine, her bowels going without her knowing it, and a few other unplesant symptoms.  Take a look at this thing:

That round white oval just in front of the hips shouldn't be there!  THAT is the stone. No wonder she was having troubles.  Of course, in this radiograph you can see the pins in her knees, also, from her patella repair, which involves the tibia as well.

 

This dog is just now 4 years old.

 

SO, a word to anyone looking at small dogs available at pet shops: Yorkies, Chihuahuas, Maltese, ShizTsus, and the like - BEWARE.  Just because it says AKC on the papers doesn't mean it had healthy parents, a clean environment, or any love until the day you end up with it.  This girl was at the shelter, and because of her disabilities, destined for the euthanasia room but for my rescue of her, and even though it's been expensive, it's hard to put a price on the love this dog returns to us. 

 

I will save the adventures of our horse's medical issues for another time.